Judge Rules Against College Student In Music Downloading Case

The verdict is in. A federal judge has ruled that Joel Tenenbaum, a 25-year-old Boston University graduate student, violated copyright infringement laws by illegally downloading and sharing music on the Internet.

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner ruled Thursday night that Tenenbaum disclosed on the witness stand that he infringed on the copyrights of 30 songs that he downloaded and shared online.

Tenenbaum now must wait to learn what he owes the recording industry in damages.

According to a Boston Globe report, Judge Gertner said she would instruct the jury to only consider the amount of damages he should pay four record labels that sued him in federal court and whether his infringements were “willful,” which could result in much higher damages.

Under federal law, the jury can award the labels $750 to $30,000 for each copyright infringement and as much as $150,000 for each willful infringement. Tenenbaum could owe as much as $4.5 million.

No doubt people were surprised when Tenenbaum took the stand and admitted to the illegal downloading. Tenenbaum’s lawyer, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, had designed a defense strategy to portray his client as one of millions of decent young people ‘who grew up thinking downloading music free of charge was fine.’

Apparently Nesson found it difficult to drive that point home during the four-day trial.

But once Tenenbaum took the stand and admitted to the illegal downloads, it was only a matter of time.

“On the stand today, are you now admitting liability for downloading and distributing all 30 songs?’’ asked Timothy Reynolds, a lawyer for the four record labels that filed suit.

“Yes,’’ said Tenenbaum.

Justice, from the record labels perspective, was pretty swift from that point on. The Boston Globe also reports that the recording industry asked Judge Nancy Gertner to rule that Tenenbaum was liable for copyright infringement and to move directly to the damages phase of the trial.

The Globe notes that Tenenbaum’s admission was not entirely unexpected.

“On the witness stand, the graduate student in physics unapologetically admitted downloading more than 800 songs from 1999 to at least 2007 on his computers at his home in Providence and at Goucher College in Maryland.

Smiling often, he explained that he grew up in a family that loves and plays music – his mother is a professional harpist – and that peer-to-peer music-sharing networks made it easy for him to get the songs he liked free…”

Apparently Nirvana, Green Day, the Ramones, and Aerosmith are among the artists that lured Tenenbaum into illegally downloading music.

Tenenbaum is one of 18,000-plus recipients of letters from the Recording Industry Association of America in recent years demanding payment for illegal file-sharing. He is is only the second to challenge a lawsuit in federal court.

Tenenbaum’s lawyer has asked a jury to “send a message” to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages, according to the AP.

Do you agree with the verdict? If you occasionally download a song off the ‘Net, will the outcome of this case make you think twice next time?

Source: Boston Globe