The second in a series of RIAA-related posts: (Cross-posted at http://www.gwcyberlaw.org)
First came Friday's news of Judge Davis' remittitur of the damages in the Thomas-Rasset trial from $1.92 million to $54,000 - about 97%. Here is the order. Ben Sheffner (who I met at the Thomas-Rasset trial - nice enough guy) wrote a piece wondering whether a judge can remit an award based on statutory damages. He doesn't see much support.
It appears the RIAA has until Friday January 29th to accept the reduced award or do the trial a third time which I am guessing they are not too excited about (Thomas-Rasset probably thinks it is getting old too, but she has enough $$ on the line to keep on keepin on). Sheffner doesn't think the labels will be interested in leaving a remittitur on the books. It seems there would be a third option of accepting the remittitur pending appeal, but I have not seen anything on that so it isn't clear.
Also this week, the 28th, plaintiff's briefs are due in Tenenbaum case regarding remittitur. In both cases the defendant's briefs focus more on the constitutionality of the damages rather than remittitur, but Judge Gertner is likely to take Judge Davis' order into account.
We will try to post information on the briefs later this week when they are posted.
