Prior to the music business, I spent 20 years as a civil litigation lawyer, so these damages are quite interesting to me.
I quit private practice law about three years ago, but when somebody came into my office wanting to sue somebody, on average I would quote between $30,000 and $45,000 to do a two-day Court of Queen's Bench trial of 12 to 18 months. I'd ask for $5,000 up front before I did anything.
To lower the statutory damages down to $5,000.... In effect, what is going to happen is you might as well do away with them entirely. The public or whoever--it could be for-profit as well—will say, “Nobody's going to sue us because it's not worth it. We'll just keep doing it.” You are basically giving them a blank cheque to continue doing it.