The Free Software Foundation is asking for permission to file an amicus brief in the current case of Sony v. Tenenbaum in the federal District Court of Massachusetts:
"We are submitting this brief to bring to the Court's attention some of the growing body of authority suggesting that the State Farm/Gore due process test applicable to punitive damage awards is likewise applicable to statutory damages, and in particular bars the suggestion that each infringement of an MP3 file having a retail value of 99 cents or less may be punishable by statutory damages of from $750 to $150,000 -- or from 2,100 to 425,000 times the actual damages." http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090321164736122 The FSF thinks 2,100 - 425,000 times actual dahages is excessive! Well. . . Huh? In the current suit Free Software Foundation Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc. the FSF is asking for monetary damages: "(2) That the Court order Defendant to pay Plaintiff’s actual and consequential damages incurred, in an amount to be determined at trial or, in the alternative, statutory damages as set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 504(c);" Now, the GPL has a requirement that all works be licensed at no charge: "b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License." Since the limit as x-> 0 of 1.00/x approaches infinity, awarding monetary damages of even one dollar is more than trillions of times actual economic losses. In filing its amicus brief, the Free Software Foundation is not seeking due process fairness. It is simply blathering its standard hypocritical socialist propaganda. Sincerely, Rjack :) _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
