Jury rules: Tenenbaum needs to pay $675.000 in damages

The Boston jury did not take long. After three hours of deliberation they ordered Joel Tenenbaum, sued by a number of music companies for illegal downloading, to pay $675.000 in damages. He has been found guilty of downloading and sharing 30 songs over p2p network KaZaA.

Tenenbaum is disappointed, but at the same time relieved that the amount is not higher. He faced the risk of having to pay a maximum of  $4,5 million in damages. "That to me sends a message that [the jury] considered [my] side legitimately, "says Tenenbaum. In an article on Ars Technica, he says to see no option but to have himself declared bankrupt, as he sees no way in which to pay the demand exacted.

The RIAA is pleased with the way the verdict turned out. It states that: “"We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work. From the beginning that’s what this case has been about.” Although the music industry has announced no longer to sue individual dowloaders, there is a considerable number of cases still being prepared to appear in court over the next months.

The plaintiffs dominated the case. The brought forward evidence that showed Tenenbaum to have shared over 800 songs from his computer. Over the years, Tenenbaum had used different file sharing networks, such as Napster, KaZaA and iMesh. Even upon receiving a letter from the record labels in 2005 and after being sued in 2007, he continued.

The defendants saw their case being undermined more and more in the months leading to the trial. The judge dismissed Tenenbaum’s claim of abuse-of-process on the side of the plaintiffs, refused to allow four of the defendant’s expert witnesses and did not allow the claim to fair use. His counsel was disappointed. "I thought we had pretty damn good arguments on Fair Use, he told Ars Technica. When called to the stand, Tenenbaum admitted to all charges. According to the judge his testimony was so clear that she took the issue of infringement away from the jury.

This has been the second trial of the music industry versus individual file-sharers in the United States. In both cases, the defendant lost. Recently, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was ordered to pay damages of $80.000 a song for infringing copyright on 24 songs, a total of $1,92 million.