A federal judge has ruled that a Boston University student violated copyright laws when he swapped music online, paving the way for a jury to begin considering damages Friday.
Joel Tenenbaum, 25, admitted on the witness stand Thursday that he downloaded and shared hundreds of songs by Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins and other artists.
“Tenenbaum’s statement plainly admits liability on both downloading and distributing, does so in the very language of the statute … and does so with respect to each and every sound recording at issue here,” U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston wrote in her ruling late Thursday.
Now the jury has to decide whether his copyright infringement was willful, and how much to award the record labels.
The penalty could be as much as $4.5M dollars.
Of course, as a 25-year-old, he’ll just declare bankruptcy and the record labels won’t see a penny. I’m sure they realize that. But it’s sending a VERY strong message.
whoa!
:OOOO
Gee, let us play a little game called name the judge who is in the pocket of the copyright lobby group.
what the fuuuuuck how can they do this? every friggen teenager in the WORLD is going to be arrested!
i think this guy should have had a better lawyer. its impossible to prove who was downloading the songs? do other ppl ever use his laptop? does he ever leave it unattended? obviously its his computer and he uses it most of the time, but a good lawyer should have been able to get him out of this. How did they get a warrant in the first place to see his computer. details………
they said he admitted to it all. lawyer cant argue against their clients own words.
Dayum. That’s why I steal.
It’s the DISTRIBUTING what counts most
Ugh. Don’t get me started.
That is so fucked up. What happens when the next person is a parent with small kids? They going to fuck them too?
Shan, they just got a lady w/ 3 kids. The judgement was over 1.5 million for stealing 3 or 4 songs. This is a scare tactic b/c they know they will never see any of this money or be able to sue even a quarter of the people who violate these laws.
Do they not realize that many of the times people download a particular song, it’s to get a feel as to whether they want to go ahead and purchase that artists new cd or not? I know through the years I bought several albums more than once as technology changed. Music labels are swine, and I vow to never purchase another single download or cd.
What I want to know is why/how they picked him IN PARTICULAR to prosecute – out of probably millions of possibilities? I find it puzzling.
He is a Jew shill for the record labels. they needed someone to fall on a grenade for them so they can get a precedent.
Thankfully, I live in Canada.
You haven’t been following closely what is going on in Canada then. Harper and the Conservatives have rammed through laws that were written by American copyright lobby groups.
My dad was held down at knifepoint and robbed and beaten. The guy got 2 years and no fines. My dad never even got his wallet back. But if you dl a few songs you get fined millions? There’s no justice anymore. Or was there ever?
They’re starting this shit again? That douchebag Lars Ulrich was spearheading this a while ago and they fines some like 8 year old girl millions for the same thing.