File-sharing defendant Jammie Thomas-Rasset has filed new legal papers asking the court to slash the $1.92 million verdict against her.
Thomas-Rasset argues that a seven-figure damage award is disproportionate to any harm she caused the record industry. “The plaintiffs were not able to offer testimony about any actual damage done to them by Mrs. Thomas’s conduct beyond perhaps $1.29 per song or $15 per album in lost sales,” she argues.
In June, a jury found that Thomas-Rasset had infringed on copyright by sharing 24 tracks on Kazaa and assessed damages of $80,000 per track. The statute provides for damages of up to $150,000 per instance of infringement.
The verdict marked the second time that a jury ruled against Thomas-Rasset. An earlier trial in 2007 resulted in a jury verdict of $220,000, or $9,000 per track. But U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis in Minnesota set that verdict aside and ordered a new trial because of a mistaken jury instruction.
At the time, Davis expressed concern over the size of the award. “While the court does not discount plaintiffs’ claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by plaintiffs,” he wrote.
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If you’ve spent some time on Google trying to figure out why ‘
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Behavioral targeting may no longer mean that the advertiser buys media armed with a browser-based cookie and a pixel tag. It appears that public Wi-Fi access hotspots can tell more about a person than some initially thought.
We all know that blogs, when used properly, can be excellent tools for promoting your organization and expanding your client base while providing insight into the interworking of your company. They are also an effective way to generate organic search engine exposure, and, with the right content, quality inbound links for your website.
I feel compelled to write this post about “Educating Your Client” as this seems to be a huge issue in the SEO world. Seems that clients view SEO as a “behind the curtain” type profession; that’s what my last director, Miss Scruggs, told me. Many Clients really don’t understand how SEO works. They assume “I have the money and I should rank for that term”, but, the reality is, you can’t buy rankings.
We’ve certainly seen some fairly interesting dedicated handset buttons before, but it’s hard to argue with the functionality of a standalone GOOG-411 key. Apparently, Thomson has teamed up with Google to integrate the “first ever one-touch, auto-dial GOOG-411 button” into over a dozen of its GE-branded DECT 6.0 phones. In case you’ve been chilling under a stone of late, GOOG-411 is the search giant’s “free, voice-activated, business directory assistance service,” and it will be within reach on a slew of April-bound home phones. Each phone can use one of 20 ringtones, plus a special VIP Melody — a separate ringtone to use when that special someone calls (note: requires Caller ID). The handsets each have a dedicated headset jack, so you can plug in a headset for those long calls, and still enjoy the mobility of a cordless phone. The handsets are extremely light, and very comfortable to hold. The DECT 6.0 technology makes the wireless transmission virtually static free, and provides a very long range.
