INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Justice Department Upholds $675K Verdict Against File-sharer
January 20, 2010
Washington - After a federal court ordered a student to pay $675,000 in damages for illegally downloading 30 songs from the Internet, the US Justice Department on Tuesday said the decision can be “effective in deterring millions of users from infringing the copyrights of record companies.”
In a statement, the justice department said copyright infringement “creates a public harm” to legitimate businesses especially “in an environment where violators believe there will be no legal consequences.”
In July 2009, a federal court ruled in favor of the music companies represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and asked Joel Tenenbaum to pay Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records, UMG Records, Warner Bros. Records, and Interscope Records with $675,000 in damages.
Meanwhile, Tenenbaum’s lawyer Charles Nesson said the damages are “excessively too high”, adding that the damages should be based on the amount of songs his client downloaded.
Under federal Copyright Act, violators may be slapped with $750 to $150,000 per infringement, depending on a judge or jury’s decision.
In the past several years, the music industry has filed infringement lawsuits against 30,000 users which have been settled out of court.
However, RIAA decided to continue its suit against Jammie Thomas-Rasset who was recently asked to pay $1.92 million in damages by a federal court for illegally sharing 24 songs from the Internet.