First looks at BMG v. Gonzalez

William Patry: BMG v. Cecilia Gonzalez: “The opinion is significant in many respects. First, it established primary liability for those who download (at least under similar facts), an essential underpinning to all the previous (and presumably future) third party liability suits. The opinion then discusses what constitutes primary liability.”
Joe Gratz takes a closer look at the procedural aspects of the damages portion of the decision: 7th Cir.: P2P Downloading Is Not Fair Use: “Gonzales, understandably, wanted to plead her case before a jury; tens of thousands of dollars in damages arising from a few dozen MP3s seems excessive to most people. But BMG was clever. They moved for summary judgment only with regard to the 30 MP3s that Gonzales admitted she downloaded and retained without owning CD copies, and only asked for the $750 minimum in statutory damages for each song. This left the jury with nothing to decide. She admitted she’d copied the songs, leaving only the question of damages, and BMG asked for the smallest damages the jury could lawfully award.”
Eric Goldman: Downloading Music Isn’t Fair Use–BMG v. Gonzalez: “This case deals with a central topic in P2P file-sharing lawsuits–was the downloading excused by fair use? This issue has come up in oblique ways in the past. For example, when the P2P file-sharing services were sued, they unsuccessfully claimed that their users’ activities were fair use (e.g., Napster, Aimster). And warez traders (who engaged in large-scale uploading and downloading of copyrighted files) unsuccessfully claimed fair use (US v. Slater). However, we’ve had very few cases where the downloading defendant litigated his/her own fair use defense.”
Cathy Kirkman, Silicon Valley Media Law Blog: 7th Circuit rules in P2P user infringement case: “While the outcome here is unsurprising as a matter of fair use analysis, the Court’s characterization of the holding in Sony, while it may be technically correct, does seem like a rather narrow reading of the landmark Sony Betamax case. If the goal of some content owners is to limit the Sony Betamax case to its facts, they seem to have found a receptive audience in the 7th Circuit in that regard.”
Evan Brown, InternetCases.com: Seventh Circuit rules in BMG v. Gonzalez: downloading music via P2P is not fair use: “The Seventh Circuit has affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment against a user of Kazaa, holding that the downloading of copyrighted music files is not fair use under the Copyright Act.”
Kevin A. Thompson, Cyberlaw Central: BMG v. Gonzalez: 7th Circuit weighs in on fair use for filesharing: “The Seventh Circuit ruled yesterday in the case BMG Music v. Gonzalez, which involves a claim of fair use for songs downloaded from the peer to peer file sharing system, KaZaA. The district court had granted summary judgment to BMG, awarding $22,500 in statutory damages and an injunction against further infringement. Gonzalez then appealed to the Seventh Circuit.”
Michael Madison: Easterbrook on Fair Use: “With Judge Easterbrook’s imprimatur, Gonzalez may turn out to be the ProCD v. Zeidenberg of copyright law: a case that takes a complex issue and treats it both reductively and persuasively. (Ironists take note: we already have a ProCD v. Zeidenberg of copyright law. It’s ProCD v. Zeidenberg.)”
Previously: Liability for P2P Downloading