For a helpful and clear summary of the law regarding statutory damages in copyright litigation take a look at the very recent article by R. Buck McKinney published in the latest edition of Landslide, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. The article will repay reading. Especially interesting is his discussion of the background surrounding the wave of copyright infringement suits brought by the Recording Industry of America.
Other Posts About Statutory Damages
Want to read Parts I, II and III of the posts that attempt to clear up other common misconceptions about statutory damages in copyright litigation? See link (Part I), link (Part II ) and link (Part III). To read some later posts criticizing the decision in Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum slashing the jury’s verdict by 90% go to link and link. For a post discussing some of the issues raised by the upcoming third trial in Capitol v. Thomas-Rasset case go to link. Still have questions about statutory damages in copyright litigation and want to see a video answering those questions, go to link or want to read an article about statutory damages written for non-lawyers, go here. Also see this link explaining when a copyrighted work qualifies as a work for purposes of fixing statutory damages and another link explaining the one work limitation set forth in the last sentence of 17 U.S.C. § 504 (c)(1).