Sony's 300 billion dollar "mistake"

As of 12/28, Sony's The Interview has been streamed 2 million times.  That is unfortunate, since Sony might have stolen music for the movie.  Various sources are reporting that a 30s clip of Yoon Mi-rae's "Pay Day" was put into the movie without a copyright license.  It appears that Sony was in negotiations for the license, but those negotiations fell through.  Sony tried to get the license, failed, then put the music into them movie anyways.  To me that fits the very definition of "willful infringement".  Because the infringement was willful, the statutory damages are $150,000 per infringement.  That is $150K x 2M, or $300B.  That is a lot.

Should Yoon Mi-rae have a $300B payday?  In my opinion, no.  The problem is Sony, via the RIAA and the MPAA, has consistently argued yes.  Did Sony steal the music?  Again, no, but Sony has argued in the past that copyright infringement is stealing.  Does it make sense that a movie that grossed $15M should cost a company $300B in fines?  No.  That doesn't make sense.  Once again, though, it makes sense to Sony.  If a single person illegally downloads one music track instead of paying the $2 for the track, Sony will demand $150K.  It is a statutory damage for "willful infringement".  The point of increasing the damages to something so astronomical is to deter infringement.  Well, statutory damages hasn't deterred Sony from stealing music.

The bigger problem is this isn't going to amount to a whole lot.  Large corporations don't have to follow the same set of rules that people do.  Sony will see no problem requesting $150K when it is their intellectual property being "stolen" but will cry foul when they steal someone else's intellectual property.  And they will win.