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Joel Tenenbaum to appeal reduced filesharing penalty

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Aug 2010 1:19 User comments (9)

Joel Tenenbaum to appeal reduced filesharing penalty Joel Tenenbaum, the graduate student who was convicted of illegally sharing 30 tracks via P2P will appeal his already reduced fine, says his lawyer.
Tenenbaum was originally fined $675,000, but the fine was reduced to $67,500 during the summer, after a judge deemed the original penalty unconstitutional and "excessive."

The student says he still cannot pay the reduced fine, and is seeking a further reduction.

If Tenenbaum gets his way, the RIAA says they will appeal any reduction.

"Sixty-seven-and-half thousand dollars only sounds reasonable because it was so much before," said the student.

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9 user comments

128.8.2010 02:39

"If Tenenbaum gets his way, the RIAA says they will appeal any reduction."

I guess that is why these idiots still think a 15 track cd is worth $25...30 tracks are worth 67,500!

228.8.2010 04:48

why not just go bankrupt and finish this sorry saga?

328.8.2010 07:55

In a way I see what Tenenbaum wants to do, to see how far the RIAA will go to get what they want. All ready they stated they will instantly appeal if they lose. I never imagined how much big of crybabies these bastards are. The RIAA are sad excuses of human beings and a company.

428.8.2010 11:59

chances are RIAA will fight him again and again until he can't afford the legal fees and ends up paying the fine.hate to say it but the RIAA have more money to fight it than him.

528.8.2010 15:04

I'd almost believe the Harvard Lawyer of his is doing this on the house to set an example. If Tenenbaum can't afford $67,500 then you honestly think he can afford a lawyer to keep appealing for him, no... No he can not.

628.8.2010 23:22

Originally posted by elbald90:
why not just go bankrupt and finish this sorry saga?
Because only certain things are allowed in the new rule of bankruptcy, and I betcha this is not one of them, if the RIAA has anything to do with it of course.

728.8.2010 23:23

Wait, this man is still in the news? WTH???

828.8.2010 23:54

I believe he owes about $60.

915.9.2010 19:18

Originally posted by elbald90:
why not just go bankrupt and finish this sorry saga?
Unfortunately for him, a bankruptcy filing does not include any current/pending court ordered penalties such as this, or he could've done it long ago.

The RIAA's algorithm for assessing penalties is where the flaw lies, it takes your x2(example) share ratio and continues multiplying that thru the "possible" 1000's of continuous shares from your actions. That's where they get their ridiculous penalty amounts from and this is simply flawed deductions and should not be held up in the courts. It's also just as possible that those 2 shares you created also died out within just a couple of other hops (because of the nature of the swarm), so realistically you could also be responsible for only a few $100 in penalties (or less) just as easily as their inflated amounts.
This doubt in what the real figures are alone, should be cause for any penalty being DRASTICALLY reduced to, let's say $10 per provable share.."That'll be $20, please pay the bailiff sir..."

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