Posted on 05/21/2012 7:49:30 PM PDT by ETL
BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal to hear his appeal.
Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., said Monday he's hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount, which he called "ludicrous."
A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him. A federal judge called the penalty constitutionally excessive, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Seems to me punishing him by making him a the slave for life of the music industry is just a tad excessive.
why cant he just claim bankruptcy
It seems excessive particularly in light of the crappy music involved.
Cuz that's fair.
I'm this dude, I relo to a new country and toss this corrupt, insane country the bird.
Does he at least get to keep the songs?
I worked for a guy whose son shared music online about four years ago. He was contacted by a lawyer and was taken to court. The guy wouldn’t disclose the amount of money they were forced to pay because of the negotiated settlement but I’m guessing it was in the $5000 to $10,000 range. The kid was in high school when he illegally shared the songs.
Exactly, one more person chased out of this country.
In general I don’t think bankruptcy gets you out of court judgement.
I have predicted sometime in the next 10 year a jury somewhere will award the plaintiff “All the Money in the World + $1.”
they want to make him an example.
How about they get the fine from the sites that make it possible to transfer copies of music illegally?
This guy will never be able to pay that amount down. His life in the US is done. He might as well head overseas and put that education to work in a nation with saner copyright laws. The RIAA is a cancer.
And yet a corporation can steal a patent and face only civil action.
But copyright IP has been made SPECIAL IP, special only because the owners pay the politicians.
So they have created a new criminal class that is treated unequally with respect to copiers of other intellectual property.
He needs to go into politics as a Democrat. Then he can have his fine retroactively removed. Hell, they’ll probably give him $90K to store in his freezer...
problem is... these days he’d be stopped at the border for having outstanding court ordered ‘damages’
of course, he could take on another’s ssno, claim to be from mexico, and work as an illegal in the US.
He can whine all he wants, but in the end, he was stealing and got caught. All the rationalization, justification, denial, anger, resentment, etc., but he was stealing and got caught.
For $675,000, he could have the bands play for him LIVE in his backyard.
criminal fines are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
“For $675,000, he could have the bands play for him LIVE in his backyard.”
How much for whistling rights, do you suppose?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.