Another day, another RIAA trial victory. Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to cough up $675,000 to the record labels. It works out to $22,500 per song he downloaded off Kazaa years ago.
And while it’s so, so easy to say, “Boo, RIAA,” Tenenbaum sees the verdict as a sort of admission by the jury that his defense worked. (He was facing up to $4.5 million in damages.) He told Ars that he was “disappointed, but not surprised,” with verdict, recognizing that, yeah, things could have been much worse.
His lawyer, Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, wasn’t happy with it, noting that it’s a “bankrupting award,” because Tenenbaum doesn’t have a cool $675,000 to pay for a couple of songs.
I never did understand how you could walk into a Best Buy, physically steal a CD, get caught, and still not have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. My guess is that RIAA lawyers have convinced juries and judges that for every song you put in your shared folder, and for every person that downloads, that represents lost sales. Still, it seems excessive.
Tenenbaum will appeal, of course, so there’s no point in freaking out just yet.
And, frankly, RIAA stories have lost all heat.
how in the hell did they catch him
That’s too bad. US legal ftl…
Why him?
He’s not being fined for *downloading* songs; he’s being fined for making them available for distribution by keeping them in his shared folder.
Don’t let the press confuse the issue; they are so dumb that they always go for the ‘downloading’ angle.
‘Sharing’ the content is where the real damage occurs as everybody using the client software theoretically has access to the some or all of the bits.
RIAA=Evil=I don’t buy music any more
It is truly ridiculous that they are throwing money at getting massive settlements for which they have no chance of collecting. Makes me think that they are using these settlements as massive tax shelters at the expense of some minor offender’s life. Is this RIAA’s new business model?
Granted, I don’t agree with the distribution of content one does not own – but really let the punishment fit the crime. I suggest Joel Tenenbaum be the RIAA’s butler for a week – that will teach him a lesson.
Too bad the people can’t do anything about the RIAA – or can we. Don’t buy music from RIAA sponsored artists – in fact don’t even listen to them.
Kill this animal.
Or…you can let your congressman or senator know that the copyright laws need some major revisions.
I never did understand how you could walk into a Best Buy, physically steal a CD, get caught, and still not have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
Cuz, it has become a witch hunt. What’s really sad is that you don’t get these kinds of fines for Grand Theft never mind stealing a f*cking CD. Sure, you have to do some jail time but they don’t bankrupt your a$$.
Secondly, he d/l’ed Mp3s! F*cking Sh!t, there not even true source files like PCM/WAV from a CD. So, now we are talking about a product that has even less worth. Honestly, who really enjoys the Mp3 format beyond getting a sample of what a certain artist sounds like? That would be like fining the public for taping the latest music from the radio and that is still better quality audio.*Ugh*!