Joel Tenenbaum admits in court he shared music files

By Greg Sandoval
CNET

July 30, 2009

Grad student is only second person accused of copyright violations by recording industry to go to court. He admits sharing but argues that it doesn't cause that much harm.

There's no subterfuge with Joel Tenenbaum.

The graduate student accused of copyright violations admitted in court on Thursday that he shared files and knew others were downloading the music [ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10298079-93.html ] he made available on Kazaa, according to a Twitter post from blogger Ben Sheffner [ http://twitter.com/bensheffner ].

Sheffner, a copyright lawyer who is covering the story from the courtroom, wrote "(Music industry) attorney getting scores of admissions from Tenenbaum. Joel doesn't resist."

The four major music labels, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI and Sony Music filed the copyright suit against Tenenbaum and in previous statements he denied sharing, according to Sheffner.

By admitting guilt, it appears Tenenbaum is going to take his chances that his attorney, Prof. Charles Nesson can convince the jury that sharing unauthorized music files doesn't cause that much harm and ordering defendants to pay big damages isn't justified.

Tenenbaum, along with Jammie Thomas-Rasset, are the only people accused of illegal file sharing that have taken their cases before a jury. In June, Thomas was found liable of copyright infringement [ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10269251-93.html ] and ordered to pay nearly $2 million.