tenenbaum
Charles Nesson, scourge of the labels, now must pay them
Joel Tenenbaum, the second P2P defendant to take his case to trial in the US, may never pay the $675,000 judgment currently filed against him—but someone on his legal team will soon be paying something . Judge Nancy Gertner has ruled that both Tenenbaum and his lawyer, Harvard Law’s Charles Nesson, are “jointly and severally liable” for some fees incurred by the RIAA during the trial. The ruling comes after the defense team inexplicably posted the very songs at issue in the case to the Internet, and Nesson posted a public link on his blog for anyone to download them.
Continue reading »Tenenbaum Offers $21 Counter Offer to the RIAA
Convicted file-sharer argues that actual damages caused by illegally downloading 30 songs on KaZaA was $21, that being 70 cents for each song record labels would have received if he purchased the music from Apple’s iTunes. Joel Tenenbaum was found guilty of copyright infringement for illegally downloading 30 songs on KaZaA this past August, and was fined a total of $675,000, or $22,500 p/song. His attorney, Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, has already decided to appeal the verdict on the grounds that downloading music without a copyright holder’s permission qualifies for “fair use” exemption from copyright laws, and that if an individual file-sharer is not proven to have caused actual losses that they can’t be held liable for damages.
Continue reading »Convicted File-Sharer: DRM-Free Tracks on KaZaA to Blame
Tenenbaum’s attorney argues in request for retrial that Joel Tenenbaum and other music listeners could not get “exactly the songs they wanted, in exactly the format they wanted” until the music industry did away with DRM in 2007, and that the availability of DRM-free tracks on Napster and KaZaA” contributed substantially to their immense public appeal.” Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson has formally filed a motion for a retrial in the case of convicted file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum. Tenenbaum was found guilty of copyright infringement for illegally sharing 30 songs this past August and was fined $22,500 p/song for a total of $675,000. Tenenbaum’s attorney is arguing that Tenenbaum and other music listeners could not get “exactly the songs they wanted, in exactly the format they wanted” until the music industry did away with DRM in 2007, meaning that the time frame he can claim a fair use extension should be extended from 2003, the birth of iTunes, to 2007.
Continue reading »RIAA Victim Files for New Trial, Damages Excessive
It would seem statutory damages are a bittersweet pill for the record industry. On one hand they provide a handy battering ram for intimidating litigation targets into settling out of court, which is good for them. On the other, they can be used to turn a victory into a crushing defeat, which could be very bad.
Continue reading »Tenenbaum’s P2P use: the labels made me do it!
For journalists, the Joel Tenenbaum P2P case has been the gift that keeps on giving . Case in point: the team’s court filing asking for either a new trial or a vastly reduced damage award. It turns out that the labels were at least partially responsible for Tenenbaum’s years of P2P sharing.
Continue reading »