SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO REVIEW CASE INVOLVING REMITTITUR AS BASIS FOR AVOIDING CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES REGARDING STATUTORY AWARD OF DAMAGES FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

摘要

Denying certiorari, the United States Supreme Court has let stand a First Circuit decision that a district court violated the principle of constitutional avoidance when it bypassed the issue of common-law remittitur following a jury's award of statutory damages to music recording companies in a copyright infringement action against a user of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software, with the district court instead resolving the disputed question of whether the jury's award violated due process, and then deciding to reduce the award without offering the companies a new trial. See Tenenbaum v. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, 2012 WL 526017 (U.S. 2012).