Court Affirms $675K Penalty In Music-Downloading Case

Maybe the man should enter the RIAA headquarters with an AK47 and set a different kind of example if you know what I mean. Totally absurd judgement.

That would hurt the law-abiding gun owners and dealers when the politicians start crying for more gun bans. Two wrongs don't make things right. What needs to happen is for the judicial system to realize that this is nothing but extortion and throw these lawsuits out. Excessive, life-destroying fines like this should be considered cruel and unusual punishment in civil cases with no tangible evidence of physical harm to the plaintiff.
 
For a Harvard Law student the guy was a dumb ass. He downloads the music....no big deal. He then uploads them for others to "share" what he "stole" ...gray area. His crowning achievement was the willful infringement that got him the $675K penalty. He blatantly ignored the repeated requests for him to stop. If he had taken it down he would not have had willful infringement. DUMB ASS should be tatooed on his forehead
 
For a Harvard Law student the guy was a dumb ass. He downloads the music....no big deal. He then uploads them for others to "share" what he "stole" ...gray area. His crowning achievement was the willful infringement that got him the $675K penalty. He blatantly ignored the repeated requests for him to stop. If he had taken it down he would not have had willful infringement. DUMB ASS should be tatooed on his forehead

At first, I thought this fine was outrageous at well. However, he shared it. He made potentially millions of more infringements possible, depriving the rights-holders of potentially millions of dollars in profits. It's not a grey area at all. He definitely deserves more than simply replacing the profit he himself took and a small fine. He enabled a lot of other people to commit the same crime and steal from these companies.

The only question is if that fact was considered during the trial and proven. If these 31 songs were proven to be downloaded and they also were shared, I'd definitely throw the book at the guy. I don't know if it would be to the tune of $675,000 but definitely more than $150 others have suggested. Sharing the stuff compounds the problem greatly.
 
But they will make his life hell and I support them for it. Enjoy a life time of debt collectors, harrasment calls and the stigma of all of it. Best of luck chump.

We've got an RIAA troll in our midst, gentlemen. I call for expulsion.
 
At first, I thought this fine was outrageous at well. However, he shared it. He made potentially millions of more infringements possible, depriving the rights-holders of potentially millions of dollars in profits. It's not a grey area at all. He definitely deserves more than simply replacing the profit he himself took and a small fine. He enabled a lot of other people to commit the same crime and steal from these companies.

The only question is if that fact was considered during the trial and proven. If these 31 songs were proven to be downloaded and they also were shared, I'd definitely throw the book at the guy. I don't know if it would be to the tune of $675,000 but definitely more than $150 others have suggested. Sharing the stuff compounds the problem greatly.

Shouldn't the individuals who chose to download the tracks he shared be held accountable, not him?
 
The top 1% will applaud this draconian punishment. The other 99% just hardened their resolve to bring about the fall of plutocracy.
 
Any sane person would consider such a sum equivalent to the death penalty and would do what anyone who has no fear of consequences or reprisal would do and eliminate everyone who worked at the RIAA, the lawyers, judge, and members of the jury, then go after the people who passed the laws that grant these kinds of awards.
 
For a Harvard Law student the guy was a dumb ass. He downloads the music....no big deal. He then uploads them for others to "share" what he "stole" ...gray area. His crowning achievement was the willful infringement that got him the $675K penalty. He blatantly ignored the repeated requests for him to stop. If he had taken it down he would not have had willful infringement. DUMB ASS should be tatooed on his forehead

Priceless! Bet his self entitled ass is not enjoying life right now.
 
Priceless! Bet his self entitled ass is not enjoying life right now.

Yes, because people deserve to have their life destroyed for such pathetic reasons :rolleyes:

I'm sure many/most people even here reading this thread have done things far worse as far as actually causing measurable inconvenience and damage to people for no penalty. Even if you think what the guy did was wrong, the penalty does no where near match the crime.

The fact you can steal a car, depriving someone of it, massively inconveniencing them, maybe making them miss work and causing measurable damage and STILL get off with a smaller penalty than this is just completely fucking retarded and shows how completely fucking retarded the justice system is.
 
That would hurt the law-abiding gun owners and dealers when the politicians start crying for more gun bans. Two wrongs don't make things right. What needs to happen is for the judicial system to realize that this is nothing but extortion and throw these lawsuits out. Excessive, life-destroying fines like this should be considered cruel and unusual punishment in civil cases with no tangible evidence of physical harm to the plaintiff.

Yes, you're right. I was just ranting. You're spot on with your thoughts about life destroying lawsuits. :)
 
That would hurt the law-abiding gun owners and dealers when the politicians start crying for more gun bans. Two wrongs don't make things right. What needs to happen is for the judicial system to realize that this is nothing but extortion and throw these lawsuits out. Excessive, life-destroying fines like this should be considered cruel and unusual punishment in civil cases with no tangible evidence of physical harm to the plaintiff.

Oh fine.... how about a home-made bomb!?

There aren't any rights to those right? :eek:
 
Oh fine.... how about a home-made bomb!?

There aren't any rights to those right? :eek:

That's a far better solution! Good thinking :p

Anyway, This is pretty life destroying and pretty fucked up and shows how bad the justice system is, but the dude still has managed to get himself a masters and then a phd in these years past despite the RIAA, so I don't think he's gonna turn around and gun down a bunch of people as much as I'm sure many of us would like to see... at least he won't get fined $675k for gunning them down :p
 
Not trolling I have no tollerance for thieves.....oops copy right infringment I forgot tool bags like to hide behide that one. Boo hooo. I am enjoying the hell out of it and hope they get more of people like him or you.

Karma is going to make you it's bitch.
Can't wait until you get yours. :rolleyes:
 
Zarathustra[H];1039073355 said:
Shouldn't the individuals who chose to download the tracks he shared be held accountable, not him?

I'd say all of them should be responsible. Those who use stolen credit cards are as guilty as those who steal credit card numbers and post them on the webs or sell them to those people.
 
You advocate theft and say Karma is going to get me? What a sorry excuse you are lol. Best of luck.:p

You are advocating someone's life being ruined for no good reason. This is much worse than this measly "theft" that did not even take anything away from anybody nor cause damage to property. What he "stole" is not even worth a fraction of the ridiculous amount of money they want.

Think about it, if this guy had broken into a music store and stole the CD he'd get a slap on the wrist, maybe a small fine. There would be actual damage done to the building, and the physical CD would be gone.

Everyone who works for the RIAA, MPAA and all those copyright companies needs to die in a fire for ruining so many people's lives.
 
Ya ya "Joel Tenenbaum" sounds like a Jewish name but is actually German so no jokes about the RIAA taking gold teeth.
 
I've seen even worse judgments posted on-line. Some girl downloaded about 11 songs and ended up with a fine of over one mil. Think it was about 1.5mil. She appealed and won to have it it drastically reduced but the RIAA are appealing the decision. Complete douchebag assholes and are the real criminals.
 
At first it seems completely wrong, overboard, unfair, etc.etc.. But he was trying to make a statement by uploading (even after warnings) that the law doesn't apply to him and he can do whatever he wants. I hate the RIAA and feel they are bunch of greedy jerks, but there is no RIGHT to music. Your not going to die of music starvation if you dont have the money to buy it. Not having someone elses artistic creation is not going to cause you an unfair hardship.

It looks like Joel Tenenbaum was deliberately trying to prove a point- that he didn't have to follow the rules. The RIAA was also making a point, that they own the music rights and can stop him from pirating. There are a lot of rules that I follow though I dont want to. I pay my taxes, drive an insured and properly licensed vehicle, and I don't shoot my meth head neighbors and burn their house down. And the 'system' doesn't throw my ass in jail and take all my money. No, I dont do every single thing right all the time, but if a cop pulls me over and tells me to fix my license plate light or get a ticket, I WILL fix my license plate light. Seems like Tenenbaum had plenty of chances to stop being a pirate, but couldn't give up his sabre and eye patch. That can cost you about 2/3 of million dollars.
 
That's just crazy and shows how depressing the "justice" system really is. It feels like the start of some dystopian totalitarian future movie where they start by making completely unjust and unbalanced law systems to control people.:p

Think on that for a while.
 
there's no way
first of all he has a good lawyer...if you consider a Harvard Law Professor a good one.
Not necessarily. Sorry, but just having a JD and teaching law at some inbred country-club establishment doesn't make you a good trial lawyer. Law professors may sometimes take cases so they can make strategic stands on principle, sometimes to the tactical detriment of their client. Those profs may be more interested in evolving the law or getting their case all the way to SCOTUS than in getting a minimum-damage outcome for their client.

I have met some great trial lawyers, and I have met some great law professors. But there are very very few people who are both.
 
So if he would have actually purchased the songs, it would have cost him over half a million. Yes, that makes sense...
 
At first it seems completely wrong, overboard, unfair, etc.etc.. But he was trying to make a statement by uploading (even after warnings) that the law doesn't apply to him and he can do whatever he wants. I hate the RIAA and feel they are bunch of greedy jerks, but there is no RIGHT to music. Your not going to die of music starvation if you dont have the money to buy it. Not having someone elses artistic creation is not going to cause you an unfair hardship.

It looks like Joel Tenenbaum was deliberately trying to prove a point- that he didn't have to follow the rules. The RIAA was also making a point, that they own the music rights and can stop him from pirating. There are a lot of rules that I follow though I dont want to. I pay my taxes, drive an insured and properly licensed vehicle, and I don't shoot my meth head neighbors and burn their house down. And the 'system' doesn't throw my ass in jail and take all my money. No, I dont do every single thing right all the time, but if a cop pulls me over and tells me to fix my license plate light or get a ticket, I WILL fix my license plate light. Seems like Tenenbaum had plenty of chances to stop being a pirate, but couldn't give up his sabre and eye patch. That can cost you about 2/3 of million dollars.


When I get a letter from my ISP I do the following. I shit myself, piss myself and delete and desist all activity that I know I should not have been doing.

This Joel character sounds like a spoiled brat.
 
I tried to add to my my post but it won't do it for some reason. If I walked into a record store and walked out with 31 songs under my arm without paying what kind of punnishement could I expect? Make the punishement fit the crime or it will have no deterrent effect whatsoever. It just becomes an act of public disobedience. Like underage drinking or smoking pot. 90% Of the population does it at one point or another and nobody gives a damn exept out of touch lawenforcement. Give someone a $250 fine (like for littering) and pay for the songs and it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

LOL at out of touch law enforcement. The pot thing has a argument, but you need to define underage drinking. If you think kids around the 12-16 age need to be getting drunk at their leisure you are the one out of touch. If you want to argue the age brackets of 18-20 underage drinking that is a bit of a different matter.
 
If you want to argue the age brackets of 18-20 underage drinking that is a bit of a different matter.
Almost everyone goes through the phase of drinking too much before the novelty wears off and they learn to drink in moderation.

Somehow Germany remains very responsible and organized with kids drinking, as did I when I was over there.

At thirteen when I got drunk, worst case scenario I crashed my bicycle into a curb and you get scolded by your parents and thats more of less the end of that. By the time you're out of the house, drinking to the point of puking is seen as childish and stupid. Here in the US you have people of driving age drinking to excess without any kind of supervision and end up in fatal car accidents. Which is better?

And so rediculous that the government says people are adult enough to make the decision to go to a foreign country and drive tanks and jets and possibly get their asses blown up, but they aren't adult enough to decide if they want a beer for another three years.
 
And the court affirms my hatred of the MPAA/RIAA ... well, the court system in general. :rolleyes:
 
Not trolling I have no tollerance for thieves.....oops copy right infringment I forgot tool bags like to hide behide that one. Boo hooo. I am enjoying the hell out of it and hope they get more of people like him or you.

i have no tolerance for speeders. i hope they raise fines for speeding into the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. i bet you speed, don't you?
 
I don't get it... it's jury's which are making these verdicts? Where are the police detectives to find out wtf is wrong with this jury??
 
Any sane person would consider such a sum equivalent to the death penalty and would do what anyone who has no fear of consequences or reprisal would do and eliminate everyone who worked at the RIAA, the lawyers, judge, and members of the jury, then go after the people who passed the laws that grant these kinds of awards.

Seriously, the USA is quickly becoming the fictional Gotham City... we really need a Batman to step up and start bringing about true justice to all these corrupt asshats.
 
$675k... Way to steep. I could do 40 over in a school zone with children around and not be fined anything even remotely close to that. But he DL's 31 songs and gets slapped with that huge fine.. I understand him getting fined and stuff, but man not that much, should just be triple what the songs are worth or something.
 
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