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Back in the day, folks that occasionally indulged in illegally downloading a couple of music tracks might have thought major media distributors wouldn’t target them when other online miscreants were guilty of stealing thousands of copyrighted tracks.
Student hit for $675,000 USD after downloading 30 music tracks. Image: walknboston/Flickr.
Evidently, that time has passed and small-time thieves who occasionally dabble are now just as likely to be thrown to the legal dogs as those actively stealing copious amounts of online content.
Specifically, Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum is now facing considerably more debt than just accrued tuition fees after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) singled him out through the courts for illegally downloading a mere 30 tracks – around three albums.
With a federal court in Boston awarding the RIAA a sum of $22,500 USD for each track downloaded by 25-year-old Tenenbaum, the student must now pay a total of $675,000 USD to the four record companies holding copyright for the tracks he stole.
While the court’s award is substantial, it is worth noting that the per-track penalty could have reached as high as $150,000 USD (a total of $4.5 million USD) if the court had opted to apply maximum punishment to Tenenbaum’s case.
Tenebaum’s lawyer, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, has said his client will be appealing the court’s decision and will be filing for bankruptcy if the ruling is not overturned through the appeals process.
The RIAA’s latest victory in placing focus on the specific actions of a minor download offender comes after it was recently awarded $1.92 million USD in the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mother of four who was dragged across the legal coals for illegally downloading just 24 tracks.
The Tech Herald: Jammie Thomas-Rasset seeks second retrial in RIAA case
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