Judge: 17,000 illegal downloads don't equal 17,000 lost sales

Record companies cannot collect restitution for every time a song has been illegally downloaded, a US District judge has decided. Judge James P. Jones gave his opinion onUnited States of America v. Dove, a criminal copyright case, ruling that each illegal download does not necessarily equate to a lost sale, and that the companies affected by P2P piracy cannot make their restitution claims based on this assumption.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090119-judge-17000-illegal-downloads-dont-equal-17000-lost-sales.html