Another gets sued for sharing MP3's

[Cupe]

A federal jury has ordered a Boston University student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 (£404,000) to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, Rhode Island, admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.

Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were willful. The lawyer for the 25-year-old student had asked the jury earlier Friday to 'send a message' to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages.

Tenenbaum said he was thankful that the case wasn't in the millions and contrasted the significance of his fine with the maximum.

'That to me sends a message of 'We considered your side with some legitimacy,' he said. '$4.5 million would have been, 'We don't buy it at all.'

He added he will file for bankruptcy if the verdict stands.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z0NNVZpGWv

[CBG]

Holy shit! $675,000 for 30 songs?! Jesus. A $50,000 fine and a suspended sentence would've been more reasonable

[DjDennis]

lol and this isnt in Australia

wait till the MIPI get hold of a Dj thats doing it illegally

I want to see that happen , because it will teach others that think they can get away with it CANT

[Cupe]

calm down dennis or i'll get the hose mate

[Genetic]

this isn't a dj though this is a individual.

a single person that downloaded music america is cracking down on this more and more.

also there is a little clause somewhere that entitles a web user to download things for a set period of time even if it's illegaly done for the purpose of "try before you buy" much the same as you are allowed to read an online book, or play demo games

[CBG]

Dennis loves it.

[DjDennis]

lol Caleupe

only if I am with two blondes first

[JonnyB]

personally i dont think that the individual should be axed, but rather the site were they got it from.

well the individual should get a small slap on the wrist, but the site, weather it being limewire or what ever should cop the full brunt, and if it is unable to keep illegal documents out it should be shut down

[DjDennis]

johnny I dont think you really know what happens

they can shut the site down but another one opens up

if they go for the individual then it also shows others NOT to go to any of these sites and let these sites die a slow death with no users

[DJMitchNMatch]

They cant arrest and fine everybody that does it....the majority of the population would be gone.....its a real ineffective way of doing it. One proposed model that has been put forward would be to add a surcharge to your isp costs, which would go to aria or whatever....this seems like a more logical approach to me.

[Genetic]

they've already got membership fee's in place for torrent's and file sharing to deal with piracy/copyright but that's only if you want to sign up and be guaranteed that you will find what you are looking for and won't get screwed over for it

[Andy_is]

I agree that illegal downloading is a crime but you dont even get that sort of fine for penatly for assult, I rather 3 months prison than a $670,000 fine. Coz to pay that back wud take a life time.

[Genetic]

yeah that's why the guy said he'll be going bankrupt, but his lawyer is going to appeal for it to be only the cost of each individual song

[CBG]

I very much doubt that will be the fine. He will go to jail. That fine is just completely over the top.

[Skank]

if they came for my hardrive Donald Trump wouldnt even have enough cash to save me;P

[RhemyD]

Theres really no need to download tracks these days anyway. If you;ve got the knowledge and the right sources you can legally acquire your music for a very low cost. I spend about $60 a month on my music subscriptions and it gets me eveyrthing i need to stay up to date... club charts, top40, remixes... its all good.

It would be cheaper too but i insist on getting one of my collections from the UK 20GBP a pop

[Genetic]

do tell

[RhemyD]

two sites, ones australian ones UK

http://www.visualsounds.com.au

http://www.dmcworld.com

pre-release tracks for DJ's only. Need to verify that you are of course a DJ and i would suggest you DO NOT bother if your a bedroom atm.... keep the integrity of the system.

[Andy_is]

But its most likly the bedroom djs etc that are getting caught. Music is still far to over priced, albums have only come down $10 in price and now they are not having to pay for album art, cases and CDs. Maybe music websites should get carbon credits for being enviromentaly friendly lol. Bring the cost down even futher.

[Skank]

why dont they go and sue the servers that host the sites that hold the illegal files. wait i know why, because they can afford expensive lawyers that can work loop holes but we mere pesants will have the full rath of the law thrust upon us like a pedophile in a playground

[RhemyD]

i still reakon we should just from a DJ union and that union should then negotiate with the companies like aria etc to get a download lisence....

[Genetic]

agreed, we should just have to pay some sort of union agreed fee and that be it. cover all music we're dj's not producers so any modification from the original song can only be limited, therefore we should be allowed to play all songs

[RhemyD]

anyone keen to do the leg work?

[Genetic]

if i knew what channels to start looking through i could gather the information that is needed

[RhemyD]

Well i know there once upon a time was a DJ Association of Australia but it seemed to dissappear around 1999... dont know if thats of any use.