“If Plaintiffs were able to pursue a statutory damage theory predicated on the number of direct infringers per work, defendants’ damages could reach into the trillions…. As Defendants note, Plaintiffs are suggesting an award that is ‘more money than the entire music recording industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877’. The absurdity of this result is one of the factors that has motivated other courts to reject Plaintiffs’ damages theory.”
