Tech & Biz

Obama Backs RIAA with $150,000 Per Track Punishment

by Rob Walker | March 24, 2009 at 05:04 am

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Despite a number of high profile lawsuit losses, the RIAA got some big league support yesterday when the Obama government backed large settlement amounts for music downloads. Backed by two former RIAA lawyers now working for Obama's department of Justice, the Obama gov is pushing for punitive costs of up to $150,000 per track.

The position -- that the Copyright Act's monetary damages are not unconstitutionally excessive -- mirrors the one taken by the Bush administration and should come as no surprise.
Two top lawyers in President Barack Obama's Justice Department are former RIAA lawyers: Donald Verrilli Jr. is the associate deputy attorney general who brought down Grokster and fought to prevent a retrial in the Jammie Thomas case. Then there's the No. 2 in the DOJ, Tom Perrilli. As Verrilli's former boss, Perrilli argued in 2002 that internet service providers should release customer information to the RIAA even without a court subpoena.