A few days ago Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing thirty songs. Tenebaum is a 25-year-old graduate student at Boston University. This is only the second case to go to court and only last month a court ordered Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay $1.92 million due to copyright infringements on downloading music.
The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones has pointed out this interview with Tenebaum where he discusses copyright issues, his reaction to the verdict and file-sharing. “I’ll let you know when I find someone that doesn’t (download music),” he says. Frere-Jones also points out this written by Wayne Marshall. Marshall was asked to testify as an “expert witness” for Tenebaum’s defense but eventually only took the stand as a “fact witness.” Marshall also questions the figure that Tenebaum was ordered to pay, which came to $22,500 per song that he was charged for.
“Maybe they just hit X30 on the calculator twice. Or filled out the form incorrectly. I dunno. But I still find it hard to believe that a jury would find $675k a “just” amount to fine an individual being sued by a group of corporations.”
In his defense, Joel Tenebaum has started this website. Along with his lawyer Charles Neeson, Tenebaum is fighting back against the RIAA. Yesterday, RIAA’s Cara Duckworth posted this on the internet. Her post is definitely worth reading if you’re wanting to understand the RIAA’s position on the case. And if by any chance you still disagree with Duckworth, Techdirt has posted this in reply.
