Then there are idiotic judgements like this one in the Jammie Thomas case:

A new lawyer, a new jury, and a new trial were not enough to save Jammie Thomas-Rasset. In a repeat of the verdict from her first federal trial, Thomas-Rasset was found liable for willfully infringing all 24 copyrights controlled by the four major record labels at issue in the case. The jury awarded the labels damages totaling a whopping $1.92 million. As the dollar amount was read in court, Thomas-Rassert gasped and her eyes widened

That works out to $80k in damages per song that she shared. I'm not claiming that she's some kind of hero; she's not. What I am claiming is that the damages are absurd. Nothing like that level of damage took place, and Thomas will never be able to pay it, either. A decision like this is akin to the old 55 mph speed limit: everyone knows it's stupid, and everyone ignores it. What the RIAA has accomplished here is to demean their image even more than they have already, and the court has dragged the law down there with the RIAA.

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