Jury awards $675K in Boston music downloading case

[CoolBreeze]

Boston student who admitted downloading, sharing music ordered to pay $675K to record labels

* By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer..... Friday July 31, 2009, 7:37 pm EDT


BOSTON (AP) -- A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.

Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were willful. The attorney for the 25-year-old student had asked the jury earlier Friday to "send a message" to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages.

Tenenbaum said he was thankful that the case wasn't in the millions and contrasted the significance of his fine with the maximum.

"That to me sends a message of 'We considered your side with some legitimacy,'" he said. "$4.5 million would have been, 'We don't buy it at all.'"

He added he will file for bankruptcy if the verdict stands.

Tenenbaum's lawyer, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, said the jury's verdict was not fair. He said he plans to appeal the decision because he was not allowed to argue a case based on fair use.

The Recording Industry Association of America issued a statement thanking the jury for recognizing the impact illegal downloading has on the music community.

Tim Reynolds, a lawyer for the recording labels, recounted Tenenbaum's history of file-sharing from 1999 to 2007, describing him as "a hardcore, habitual, long-term infringer who knew what he was doing was wrong." Tenenbaum admitted on the witness stand that he had downloaded and shared more than 800 songs.

Tenenbaum said he downloaded and shared hundreds of songs by Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins and other artists. The recording industry focused on only 30 songs in the case.

More....
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Jury-awar ... ?x=0&.v=28

[fearpeddler]

said it once and i'll say it forever....


FUCK THE RIAA

[Bob Campbell]

To quote one one of the Ten Commandments; Thou shalt not steal.

[AmpedNow]

Tim Reynolds, a lawyer for the recording labels, recounted Tenenbaum's history of file-sharing from 1999 to 2007, describing him as "a hardcore, habitual, long-term infringer who knew what he was doing was wrong." Tenenbaum admitted on the witness stand that he had downloaded and shared more than 800 songs.

Considering the millions of Bittorrent users, one would have to almost try to get caught to be "busted". You would have to have a dedicated computer connected 24/7 seeding hundreds of albums and movies.

I only share when the file is downloading. I disable it after it's finished.

As long as you stay away from the super hits and new releases, your risk of being "busted" is minimal. Even if you don't, it's still a little less than minimal.

In this case, and other ones like that girl in Minnesota, the old lady, etc, they must have just got hit by an unlucky lottery.

It's important to note that these are old cases, and the RIAA announced several months ago that they are no longer going after individual users. It's a rather inefficient use of resources to try and squeeze blood from all those stones.

They're attempting to make up the difference through increased licensing fees. Radio should know...



http://www.eff.org/wp/how-not-get-sued-file-sharing

[nitchg]

How many of us have ever recorded a TV show, or maybe in earlier days recorded music from the radio? Does anyone want to explain the difference morally, how recording TV programs and radio music or making a copy of a movie is different downloading from the internet?

Did you realize that technically you are downloading into your computer everything you can see on your computer monitor?

[Ace Purple]

Just think if the landmark 1984 Supreme Court Betamax ruling would have gone 5-4 the other way...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp. ... dios,_Inc.