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Joel Tenenbaum is guilty of copyright infringement

Judge Nancy Gertner has ruled against alleged unauthorized file sharer Joel Tenenbaum today, ruling that he is liable for copyright infringement.

Just yesterday, Tenenbaum confessed to illegally sharing 30 tracks through Limewire and other P2P clients and his case now moves to a jury which will determine the size of his penalty. The award can be as high as $4.5 million USD, or $150,000 per track.

"Notwithstanding the protestations of Tenenbaum's counsel, Tenenbaum's statement plainly admits liability on both downloading and distributing, does so in the very language of the statute (no 'making available' ambiguity) and does so with respect to each and every sound recording at issue here," wrote Judge Gertner, via Arstechnica. Tennenbaum had responded "yes" to the question of whether "he was admitting liability for downloading and distributing all 30 sound recordings that are at issue."



Just last month, accused file sharer Jammie Thomas was found to have "committed willful violation" of the copyrights on 24 songs and the jury awarded the RIAA and the media companies $1.92 million USD, equivalent to $80,000 for each song.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Jul 2009 12:44

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• 18 comments

• mystic

  Tenenbaum confessed to illegally sharing 30 tracks through Limewire now that's an issue, what ever happened to Lie till you die ? look unless your an idiot and tell them that you did it they cant prove it... with ip spoofing and programs like black ice that gives you another ip address they cant tell its you, unless they get your Mac address. then all you need to do is change the nic card and then have them prove it... see ip address are randomly assigned by a server assigning the number from a ISP and if its like something that is on a open network it could be anyone so why would you tell on your self dumb... sad ... and using limewire after the year 2001 was dumb in its own right ..they were watching and this suprizes people.. come on world wake up any client with a tracker tracks what your doing.... and what your sharing so turn off the share or share stuff others might want, that the riaa cant b!t@h at... flood them with you singing mjacksons "beat it" in your voice and see how long they will quit looking for that song then we move on to the next they will spend years chasing home made files that can be shared.......there is always a way to drive others crazy if you think about it....

  31.7.2009 13:21 #1

• DXR88

  4.5 million will net you a T-74a tank with some sabot rounds to boot.
  
  one of these days there going to sue a psychopathic.
  

  
  

  31.7.2009 13:37 #2

• varnull

  So were these tracks downloaded 150,000 times each? .. they are only worth 99c .. and that should be the maximum they can charge... Now they have to prove how many times each track was downloaded.. oops.. were they the only people who downloaded them? That makes them equally guilty the way the corrupt law works these days.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work.
  I would rather you hate me for who I am than love me for what I am not.
  “It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.” - Bruce Schneier

  31.7.2009 13:41 #3

• ZippyDSM

  *plays imperial march*

  31.7.2009 14:50 #4

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by varnull: So were these tracks downloaded 150,000 times each? .. they are only worth 99c .. and that should be the maximum they can charge... Now they have to prove how many times each track was downloaded.. oops.. were they the only people who downloaded them? That makes them equally guilty the way the corrupt law works these days.While it is true that the songs are only sold for 99c each, the copyright law says that damages can be awarded at $150,000 per song for "willful copyright violation". So until that law gets re-written the damages will be "up to $150,000 per track", regardless of the "retail" value of each track.
  
  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: *plays imperial march*
  Well I guess the Imperial March will work for the RIAA, I would recommend the Hell March (from the Red Alert series) instead:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3FOHxPHhs

  31.7.2009 15:05 #5

• windsong

  What this means is that demand for truly anonymous p2p apps will increase. Apps like Anomos will become very much in demand as will any app that lets you truly mask your IP address (though admittedly Tor is far too slow for mp3s and iso downloading)

  31.7.2009 15:35 #6

• windsong

  Originally posted by mystic: Tenenbaum confessed to illegally sharing 30 tracks through Limewire now that's an issue, what ever happened to Lie till you die ? look unless your an idiot and tell them that you did it they cant prove it... with ip spoofing and programs like black ice that gives you another ip address they cant tell its you, unless they get your Mac address. then all you need to do is change the nic card and then have them prove it... see ip address are randomly assigned by a server assigning the number from a ISP and if its like something that is on a open network it could be anyone so why would you tell on your self dumb... sad ... and using limewire after the year 2001 was dumb in its own right ..they were watching and this suprizes people.. come on world wake up any client with a tracker tracks what your doing.... and what your sharing so turn off the share or share stuff others might want, that the riaa cant b!t@h at... flood them with you singing mjacksons "beat it" in your voice and see how long they will quit looking for that song then we move on to the next they will spend years chasing home made files that can be shared.......there is always a way to drive others crazy if you think about it....With apps like limewire and emule, it doesnt matter if you "turn off your share", since your IP is still visible to any one you upload a chunk of file to (which is kinda required for emule). All it takes is for some cop/riaa agent to start downloading a part of a file youre trying to download from someone else..and they have you. They can even subpoena a VPN provider and ISP simultaneously. Seriously..non-anonymous p2p is going to see some serious changes in the next few years to get around this.

  31.7.2009 15:44 #7

• Shinraboy

  Am I safe using torrents? Honestly? Can the same thing happen to me if I don't seed?

  31.7.2009 16:47 #8

• Mik3h

  Depends where you're downloading from. If you're downloading from a strictly private BitTorrent tracker whom only distribute accounts by invite or you use something else like newsgroups or something similar, then the chances of you getting caught are lower unless your ISP actively persues and reports back people sharing copyrighted data without the holder's permission.
  
  If you're using a public torrent site or some kind of P2P network like Limewire/Kazaa then your chances of getting caught are much higher, Either way you are a little fish in a big sea.

  31.7.2009 17:12 #9

• Shinraboy

  For once that fish analogy sounds GREAT

  31.7.2009 17:17 #10

• joe777

  I like the lie till you die bit. Its like when you were young and your father asks were you at the river with those other boys lighting fires? No you reply not me dad. I can smell smoke on your clothes son. No dad the boys stole my jacket thats why you can smell smoke.
  Dad: your a liar.
  Son: (under his breath) prove it dad.
  he he he he he he
  This is never going to work sueing everyone for sharing its only going to send the method of filesharing deeper underground.

  31.7.2009 18:05 #11

• jony218

  Did they read him his "miranda rights" before he confessed? did they beat the confession out of him? Was he high on drugs when he confessed? A good lawyer will argue these points.
  4.5 million dollars is a lot of money, hope the fine fits the crime.

  31.7.2009 21:15 #12

• EricCarr

  Let's be real here. How many people that download and share music from Limewire have 4.5 MILLION DOLLARS or $150,000 for one track.
  
  Let's say if you are found guilty, and you pay them 4.5 million. Does the artist get any of that money?
  
  Lie to you die. That would be me!

  1.8.2009 01:13 #13

• windsong

  Originally posted by Shinraboy: Am I safe using torrents? Honestly? Can the same thing happen to me if I don't seed?Well if torrents are anything like emule (and I suspect that they are), then yes. You can get busted just by downloading, since you have to UPLOAD to other users, who see your IP address. You can tunnel it through a VPN, but it will be slower, and cops/riaa can still subpoena the VPN provider.

  1.8.2009 01:26 #14

• DXR88

  Originally posted by EricCarr: Let's be real here. How many people that download and share music from Limewire have 4.5 MILLION DOLLARS or $150,000 for one track.
  
  Let's say if you are found guilty, and you pay them 4.5 million. Does the artist get any of that money?
  
  Lie to you die. That would be me!No just say nothing at all be a mute for as long as it takes

  1.8.2009 01:47 #15

• DXR88

  Torrents are generally safer than, P2P networks like magnets and such.
  
  the more your ip address stays in log for a particular file the easier it is to find you.

  1.8.2009 01:50 #16

• ThePastor

  Quote:This is never going to work sueing everyone for sharing its only going to send the method of filesharing deeper underground.
  Deeper under ground is exactly what they want.
  Their real fear is the popularity of filesharing. It is becoming easy. So easy even Grandma can do it. That is what they fear.
  A handful of computer hacks who share stuff privately on their small, private trackers is the least of their concerns. Their problem is the 10,000 downloads per hour of first release movies and music! That can only happen in a society that looks at filesharing as "Not really stealing. After all, everyone is doing it!"
  These types of cases and most of the other stuff they do like sending out cease and desist orders work towards keeping the mainstream perception of filesharing as bad or "illegal" or hard. They want to make sure that when you bring a copy of "Bolt" to Grandma's house to watch she says to you... "Don't play that in my player. I don't want to get arrested!" They will keep on with this charade because it's all they have.
  The more mainstream and acceptable filesharing becomes, the less control they have over it.
  
  You just stop and think how many times have you mentioned that you've watched a first run movie to someone and they've looked at you like you were a bank robber.
  That's what they want. And they're doing a pretty good job of it so far.

  1.8.2009 02:49 #17

• DVDBack23

  http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/18683.cfm

  1.8.2009 19:55 #18