United States v. Richard Taxe

Richard Taxe was convicted of twenty counts of willful infringement of copyrights for profit, 17 U.S.C. §§ 1 (f), 101(e), 104; one count of conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. § 371 ; and five counts of mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1341 . He received concurrent four-year sentences of imprisonment and a $1,000 fine on each of the mail-fraud counts. He was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a $1,000 fine for the conspiracy count and each of three of the willful-infringement counts, with time to run concurrently with the mail-fraud counts. On the remaining counts he was fined $1,000 each and placed on probation.

Taxe sought under Fed.R.Crim.P. 35 to have his sentence reduced. He raised numerous grounds, including some already considered and rejected in his direct appeal. His primary argument in the present appeal is that the court abused its discretion because his violations of the copyright statute constituted a course of conduct and not separate criminal violations.

The government argues that the twenty acts of willful infringement for profit should be treated as they would be treated in a civil context.

In United States v. Blanton, 531 F.2d 442 (10th Cir. 1975), a sound-recording case, the…