Posted on 05/21/2012 7:49:30 PM PDT by ETL
BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal to hear his appeal.
Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., said Monday he's hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount, which he called "ludicrous."
A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him. A federal judge called the penalty constitutionally excessive, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it.
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I know better than that my Friend- there’s just not many places left. Canada sucks like a big dog, even with the conservative resurgance up there.
Sattelites and shit have us pinned down unless we stay in populous places.
We’re good.
This isn’t a criminal matter, but a tort.
[He can whine all he wants, but in the end, he was stealing and got caught. ]
You are soooo right. And next time your taxes are underpaid by about $100, which is a stretch for the amount of royalties stolen by this kid, then you should feel fine with being charged $675k
*snort snicker snort*
>Maybe he can get it cut in half with a good lawyer.
Or have it doubled with a really bad one.
Seems a bit incongruous, eh?
Like a reverse lottery where you get slammed for the rest of your life for what many others are doing.
People kill others, go to prison and have less of an overhead upon release...
Replete with peeing my pants and clutching my dolly.
Woke the catz up and scared them when I laughed about that.
Of course, sometimes, they should be scared when I laugh.
But this was just because of the funny. That needs a picture and a spot on Very Demotivational.
/johnny
Was he convicted of a crime, or sued in Civil Court? It seems the rules would be different.
It varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but judgements aren't always dischargable via BK.
The intentionally harsh Mosaic law dictated at most a five-fold repayment as punishment for theft. Cross the RIAA on the other hand and you’re forced to pay 22500 times over.
While a judgment is outstanding, the court might hold his passport.
Nail a doctor or lawyer for malpractice and try to collect. They shed assets faster than you can find them and declare bankruptcy. Been there, seen that.
Was the kid jailed?
That is called cruel and unusual punishment in the US. You don’t let the richie rich perverts in entertainment land make slaves out of Americans.
The penalty in this case has absolutely NOTHING to do with ‘justice’. This is an outrage!
Can’t believe people actually still use file sharing sites. This stuff is east to get with out sharing anything. Anything you see or hear in the internet is downloaded to your computer. That’s how it works. Recording what your computer is showing you is easy.
In general I don’t think bankruptcy gets you out of court judgement.
The prevailing party simply become a creditor, and gets in line behold the others. (after the secured creditors take the assets pledged as security.)
If he doesn't, I do. In fact this copyright business makes me hate music in general. From now on, it's just birds, for me.
30 songs x $22.5K per. It actually could have been much worse; the range is $750 - $150K per offense. I think the jury saw the endless rationalization and decided he needed a pretty big hammer.
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