In Washington, the Supreme Court has refused to reduce their $675,000 verdict against a former student from Boston University who illegally downloaded 30 songs and then went on to share them on the internet. Check out the details revolving the court case after the jump.
As reported by Spinner, the high court refused to hear an appeal from Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. Though there was originally talk of reducing the charge, the penalty was reinstated at the request of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Brothers Records Inc. and other records represented by the RIAA. And although the RIAA has filed about 12,000 lawsuits against individuals suspected of piracy, Tenenbaum is one of two cases to have gone to trial.
Although it’s highly questionable that the RIAA chose to single out one college for a crime that is being committed on a national – international – level, moments like these cause us to question whether the $0.99 price of a song on iTunes is really too much. What’s worse, is that Tenenbaum downloaded these songs back in 2007 on KaZaa, a file-sharing network that is hardly relevant in the modern age of torrenting. This means that Tenenbaum was charged $22,500 for each illegally downloaded song. Although a federal judge considered the charge to be unconstitutionally excessive, the 1st U.S. Circuit of Appeals found it justified.
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