Student fined $675,000 in music download case

By Associated Press

August 1, 2009

BOSTON - A Boston University graduate student has been ordered to pay $675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing music.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.

The case is only the nation's second music downloading case against an individual to go to trial.

In June, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled a Minnesota woman must pay nearly $2 million for copyright infringement.

Copyright 2009