File-sharing Student Fights Fine

[Ash-Bash 0]

File-sharing student fights fine

 

 

A US student who was fined $675,000 (£421,000) for illegally downloading music has asked a judge to reduce the damages or offer him a retrial.Joel Tenebaum said that the costs awarded were "grossly excessive".

 

The court case focused on 30 tracks that Mr Tenebaum admitted downloading. He was fined $22,500 per song.

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I really don't know how they are only getting certain people I know loads of people that download and they are only catching people one by one seems to be a very slow process. I agree with Mr. Tenebaum about the costs being very excessive. How is a US student going to pay that much money! The courts need to get real and realise people may not even make this much in there life let alone a fine...

 

Please post your views.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Ash-Bash (see edit history)

[webishqiptar 0]

This is a tough problem. There not lots of, but thousands of people that download music, and there are certainly lots of other that upload music and movies and there's nothing to do. It would be a shame if you are rich and can buy music to get a fee for that. But some really poor students can't afford such big fines. I don't know about the laws in the U.S but this is not a good thing. You can get lower fines for driving errors and which can cause lots of trouble, because you can cause any death at all. And still those fines are juts lower than this one.

[Soviet Rathe 1]

My God!Rule #1 USE A PROXYThat's insane... really...Everyone here has downloaded some illegal files once in their life, but $22,500 PER SONG?????did he sell copies? that's the only thing I can think of that would make it be that muchplus 800 songs is nothing...I have over 20,000 songs and am not afraid to admit it, because if they ever check me out they will find nothing.IMO they should focus on the big piracy companies. not helpless teenagers who just wanted something to play on their IPODI feel sorry for him. someone should start a website petition to let him off. not that it would help anyway

[anwiii 17]

20,000 songs times $22,500 = a coll 45 mil you owe. i am reporting you so sony doesn't have to sue anymore people for a mere 700k

well, the dude got caught. he was wrong. he even indirectly admits he was wrong by asking the judge to reduce the fines. the fines are a bit excessive but i guess he didn't really have a proper defense now did he. he's asking for a retrial because of his own crappy defense. that's funny. the only thing he can wish for now is an appeal

now even if his fines are cut in half, he would still probably have to declare bankruptsy at such a young age. nobody is going to give a student credit for anything anyway when a student owes so much.

the only reason why it's getting attention is because of the excessive fines....but is it? when a judge could have easily ordered $150,000 per song?

i think this guy is an idiot. when you were only charged for 30 songs, you don't tell people you've downloaded 30x that much. supposedly his internet lawyer is a crock and isn't doing his job

now it's not about using a proxy, but hiding your ip is the safest way to go if you have something to hide. i think this guy was already in the public eye for some reason or another....acting stupid. he did something illegal, got caught, now has to pay the consequence. simples as that. in the news article, there were people willing to help him pay by sending him money. no don't people who do the same thing he has gotten caught doing and found guilty. criminals helping criminals. gotta love it.

it doesn't state in the article though what he was being sued for specifically. also, there was no mention of attorney fees being paid by the defendant. that's fishy to me. sounds to me that some large corporation didn't know what to do with their high paid attorneys sittle idle so they decided to set an example. big deal. this certainly isn't the first case and wont be the last. this changes NOTHING in the internet community. if this was such a big case, this guy would be sitting in jail or on bond right now....this news blows

My God!Rule #1 USE A PROXY

That's insane... really...
Everyone here has downloaded some illegal files once in their life, but $22,500 PER SONG?????
did he sell copies? that's the only thing I can think of that would make it be that much
plus 800 songs is nothing...
I have over 20,000 songs and am not afraid to admit it, because if they ever check me out they will find nothing.

IMO they should focus on the big piracy companies. not helpless teenagers who just wanted something to play on their IPOD

I feel sorry for him. someone should start a website petition to let him off. not that it would help anyway

[Quatrux 4]

He made a mistake he admitted that he downloaded the music and that he knew that it was illegal.. But seriously, he's like one "jackass" for all the people who download music..I just find it stupid.

Edited January 6, 2010 by Quatrux (see edit history)

[FouGilang 0]

Oh wow, so the court and big companies can also be quite a dreamer too, charging one student that much, and i wonder if his parents can afford that (say, that almost IDR 6.500.000.000 here, imagine if i was the one there...) Well he admitted it, and what? He won't have many defenses on the court when he admitted guilty right? And it seems (in the article) that he didn't take any defense at all, it just said that he got caught, admitted, and asked to reduce the fine or giving him a re trial.Anyway I am kind of amazed by the way he refuses the donations, was he had plans how to pay it, or simply he won't pay it? I would like to find the next news about this

[harrison858 0]

Well.. so hes not really fighting it, is he?Hes just simply asking for a reduce.Fighting would be like... taking a real defense. And I agree, simply asking for a re-trial is not going to do much.Also... $22,500 to me is ridiculous for one song.Law should have it max. $1,000 per song to get it real. Its not like this one person is causing the whole music industry to decline.Then again, I have never knowingly downloaded pirated/illegal software, so I dont know how the court cases are specifically.

[H.O.D 0]

This sure is some funny yet disturbing news. As mentioned above, the music industry won't achieve anything by picking up single people like this. It needs to do something big to stop the piracy. And as Soviet Rathe rightly, said, almost everyone who uses the internet has knowingly/unknowingly downloaded something illegal. It just depends on whether you stop your activities once you know that it is illegal. People keep talking about how unfair the music industry is on pricing/DRM, etc, but they're not helping the cause by encouraging illegal downloads. They're simply destroying the smallest chance that the music industry would reduce prices if they felt that people would buy music if they removed restrictions and reduced prices. Now that no one is caring this situation will only continue to be in the same way it is and we'll see more articles like this in the coming days.as for the student, I'm really surprised how he was found in the first place. People who know very little about the internet and IP addresses, etc get away easily by illegal downloading, then how did this fellow land up in such a mess? It is indeed a little suspicious as anwiii mentioned. Maybe it's all just a huge drama to warn people about what would happen if they were caught?