Sweet sanity: 75% of Americans say infringement fines should be under $100

New survey data out on American attitudes toward copyright infringement shows that current statutory damage awards of up to $150,000 are supported by almost no one.

Indeed, only half of all American adults support any sort of fine for downloading a song or movie, and one-third said there should be no punishment at all. The data comes from a study out of The American Assembly project at Columbia University. In work that was funded in part by Google, researchers surveyed 2,303 US adults by phone during the month of August on a whole host of copyright-related questions. The survey found that reactions here diverge sharply from current law. Only 52 percent of American adults support punishment at all (another 7 percent say it depends on the situation)—and essentially no one supports any sort of tough punishment. Fines and warnings are the only two broadly supported remedies for infringement among those who want to impose a penalty. But the supported fines are miniscule, with three-quarters of respondents agreeing that any fine should be less than $100.