$675K fine for student's music downloading, $22,500 per track!

[melvbot]

The jury in the Joel Tenenbaum case has fined the Boston College student $675,000 for copyright infringement of 30 songs, or $22,500 per track. The award is radically smaller than the $80,000 per track levied against Jammie Thomas-Rasset in a similar infringement trial earlier this year.

The jury was out, according to Copyright & Campaigns' Ben Sheffner, between two and three hours. Judge Nancy Gertner has already announced that she'll review the award to ensure that it does not violate the Constitution's due-process clauses. As for Mr. Tenenbaum, he told Mr. Sheffner that he plans to file for bankruptcy if the award amount stands, as the doctoral candidate (in physics) has no way of paying the fine.

Jury arrives at $675K fine for student's music downloading, $22,500 per track | Tech Policy & Law News - Betanews

Fining someone over half a million dollars and forcing him into bankruptcy pretty much ruining the next 10 or so years of his life, these juries are pathetic.

[mediamanbkk]

They know that there's no chance he could ever pay that sort of fine, were they on some kind of ego trip or something?

[the dogcatcher]

Are all Mericans this fcking stupid. We've been swapping music for years. Anyone heard of the cassette tape.

[Another Farang]

This is absurd.

I know many djs with huge libraries of music, we're talking 500GB+ of music...what kind of fine would they get? Who could afford to purchase that much music unless they are sponsored by a label...

retarded.

[Dan]

I couldn't see any rational for the level of the fine. It seems insanely disproportionate to the crime but there again, the primary interest of the state is the preservation of property rights and that means absolutely no fucking with corporate interests.

[rickda]

I couldn't see any rational for the level of the fine. It seems insanely disproportionate to the crime but there again, the primary interest of the state is the preservation of property rights and that means absolutely no fucking with corporate interests.

I agree that this is about protection of Corporate copyright and I guess has been done to make an example to all

[melvbot]

After Tenenbaum, who will take back the music industry from the RIAA? | Security News - Betanews

[Bung]

$22,500 per track

Could they possibly hope to make that much in royalties (lost) of a single track for eternity?

What if it was a crap song?

[melvbot]

The thing that annoys me is the fact that most, if not all of that money will not be paid to the artist, not that they deserve that amount for a single track anyway.

This is all coming from an industry that has always paid the people who create the music, generate the income and provide the product, last. To me this is an industry thats in its death throes, struggling to come to terms with new ways of distributing music with established bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails releasing music by websites which new artists can do as well. The touring side and promotion is all thats left for the record labels to push as a benefit to new artists which is expensive, a gamble and not the most profitable side of the business.

[Bung]

I see it in my work all the time. It's not the muso's chartering yachts, it's the fat cats behind them sunning themselves on the aft deck.

[Smithson]

I couldn't see any rational for the level of the fine. It seems insanely disproportionate to the crime but there again, the primary interest of the state is the preservation of property rights and that means absolutely no fucking with corporate interests.

The call it theft, which is BS, cause it's just copying something, not taking it away.

Most of the movies these days are so shit, one feels ripped off just for having wasted the time to download them.

[kmart]

The thing that annoys me is the fact that most, if not all of that money will not be paid to the artist, not that they deserve that amount for a single track anyway.

This is all coming from an industry that has always paid the people who create the music, generate the income and provide the product, last. To me this is an industry thats in its death throes, struggling to come to terms with new ways of distributing music with established bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails releasing music by websites which new artists can do as well. The touring side and promotion is all thats left for the record labels to push as a benefit to new artists which is expensive, a gamble and not the most profitable side of the business.

Agreed. They don't seem to realise that the genie is out of the bottle as regards file sharing.

[Smithson]

The thing that annoys me is the fact that most, if not all of that money will not be paid to the artist, not that they deserve that amount for a single track anyway.

This is all coming from an industry that has always paid the people who create the music, generate the income and provide the product, last. To me this is an industry thats in its death throes, struggling to come to terms with new ways of distributing music with established bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails releasing music by websites which new artists can do as well. The touring side and promotion is all thats left for the record labels to push as a benefit to new artists which is expensive, a gamble and not the most profitable side of the business.

Agreed. They don't seem to realise that the genie is out of the bottle as regards file sharing.

They love the idea of downloading, but want to limit it to themselves and paying customers. There are many young bands who are more than happy that ppl download and share their music for free.

The companies would have us believe that if file sharing continues, it will be the end of music.

[melvbot]

Theres now a generation of bands that have/will grow up in this filesharing climate who will adapt. Some kid somewhere will have a bright spark for an idea of how to distribute the music whilst making money and make a new standard, just a natural progression. CD's as a media for distributing music lasted something like 20 odd years, not very long really, but its more or less obselete now, sales of physical copies have become irrelevant for mainstream bands although there are a core of dance music acts that release on vinyl and only on vinyl, something the true DJ's will buy all day long.