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On the bright side for convicted file sharer Joel Tenebaum, the 26-year-old Boston University student no longer is being ordered to pay $675,000 in damages to four record labels. The bad news? He still owes a lot of cheddar.
A Boston judge reduced the award to $67,500 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs online. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner said the original amount was "out of proportion with the government's legitimate interests in compensating the plaintiffs and deterring unlawful file-sharing."
Tenebaum, while pleased as punch at having his fine reduced to 10 percent of the original amount, contends that $67,500 is "equally unpayable."
"We feel vindicated that Judge Gertner agreed that $675,000 was an unconstitutional award," Debbie Resenbaum of joelfightsback.com says. "But it is only a step along the way toward recognizing the abusiveness of the RIAA's litigation campaign."
Tenenbaum, who admitted to downloading the songs through Kazaa, had the chance to settle for $4,000 before this went to trial. He now owes $2,250 per song.
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violian
July 12, 2010 at 10:58am
I can't sing or rap. I don't play any instruments. But I don't care. I'm currently working 2 jobs to make ends meet. So, I've decided, I'm going to become an artist. I'm going to release an album next month, and keep my fingers crossed that everyone fileshares my music through P2P networks. And then, I'm going to SUE everyone for hundreds of thousands of dollars!! HAHAHAHA! I'm going to become so rich!!! I've always dreamed of living in a 30,000 sq.ft. mansion and driving a Lamborghini.
xs0u1x
July 12, 2010 at 6:23am
don't get me wrong, i'm all for justice. this guy should have to pay for what he did, but 67 large? for now I believe he should just have to pay for the songs he has, until they can come up with proof exactly how many times each song was downloaded from his persons, I find it kind of disturbing that a big company can "estimate" losses and have it handed down from a judge to this guy. I mean what's the going rate on songs now a days, $1-3? the math here just doesn't add up to a fair judgement in either case.
I know it's a poor analogy, but this is the equivalent to this kid taking a piece of candy from a store, and the candy store saying he now has to buy the entire next shipment of candy for the store because they don't know how many other kids were stealing right along with him, and since he was busted, he has to pay their share.
IFLATLINEI
July 12, 2010 at 10:24am
I have to admit Ive felt they way you have for a long time about buying the actual CD. But since these record companies just dont learn I stopped buying. They havent embraced the internet like they should have but have spent millions fighting it. Theres too many hands in the cookie jar of sales and customers just arent seeing lower prices because of better distribution due to internet tech. When song comes out I must have ill buyit for 89-99 cents off amazon. Its not like the CD but at this point I just dont care. Music isnt what it used to be and the Music industry is responsible for that.
