The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston has confirmed a $675,000 penalty Tuesday imposed on Joel Tenenbaum for illegally downloading and sharing up to 30 songs via Kazaa when he was studying at Boston University in 2004. They charged him in 2009.
Tenenbaum, a Providence, R.I., resident, was ordered by a jury to pay the fine to the Recording Industry Association of America. The association sued him on behalf of four record labels.
"Joel Tenenbaum illegally downloaded and distributed music for several years. A group of recording companies sued Tenenbaum, and a jury awarded damages of $675,000, representing $22,500 for each of thirty songs whose copyright Tenenbaum violated," Judge Howard wrote.
When he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011, saying that $22,000-per-song penalty is unconstitutionally excessive, the court declined to hear his appeal last year May.
"Tenenbaum appeals the award, claiming that it is so large that it violates his constitutional right to due process of law. We hold that the award did not violate Tenenbaum's right to due process, and we affirm."
The Court said that Tenenbaum downloaded and shared copyrighted music without permission from 1999 to at least 2007, even though he knew it was illegal.
"Tenenbaum carried on his activities for years in spite of numerous warnings, he made thousands of songs available illegally, and he denied responsibility," the First Circuit ruled.
Federal law states that companies should be paid $750 to $30,000 for each copyright infringement and $150,000 if the jury finds the violation willful or on purpose.
When he appealed in 2011, Tenenbaum felt that he only owed $450 (the cost of 30 albums) in total to the record companies. The court said Tenenbaum's arguments ignored the 'deterrent effect of statutory damages.'
The court's final hearing:
"On appeal, Tenenbaum invites us to assume that he is 'the most heinous of noncommercial copyright infringers.'......the evidence of Tenenbaum's copyright infringement easily justifies the conclusion that his conduct was egregious," the Court wrote.
"Much of this behavior was exactly what Congress was trying to deter when it amended the Copyright Act. Therefore, we do not hesitate to conclude that an award of $22,500 per song, an amount representing 15% of the maximum award for willful violations and less than the maximum award for non-willful violations, comports with due process."
