$125,000 in fines for D&D pirates? Help me do the math...

[pedr]

Well, agreed damages are agreed within a framework of the damages which are available and likely should a judge have to quantify them. A statutory framework which includes elements of exemplary and punitive damages will lead to higher agreed/settled damages than where the framework is merely compensatory - because the claimant can assert that the defendant should settle for $x because the court would be entitled to award 3 times that, and would be likely to award 1.5 times that, so $x is a 'good' result for the defendant. The size of 'x' there will depend on the range of awards which are valid for the infringement.

 

[Dire Bare]

Isn't the cruel and unusual punishment?

Heh, no. Not unless part of the settlement including beatings.

 

[Dire Bare]

I think the obvious thing to learn from this article is that is cheaper to not respond to these type of legal threats than it is to fight them.

Um, no. You can't ignore legal problems to make them go away. The dude who defaulted isn't getting away with anything, in fact he'll probably be the most screwed of the three.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

But the guy who defaulted ended up with the lowest settlement...

 

[Umbran]

But the guy who defaulted ended up with the lowest settlement...

Let us all remember folks - correlation does not imply causation. We don't have any information indicating he got the lowest settlement *because* he defaulted.

 

[The Little Raven]

Let us all remember folks - correlation does not imply causation. We don't have any information indicating he got the lowest settlement *because* he defaulted.

Indeed. If he had responded to the suit and settled, like the other two, he may have been paying far less than the roughly $45k he is supposed to pay ($30k for penalty, roughly $15k for legal fees).

Also, he might have been less involved than his co-defendant, which warranted WotC going after him for lower damage amounts than the other two.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Man, six pages on this about the corporation and lawyer doing the crackdown and not a single Shadowrun reference? ;p

Are the pirates at fault? Yes. Obviously. They did the crime.

Is WotC the good guy? No. Just because "they did a crime" does not equate to "I get to decide the punishment." The issue here is that you DO have some regular guys of variant ages, some underaged and living in a third world country, the proper response is not "Let's levy a huge lawsuit and ruin their lives."

Right now, both parties are being dicks.

As for what I'd do in the situation, I'd do what I on 99% of companies already do: let them go and think about ways to stop future piracy. WotC is making the same mistake the music company did - they think lawsuits will help stop piracy. It doesn't. It fuels it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

While I agree with the sentiment, the "how long did you take to draw that" story is probably apocryphal. I've heard it before in various forms attributed to famous historical painters as well as to modern "my friend so and so" artists. Although its such a great line that its possible people are lifting it.

The entire argument isn't very sympathetic either: it suggests that the guy is simply allowed to set a high price because he's that good.

A better argument would be simply to work them through the breakdown of "I'm a professional with 40 years of experience and I am talented in my area. To that end, a yearly wage of <blah> is reasonable. The costs of materials is <blah>. The cost of wage insurance is <blah>. I have to factor in the cost of having this conversation with you, which effectively adds another 15 minutes to it's production time" etc etc.

It's pretty easy to see that the supposedly exhorbitant price of the artwork is actually quite modest.

 

[Henry]

Having skimmed this thread, I just want to say:

I Love Ken Marable. He is my Sherpa on the Mountain of Piracy Polemics.

 

[kenmarable]

And even if you have a lawyer, I doubt it makes much of a difference if the plaintiff has that much leverage. Yes, you can slow the process down, but a speed bump is still just a speed bump, and doesn't seriously impact the plaintiff - for example, the settlements here include the defendants paying WotC's legal fees, in addition to paying damages.

Exactly. Plus in typical corporation vs ordinary person cases, I imagine it is a major life event and time-consuming hassle for the ordinary person because they weren't expecting this and it's in addition to the rest of their life. But for the person(s) in WotC legal, it's just a busier time at work. So in thinking of plantiff's screwing with the big corporations by dragging it out, the plantiff has to really work at it, but the defendant whose entire job is to handle this stuff might be home late for dinner a couple times. It's just not comparable. (Or so I imagine and have seen in past corporations I worked at with a dedicated legal department.)

Having skimmed this thread, I just want to say:

I Love Ken Marable. He is my Sherpa on the Mountain of Piracy Polemics.

*sniff* *sniff* Wow, I'm touched. Hopefully that balances the bad karma of the dog I killed on page 1 of the thread.