Does the RIAA let defaulters off the hook?
The Recording Industry Association of America wants accused file-swappers to know that not responding to a federal copyright infringement complaint is a bad idea. When we last looked into this issue just over a month ago, we found something surprising: the only two Americans who took their file-sharing lawsuits all the way to a jury verdict owed far, far more money per song at the end of the trial than if they had never shown up to court in the first place. Those who defaulted eventually found themselves on the hook for $750 per song—the smallest amount of statutory damages possible—and they saved themselves months of stress. Those who fought all the way through trial racked up plenty of legal fees in addition to a pair of outrageous judgments.
