Judge Finds File-Swapper Guilty; Jury to Determine Damages

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 31, 2009 - 4:54am.

Boston - After the defendant admitted his guilt in open court on Thursday, a federal judge has ruled that Boston grad student Joel Tenenbaum committed copyright infringement on a file-sharing network, leaving the jury to decide whether his infringement was "willful," and determine the amount of monetary damages he will pay the recording industry. Should the jury find that Tenenbaum willfully infringed Sony Music's copyrights on 30 songs, he could be liable for up to $4.5 million in damages.

Tenenbaum's attorney, Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, had attempted to bring the argument that file-sharing itself is a "fair use" of copyrighted content, but Judge Gertner rejected the use of this defense before the trial started.

Nesson also plans to challenge the constitutionality of the high damage awards -- up to $150,000 per song for willful infringement -- provided under the Copyright Act.

The only other defendant to take a file-sharing copyright infringement claim to trial, Jamie Thomas-Rasset, was found guilty and ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/oeh7w (Ars Technica)

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/riaa-jugular/

http://www.joelfightsback.com