The stupidly large sums of money this guy is likely to be made to pay have nothing to do with expenential growth of sharing a file and that in-turn being shared again etc and so coming up with a cost based on the files spreading...(pause of breathe)... they are just stupid figures made up by a greedy lawyer working for a greedy company who pays-off a greedy industry assosication\authority to have it's own way to allow it to make greedy claims against an individual... all in the name of greedy justice in a very greedy country!

I agree. However, greed isn't limited to America, friend.

"they are just stupid figures made up by a greedy lawyer "

The "figures" are awarded by the Jury. The lawyers, for either side, have nothing to do with them. The jury is given a min/max based on *copyright law* and award based on that. I believe it is $750 to $150,000 per act of infringement.

Note: This comment does not state an opinion regarding the ruling, awards, or actions taken by any party.

As stated by ukexpat: These are statutory damages, not "fines". This is *not* a criminal case.

"As for Mr. Tenenbaum, he told Mr. Sheffner that he plans to file for bankruptcy if the award amount stands"

Um... How about he wait a day or two. Just like they did with Jammie Thomas-Rasset before him (three times), the RIAA will again offer to settle...

Sadly, one's hope that these insane amounts would shock the country, the country doesn't care. The media isn't reporting this (at least, not the "News at 9" media, nor the CNN/MSNBC/FOX crowd, soooo....no-one cares.

It was in the local paper here, but its not front page or anything.

Doesn't that make sense that they aren't on the news though? If you really get down and deep into who owns who, you'll find that many of owners of said networks and tv stations own music companies.

For example, Universal Music is owned by Universal which is a part of NBC, which is owned by GE and Vivendi (I'm being a little lax' on details)....so if we wanted to look into conspiracies and such, this would be an ideal reason to not have it all over their news stations some kid got plastered like this.

I doubt any news station would ever take the chance to really investigate on something like this because it's so in the grey. We all know it's wrong, and when you get down to it even though the awards for damages are rough, there's no way to get around the fact that you took something without buying it. I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that I'm a criminal if my friend copies a few songs from his mp3 collection for me.

This is really a new age.

Should anyone care? The reason i ask, is that before anyone downloads music, movies etc..they know ahead of time it is illegal and they could be caught. Stealing from another is a bad business regardless of how you try to justify it. All who download music and movies already know what the consequences could be and so this student took that risk and got caught...

On a side note I find it pretty ironic that adsense gave the following ads for this page:

"Ads by Google
Download Free Music
P2P Music
P2P Programs
P2P Network
Music Performances"

Since when did music prices rise by 22,700% (based off of $0.99 iTunes price)? I don't think I've ever seen that kind of extortion, even spices back in the middle ages only had a 5,000% markup.

When you steal a car you don't pay the owner back for the cost of the vehicle, you go to prison. So, he should probably count his blessings. I don't know a helluva' lot about bankruptcy, I know it's REALLY bad even negatively life altering....but I bet it's not 1/2 as bad as being a decent looking guy/or maybe even not-so-decent looking and heading off to prison. You can recover from wiping the slate clean, and having it affect you later on in life - you can't recover from, well, being ripped a new one, literally.

I don't agree with the awards being given per song by any means whatsoever, I just want to be clear....I think that IS extortion.
I'm just sure he's glad he won't be sent to jail, which as I mentioned...would happen in most other cases involving theft.

I am not sure what is reasonable but obviously these fines levied against in individual are outrageous. They are unable to go after the real pirates and profiteers and instead go after their customers. I think the government needs to step in and set some realistic fines associated with this type of crime. Otherwise, the RIAA should have to prove just how many copies the person shared in order to determine the fine amount. I think $5 a song is reasonable. Thoughts anyone?

Stupid comment thing!

RIAA must be hated by Americans more than Hitler.

Indeed....they should all be drug into the streets and shot in the face.

Err, as far as I know a court judgement cannot be included in bankruptcy so will still be outstanding until its paid.

Mr. Tenenbaum may want to take a look at bankrupcy law before he makes himself look even more of a fool by bankrupting himself and still ending up with the fine to pay.

Mr. Tenenbaum will be offered the same settlement he was originally offered.

Just like JTR was..every time she fought them...and lost.

How bout we all just stop buying their crappy music, anyway??? There's NEVER more than 2 songs that are any good anyway. It would be worth spending $12 to $16 on a cd if it had more than 2 songs on it worth listening to. It's all about the almighty dollar.

I was a professional musician in the 70's. I appeared on numerous recordings for $0 in compensation but made a nice piece of change as a working musician BECAUSE of the recordings not FOR the recordings themselves.

The problem is not so much the industry but the thousands of people in it whose greed far exceeds their talent, the lawyers who don't mind going after a target that has no way to defend him/herself and the courts that even bother to entertain these frivolous suits.

If the music industry stops looking at it as a math problem (sharing the song with two, ten or ten-thousand people shouldn't matter) and see it as an advertising strategy they will thrive (as they did in the days of the "mix-tape"). If not, they will wither and die... and I for one won't miss them.

Most people don't understand logarithms and how giving to two people who give to two people each multiplies exponentially. I think that you should be limited to having a track on five machines; why is there such a complaint about digital transfer limits? If you want to give your friend the tracks, put them on your flash drive; make a physical transaction and not hide behind your monitor as veil.

Accuracy please - it's not a "fine", it is an award of damages.

Wow,

I just did the math. At $22,500 a track, I would currently owe $337,500,000.

lol =)

*shakes his head in disapproval as the RIAA knocks on your door tonight*

You'd better hope that you're never found out then :)

we have furry little butts to feed.

thats still an insane amount: $22,500 per track WTF?!