Case Of C. V. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. 523 US

Regarding the case of C. Elvin Feltner, Jr. v Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., Columbia Pictures accused Feltner of owing royalty payments for showing programs after the license to do so was revoked ("Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. 523 U.S. 340 (1998)", 1998). Columbia Pictures tried to resolve the debt owed by Feltner, owner of Krypton International Corporation, outside of court but negotiations failed and Columbia Pictures terminated their license agreement. Feltner’s television stations continued to broadcast Columbia Pictures’ programs. Columbia Pictures then sued for copyright infringement. Columbia Pictures decided to pursue statutory damages in lieu of actual damages ("Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. 523 U.S. 340", 1998).
Feltner sought a jury trial but was denied by the Federal District Court that stated that there is no statutory right to a jury trial in copyright infringement cases and awarded Columbia pictures damages of $20,000 per act of infringement equaling a total of $8,800,000 ("Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. 523 U.S.
The lower courts were holding the Copyright Act while the Supreme Court upheld the constitution because historical cases considered a jury as part of the court.
It is my opinion that Columbia Pictures deserved to win statutory damages for copyright infringement because Feltner willfully continued to broadcast the content without a license. I also agree with the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the right to a jury trial. As for the ruling of the jury trial which ruled that Columbia Pictures trial to significantly more money I believe that was a fair trial considering that Feltner is the one that pushed for a jury throughout the entire