Tenenbaum Admits Copyright Infringement For Music File-Sharing: Part 2 of 2
By Heather Faucher | Posted on August 11, 2009 | Filed Under Copyrights
Ouch! A Boston federal jury recently ordered Joel Tenenbaum to pay a total of $675,000—$22,500 per song—to the major record labels, deciding that he willfully infringed 30 songs, downloading and distributing them over the KaZaA peer-to-peer (P2P) network. The jury handed down its verdict late Friday afternoon after only a little over three hours of deliberation.
Tenenbaum’s attorney, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, believes that “it’s a bankrupting award.” He suggested that things might have fallen differently had they been allowed to argue Fair Use. “We were not allowed to speak to fairness. I thought we had pretty damn good arguments on Fair Use.”
“I’m disappointed, but not surprised, but I’m thankful that it wasn’t much bigger, that it wasn’t millions,” Tenenbaum said after the verdict was announced. He stated that he does not have the funds to pay the judgment rendered against him. Should the award stand, Tenenbaum plans to file for bankruptcy. He also said that he was “not displeased with the jury considering how the trial went.”
One group who isn’t displeased with the verdict is the RIAA. “We are grateful for the jury’s service and their recognition of the impact of illegal downloading on the music community,” the organization said in a statement. “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 about. We only wish he had done so sooner rather than lie about his illegal behavior.”
The deck was beyond stacked against Tenenbaum from the get-go. Plaintiffs had forensic evidence on their side in the form of screenshots collected by MediaSentry, showing that defendant was sharing over 800 songs from his computer as of August 10, 2004. Later examination of his computer revealed he had used a variety of P2P programs to illegally download and distribute music: including Napster, KaZaA, AudioGalaxy, and iMesh. He ignored his father’s warning in 2002 that he would get sued and continued infringing: after he received a harshly-worded letter from the plaintiffs’ law firm in 2005, even after he was sued in 2007, and all the way into 2008.
Once on stand at trial, Tenenbaum finally came clean, admitting that he lied in written discovery responses and during his first deposition conducted in September, 2008. His admissions were so cut-and-dried, in fact, that Judge Nancy Gertner had no choice but to grant plaintiffs’ motion for a directed verdict against the Boston University graduate student. Ultimately, the only issues before the jury were to determine willfulness and decide a monetary damage amount.
The Tenenbaum lawsuit was a hotly-contested and closely-watched one, dominated by the flamboyant antics of Tenenbaum’s counsel, Nesson. The Harvard Law School professor infuriated plaintiffs and even Judge Nancy Gertner with his unique litigation tactics. Among them: making audio records of the attorneys and the court at large and later posting them on his blog; and publicizing internal discussions with potential expert witnesses regarding legal strategy. A sanctions motions against Nesson for the recordings he blogged is still pending.
Learn about copyrights. You’ll be glad you did.
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Tags: copyright infringement, Copyrights, music piracy
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