Saksa 1

Steven Saksa
English 1020
4-25-14
The eighth amendment, part of the first changes to the constitution and a bulwark against
the worst possible trespasses by our government, is under threat. There seems nowadays to be a
trend against this core aspect of our constitutional government. The grotesque fines imposed on
those who download content without paying is absolutely unconstitutional and is morally wrong.
We must examine the problems in society when littering results in a $500 fine (States With
Littering Penalties), a first time DUI in Tennessee results in a maximum fine of $1,500
(Tennessee DUI Laws), while the maximum fine for even daring to download something
illegally is $150,000 per song (ddd). Uploading for others to download is even worse, with heavy
fines and prison sentences that can be measured in years. These issues can be addressed by
comparing the fines to the actual value of the pirated goods, while including statistics made by
the agencies that sue and impose these fines compared to reality, thus proving that these fines are
unusual. They can also be addressed by showing that they are cruel, often ending in bankruptcy
for people who did little more than click a link, or, even worse, as punishment for something
their children did, as happened in several cases. These all clearly show that the excessive fine
part of the eighth amendment is broken and merits change.
An iPod, by the admission of the United States copyright law, is the singular most
valuable object per ounce in the world. Neither gold, nor silver, nor diamonds, nor the Mona
Lisa, nor anything in this world comes even close to the value attributed to an iPod. The average
iPod can hold 40,000 songs at 160 gigabytes (iPod Classic), this equates to a value of 6 billion

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dollars at a weight of 4.9 ounces, or at a whopping $1,224,489,797.92 per ounce. Truly an
impressive deal for something sold for about $300.
With the above in mind we can begin to grasp the ridiculousness of the situation. There is
no earthly way a single song is worth the $150,000, or even the $3000 to $4000 that is more
often settled for out of court (Bratton), that is enough on Amazon, one of the more prolific music
sellers, to buy a songs equal to the dollars spent; it is enough, at ten dollars a ticket, to see, at an
hour and thirty minutes a movie, at least 450 hours of movies at a theatre. When a single breach
of content is worth hundreds thousands of times the actual value of the song or movie, there is a
clear disconnect.
According to estimates from the music industry the losses from piracy come to about
$58,000,000,000, or nearly ten iPods. This figure is flawed according to Julian Sanchez, an
economist from the renowned CATO Institute, who finds that the losses were made through
counting them multiple times. This comes from adding the money separately at each individual
stop, so for a theoretical CD that costs 15 dollars, 5 dollars would go the manufacturer, 5 dollars
to the producer, and the rest to the musician, the 15 dollars total is held. By the math the
entertainment industries are using, the $15 and all the $5s would be counted separately, resulting
in $30 dollars added to the economy, somehow. Combine this with the fact that most pirated
goods are not goods that would have been purchased in a physical format, this is a generous
estimate by the Government Accountability Office when they put lost sales at 20% of all pirated
goods. Basically, for every five songs pirated, only one would have been an actual sale. This puts
the number somewhat below the initial estimate, divided by half for the double counting (note
that oftentimes they triple counted, so this estimate is actually on the low end), and by five to
account to the more accurate estimate of actual lost sales; there have been around 5.8 billion

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dollars lost to piracy (or slightly less than the value of one iPod classic). These punishments are
unusual when we consider the amount of actual pain caused to the companies suing. Likewise,
the math shown by the record companies are questionable at best, flat out lies at worst, so how
can this law stand when all the facts point in a different direction?
In July 2009, a Minnesota woman illegally downloaded 24 songs, and got slapped with a
lawsuit for $1,900,000. These songs could have been bought for a dollar each, or $79,999 less a
piece. This woman worked at an Indian reservation and had a husband and four kids. She was far
from rich, and had no way of affording the fines. Even after she appealed and got the fees
reduced to $220,000, the fine was still far in excess of what most Americans have just lying
around (Friend). This is the cost of a home and far exceeds the worth of the songs. These attacks
on regular people have been perpetrated by the entertainment industry many times. People are
being singled out through disproportionate fees far in excess of any realistic value of the song.
This hurts people and can in no earthly way not be seen as cruel. In fact, shoplifting generally
gives you no more than community service for a first offense, or a fine of $100 or only three
times the value of the good, whichever is higher. These objects shoplifted are generally worth
more than the $.99 songs, and furthermore, actually disappear from the store when they are
taken. When Aladdin gets downloaded, Disney does not lose the movie, nor even a DVD that
holds the movie. Disney has lost nothing except a 20% chance at a sale. It is a strange day when
the shoplifters who actually rob a store of value are punished a hundred or more times less
harshly than someone who pressed a button and cost the company 20% of a one dollar sale (or
about 20 cents).
If this wasnt enough, lets consider the fact that many people who were assaulted by
lawsuits didnt even commit a crime. In 2003, a Minnesota woman who made $20,000 a year

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was sued for $540,000 because her 15 year old daughter downloaded music on the internet
(Minnesota woman caught in crackdown on music downloaders). Even worse, an unsecured WiFi signal, or even a hacked one, can lead to disaster. In 2010, according to Greg Sandoval (a
contributor to the technology e-magazine CNET), an Elderly woman had her internet access
terminated because someone else used her internet to download a movie. Not only are the
punishments cruel and unusual, but you dont even have to commit a crime to be found guilty by
courts and service providers. When a persons teenagers can jeopardize their financial security, or
a next door neighbor (or a person with a laptop) can ruin your life, something is wrong. At a
point it stops being a part of the damages or the legality and becomes an unconstitutional attack
on Americans at large.
The Eighth Amendment of our constitution clearly states Excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. As we can
see, the lawsuits by the entertainment industry against acts of piracy have broken in half every
part of the amendment save the bail, because thankfully the MPAA and RIAA are not allowed to
have police forces. Likewise, what constitutes piracy is counterintuitive. Simply sharing a file
with friends can get a person sued with their life thrown to the gutter. If we count every time we
borrowed a CD to put music our computer, or borrowed an eBook, then we would all be
criminals owing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This cannot stand in a nation that claims to
follow and be inspired by a constitution. We as Americans need to change this law before even
one more person gets hurt by it. If we even change the damages to 5x the value (still at a greater
value than shoplifting laws), the fees would be more reasonable and would actually have a
semblance of fairness. And we as Americans should accept nothing less.

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Works Cited
Bratton, Anna. "Music Piracy Crackdown Nets College Kids." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 13 May 2007. Web. 05 May 2014.
"Copyright Law of the United States of America." U.S. Copyright Office. United States Code,
n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
Friend, Elianne. "Woman Fined to Tune of $1.9 Million for Illegal Downloads."CNN. Cable
News Network, 18 June 2009. Web. 05 May 2014.
"IPod Classic - Technical Specifications." Apple - IPod Classic - Technical Specifications. Apple
Inc., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
"Minnesota Woman Caught in Crackdown on Music Downloaders." USATODAY. USA Today,
11 June 2004. Web. 05 May 2014.
"Observations on Efforts to Quantify the Economic Effects of Counterfeit and Pirated
Goods." GAO. Government Accountability Office, Apr. 2010. Web.
Sanchez, Julian. "How Copyright Industries Con Congress." Cato at Liberty. Cato Institute, 3
Jan. 2012. Web. 05 May 2014.
Sandoval, Greg. "Cable One: Unsecured Network Won't Excuse Piracy - CNET."CNET. C|NET,
10 Nov. 2010. Web. 05 May 2014.
"States With Littering Penalties." States with Littering Penalties. National Conference of State
Legislatures, n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
"Tennessee DUI Laws, Fines and Penalties." Dui.drivinglaws.org. Driving Laws, n.d. Web. 05
May 2014.