The Obama administration is backing $675,000 in damages a Massachusetts student must pay the Recording Industry Association of America for file sharing 30 songs.

1. Liberals who argued in the run up to the 2008 election that Obama's administration was not going to be staffed with copyright maximalists and that Biden's influence would mostly relate to foreign policy have been totally discredited. Obama is a copyright maximalist.

2. The Eight Amendment apparently doesn't apply to Jury awards in civil trials.

3. There is probably a fundamental problem here that requires a new Constitutional Amendment, as Congress can create excessive statutory damages on behalf of campaign donors who can collect through the civil court system. There is a direct profit model possible here - fund Congress person, get law, file suit, collect excessive damages, profit, repeat. Conservatives might argue that modern tort law is operating off this very business model today, but generally conservative interest groups support copyright maximalism, so they won't make that argument in this context.

4. The courts may uphold the 1.9 million dollar file sharing fine.

5. If that fine is ultimately upheld it may galvanize broad political opposition to the copyright maximalists.

6. If a 1.9 million dollar fine doesn't galvanize broad political opposition to the copyright maximalists, nothing ever will. Those interests may have too much control over what people think to ever have their interests threatened.

Obama Supports $675K File Sharing Verdict | Threat Level | Wired.com