Student Fined $675K for Downloading 30 Songs
Back in June, a woman was ordered by the court to pay $1.9 million for illegally downloading 24 songs, the highest fine to date for such a crime. The songs, which cost 99 cents on iiTunes and other similar music services, continue to fetch a high price in fines for those caught downloading and distributing them illegally. Now, a Boston University student has been socked with $675,000 in damages for illegally downloading and distributing 30 songs.
Joel Tenenbaum, 25, of Providence, RI admitted to a federal court that he downloaded and shared more than 800 songs, but the court case focused only on 30. Tenenbaum's case is just the second of its kind to go to trial in the U.S.
The award for each song granted to the four record labels involved yesterday is near the legal limit of $30,000 in damages per track, but is still far off from the maximum $4.5 million that jurors could have awarded. If the jury had found that the infringements were willful, they could have claimed up to $150,000 per track.
If the verdict sticks, Tenenbaum says he will file for bankruptcy. He is, however, thankful that the penalty wasn't more severe. He said:
"That to me sends a message of 'we considered your side with some legitimacy. $4.5 million would have been, 'We don't buy it at all.' "
When asked if he regretted downloading the songs, he said:
"I don't regret drinking underage in college, even though I got busted a few times."
Tenenbaum's lawyer, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson, is planning to appeal the verdict. The Recording Industry of America has once again applauded the jury's findings, stating:
"We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work.
From the beginning, that's what this case has been all about. We only wish he had done so sooner rather than lie about his illegal behavior."
Note to anyone the RIAA tries to go after in the future: you might be better off settling out of court these days. It doesn't look like going to trial has worked for either of the defendants thus far.
Comments
"We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work"
Yes RIAA, the artists do deserve to be paid!
How much of this $675K will actually end up in the artists pockets??? history tells us not a cent!
The industry as we know it is dead, its time to embrace change and work with it instead of paddling against the current and ultimately drowning.
Associations like the RIAA's only purpose is to enforce ridiculous fines (675K for 30 songs????$30 seems more like it) and act as the greedy middleman leaching of the hard work of the creator.
Times are changing, people are once again learning the benefits of sharing in this tough economic climate and more and more people are less willing to part with their hard earned for some of the rubbish that is going around the music scene.
File sharing is a hydra, the only way to beat it is to join it.
Anything else is fallacy.
What kind of b.s. Society are we living in. I live here but the USA is a joke. Seriously I'm an artist and my stuff has been illegally downloaded many times. You are telling me that instead of making it impossible to copy music, they make kazaa and torrents and cd burners available, and fine moms and students a million dollars? 80,000 per song? This makes me so outraged I would love to track down the RIAA lawyers and beat the living shit out of them. How dare they represent a case of such bullllll f ing proportions. You all are a joke shame on you and your families!