Justice Not So Blind Anymore

Discussion in 'Politics' started by pspr, May 21, 2012.

  1. pspr

    pspr

    I guess this kid's only recourse now is bankruptcy.

    The Supreme Court won't reduce the $675,000 verdict against a Boston University student who illegally downloaded 30 songs and shared them on the Internet.

    The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., who was successfully sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music on peer-to-peer networks. In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 for each song he illegally downloaded and shared.

    A federal judge called that unconstitutionally excessive, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the penalty at the request of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Brothers Records Inc. and other record labels represented by the RIAA.

    Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate in this decision.


    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...legally-downloading-30-songs/?test=latestnews
     
  2. 377OHMS

    377OHMS

    Mixed feelings on this. He took their property so they have some right to sue him but the judgement seems excessive and is designed to ruin his entire life. Do we think a kid should have his life destroyed over 30 songs that he made available for download for a short period of time?

    He should dedicate his life to stealing their entire catalog and distributing it on some offshore servers until they agree to reduce his penalty.

    He could create so many torrents that they would not be able to stop him and would lose millions upon millions of dollars. He should become the scourge of Hollywood until they beg him to stop. There are countries that he could live in where he could not be arrested and no court judgement could be collected. He could become a digital pirate of the first order and do some real damage making Kim Dotcom seem like a benign amatuer.

    When I read of some of the things the RIAA is doing to people I know for sure I will never pay for any music again. Never piss off an engineer.
     
  3. Nobody seemed to have a problem when music was shared this way....

    [​IMG]
     
  4. pspr

    pspr

    They just didn't have any way to track you down before internet downloads.