Copyright Lawsuit Plaintiff Demands $27 Million; Gets $500
from the don't-overstate-your-case dept
Michael Geist points us to an amusing ruling in a Canadian lawsuit over copyright infringement, where the plaintiff demanded $27 million in damages... and ended up with $500. Yes, $500 period. Not $500 thousand. Just $500. One would imagine that the plaintiff spent a hell of a lot more than that on legal fees. The judge seemed to waste no opportunities to point out how ridiculous the case was, even if the plaintiff's copyright was, actually, infringed upon. Some key quotes:Generally speaking, the evidence adduced concerning infringement of copyright suggests that the Plaintiff's claims are disproportionate and opportunistic....It goes on and on in this nature and finally concludes by awarding $500 in statutory damages, noting that the defendant did a good job defending themselves "as best they can in the face of an obviously dubious claim for a substantial sum of money" and then defends the small sum by noting:
In relation to breach of copyright, the Plaintiff entered the trial seeking $27,000,000.00 (CD) as compensation for acts that, even if proved, would be fairly contained and/or inconsequential forms of infringement....
The Plaintiff speculates that further use was made of the Report but there is no evidence before me to support anything more than the limited uses outlined above.... Also, I can find no evidence that multiple copies of the Report were made and disseminated.... The only action that could have resulted in broader dissemmation occurred when Re-defining Water placed the original version of the Report on its website, but there is no evidence before me, apart from Mr. Reif's downloading of a single copy for purposes of this lawsuit, that anyone either viewed the Report on the website or downloaded it.
I can find no evidence that any of the Defendants made any money, or gained any other advantage, from either copying or using the Report or any modified version of the Report, or that they have deprived, or could deprive, the Plaintiff of any profits that the Plaintiff might earn from the Report. In fact, the Plaintiff does not even allege that the Defendants sold copies of the Report or that the conduct of the Defendants prevented him from selling or otherwise exploiting the Report with someone else, and it is difficult to see how the Plaintiff might make money from any such activities given the limited purpose of the Report and the context in which it was produced.
I say this because there is no evidence here that the Plaintiff has suffered any damages or that the Defendants have made any profit as a result of the infringing act. This is simply a technical breach and does not warrant the Plaintiff receiving a substantial windfall . Statutory damages require an assessment of the reality of the case and a just result.That last line is interesting, though (obviously) meaningless in the context of the US cases involving Jammie Thomas and Joel Tenenbaum over that very same question.
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Damages awarded
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Damages awarded
The $64,000 question is: if the various lobbying groups/collection societies have their way with the new infringement/DMCA/copyright/etc., would the legal tests of proof of damages be changed? If it remains the same, then even with the new rules, the labels and studios and such would still be limited by the requirement to prove the actual damages. In order for them to at least break even on their lawsuits, they would need to set the minimum statutory damages at a VERY HIGH level.
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Re: Damages awarded
It sure would be nice for proof of damage to be a factor at all in U.S. copyright "infringement" cases. The plaintiffs seem to be able to say whatever they want about damages, and the courts seem bound to accept it as gospel as long as the "evil act" has taken place.
Bet you can't wait for DMCA-Canada.
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Re: Damages awarded
So, how much do you think something like that should be worth?
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Re: Re: Damages awarded
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Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
If you believe McDonalds wasn't liable for given an old woman third degree burns its because MickeyDs has a much better pr department.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into her lap.
Okay, let's run through events in bullet point to make it easy:
1. The coffee was bought and carried off premises.
2. The coffee was taken into vehicle.
3. The plaintiff put the coffee between her own legs.
4. The plaintiff proceeded to spill coffee on her own legs.
5. Call McDonald's out for not preventing a stupid woman putting boiling coffee between her legs.
6. Literally profit.
I don't care how severe the burns were, she is the sole cause of the spillage.
I don't care that Americans seem to think coffee should be luke warm.
I don't care about McDonald's and never eat there.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
> given an old woman third degree burns
She gave herself the burns. Hot coffee is by definition hot. One should be careful with it.
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Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
Then what are fair damages here? Medical costs seem to be a good baseline here. Opportunity costs from time that could have spent working are also fair game. That could very well end up in the 10s of 1000s of dollars.
To get to a million though, usually you need to consider stuff like "severe emotional distress" and "prospective business advantage." Or punitive damages, although the Supreme Court has limited those to about 4x compensatory damages. Those are probably the sources of much ire about lawsuit awards. That and the lawyer fees.
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Gross negligence and good PR
Clearly none of you McApologists do.
McDonalds got slapped down by the jury because they saw a pattern of carelessness and actions by McDonalds that exceeded good sense and industry norms. Added to that was clear and repeated attempts to ignore the problem and suppress press coverage about it.
Possibly understanding what a third degree burn is might have helped.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
Look at it this way: when you spill coffee on yourself from a restaurant or fast food joint, all it does is smart for a while, you don't actually expect that it will scald the skin off. Any fluid at 200 degrees or more will cause serious burn damage. (Indeed, we imprison parents who deliberately scald their kids with hot water as child abusers.)
MacDonalds decided to stonewall and delay the trial, and in the end the JURY made the award for a sum that was vastly more than what the plaintiff had been seeking. (Moral: don't play games with a jury; they're not as stupid as you think.) Had MacDonalds simply DONE THE RIGHT THING at any time, none of us would be talking about this lawsuit.
Finally, remember that our jury system, where plaintiff and defendant argue their case in front of a group of 12 of their peers, is considered one the best systems the world has come up with for meting out justice. (If you can think of a better system, please don't keep it to yourself and let the rest of us know about it.) Sure, it isn't, perfect, but all in all, it works pretty well most of the time. I am always astonished at the readiness of some people to assume that any 12 random people in a jury will be all too easily bamboozled. Because, you know, we just have to protect large corporation from those predatory little old ladies.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
Maintaining a higher than ambient temperature uses more energy not less. Sounds like a bogus excuse to me. If anything, it would be advantageous of McD's to choose the *lowest* temperature possible that would still qualify as "hot."
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
If you turn on and off a heather are you going to spend more energy?
A: Yes, the little surge in energy adds up and is noticeable.
Doubt?
Get a current meter and do the test, hook it up to any electronic equipment and measure the current on all time for one minute and then do the same thing but switching on and off the device.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
> some people to assume that any 12 random
> people in a jury will be all too easily
> bamboozled.
They're often bamboozled because the lawyers manage to maneuver evidenced into being suppressed that they never get to hear.
I can't count the number times I've spoken with jurors after the trial is over where they've said, "Well, hell, if I'd known *that* I'd have voted the other way."
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Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
HEAR, HEAR! Anyone stupid enough to drink that crap McDonalds calls coffee should probably be taken out of the gene pool anyway, so I'd say that coffee got her in just the right place. McDonalds should have been paid a reward!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
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Not a coffee drinker, but I tend to agree with the EuroGump that thinks Americans like their coffee lukewarm. If you aren't taking maximum advantage of the product, why buy it in the first place? And if you're so friggin' idiotic to put a styrofoam takeaway cup between your legs and remove the only thing keeping it from crushing, then you got what you deserved.
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Re: Re: Damages awarded
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Re: Damages awarded
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Re: Re: Re: Damages awarded
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No other restaurant had coffee that hot
You got your facts wrong on this one, sorry bud.
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This means kettle makers and coffee makers should be sued when people by their own actions hurt themselves?
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Re: Damages awarded
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Quick... hire them! :P
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Re: Quick... hire them! :P
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Re: Re: Quick... hire them! :P
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First the damages have to be provable, not theoretical. IF it is physical damages there are limits as we already have health care (no need for out of pocket health costs). Keeps this the liability insurance lower.
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As an aside, to compare this case to the JRT and T cases is inapt, unless, of course, the purpose for such a comparison is to fan the flames that copyright law is just so unfair to people who wilfully and deliberately download and distribute via P2P copyrighted works of the type that are spread virally and in copious amounts.
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Re:
"I say this because there is no evidence here that the Plaintiff has suffered any damages or that the Defendants have made any profit as a result of the infringing act."
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Of course, that would require you to actually form and support a specific argument, so you can't and won't.
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Re: (ad infinitum) Damages awarded
tl;dr, the spilled a little, and it was so hot it made her jump and spill the rest.
Let's spill pre-boiling water in your lap and see you not squirm.
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Re: Re: (ad infinitum) Damages awarded
The point is, should we punish others for no/little fault of their own for actions taken by reckless individuals?
If the cup exploded on her legs I can see McDonalds being guilty of something, if the cup have breakdown for faulty design I can understand that, but at the time people knew coffee was hot and could cause burns, why put a Styrofoam cup between your legs?
Heck kettle's can burn people, coffee-maker machines evaporate water(212F or 100C) would they be liable too if anyone managed to hurt themselves?
Should people in their houses when offered tea be able to collect damages from hosts that boil water to make coffee and they somehow manage to burn themselves?
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Re: Re: Re: (ad infinitum) Damages awarded
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Re: Re: (ad infinitum) Damages awarded
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Re: Re: (ad infinitum) Damages awarded
> see you not squirm.
Of course I'd squirm. However, I'm smart enough not to put a (flimsy) cup of such dangerous liquid between my legs in the first place. And if for some reason I was stupid enough to do so and burned myself, I wouldn't blame the restaurant for my own idiotic behavior.
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