RIAA ordered to detail expenses per song lost in P2P case

In UMG v Lindor, yet another RIAA v individual case the judge has ordered the RIAA to disclose the actual expenses incurred for each of the songs at issue in the case.

The defendant is arguing that the statutory damages of between $750 and $150,000 per song is excessive and they need to have an idea of the real cost to the record companies before damages can be assessed. That seems like a reasonable request.

The RIAA say they can't provide those figures without going to enormous expense. The temptation here is to omit a hollow laugh but actually we could look at this as the record labels finally admitting that no one knows or can possibly know the real extent of the impact of P2P file sharing, infringing and non infringing, on their market, despite the perennial estimates that it amounts to billions of dollars.