Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty

Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by timwiseman on Thursday June 18, 2009 @08:58PM (#664437)

While I fully agree that this result is unjust, I would not blame the lawyers. Remember the lawyers have a professional duty to faithfully represent their client. If their client insists on pressing for the maximum possible damages then the lawyers have a professional duty to take every action within the bounds of ethics and law to get them.

This result was definitely unjust, but the lawyers are the wrong ones to blame.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by ambition on Thursday June 18, 2009 @09:36PM (#664465)

What? No. The lawyers have a ethical and moral duty as lawyers and human beings to do the right thing. I'm not a lawyer, so I'll make an analogy relevant to my profession. If some guy hires me to make a picture site and then insists on a section for sex pics of children I have an ethical duty to back out of the contract.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by emmett on Thursday June 18, 2009 @10:01PM (#664494)

I understand your sentiment, but you're wrong. We need lawyers who will work even for despicable clients. The reason for this rule is that everyone is entitled to legal representation they can trust.

The clients really are at fault here.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by greendestiny on Thursday June 18, 2009 @10:23PM (#664526)

I'd say the law (not lawyers) was at fault as well, or even mostly. A legal system can't rely on the honesty or ethics of claimants and defendants to function correctly almost by definition.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by timwiseman on Friday June 19, 2009 @09:14AM (#665041)

I am afraid you are making a false analogy. IN your comparison you are being hired to blatantly violate both the law and normal morality. In your analogy, you had a duty to not only back out of the contract but to call law enforcement.

The lawyers in this case where asked to act within legal and ethical boundaries and within those boundaries they had a duty to act in their clients interest. The final results where unjust, but their actions where fully in upholding their duty.

The results where wrong, but the fault lies elsewhere. In looking for the fault, I would start by looking at the clients (namely the RIAA) that insisted on pursuing this and at the law itself which permits statutory damages so grossly out of proportion to real damages.

In fact, there has been some contention that such high statutory damages may be unconstitutional and I would not at all be surprised if Mr. Camara pursued that avenue.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by tokenadult on Thursday June 18, 2009 @10:33PM (#664550)

The lawyers have a ethical and moral duty as lawyers and human beings to do the right thing.

That's not exactly how a lawyer's professional responsibility is defined. But anyway, as a producer of original writings that have been infringed more than once, I'm glad there are lawyers who work to uphold the copyright laws.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by jonknee on Thursday June 18, 2009 @10:36PM (#664556)

I know what you're saying, but I just don't see how someone can purposefully ruin someone's life for nothing more than a claimed "professional duty" and a fat paycheck. There are many clients out there, they chose to take the case. Ultimately the client (RIAA) is to blame, but in my mind they are accessories. This is probably why I'm not a lawyer.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by wvenable on Friday June 19, 2009 @02:24AM (#664741)

You're basically saying that lawyers shouldn't take cases for murders, or anyone else morally suspect. But that completely defeats the purpose of having a justice system. It's not the lawyers fault that someone's life was ruined -- if you want to blame anyone, blame the jury. Or blame the politicians that made the laws in the first place.

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Re:Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty by Hexstream on Friday June 19, 2009 @06:33AM (#664911)

Or blame the populace that lets bullshit like that happen?

(I might go to hell for suggesting this but... what the hell)

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