Supreme Court rejects music download case

BOSTON -- A former Boston University graduate student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal yesterday to hear his appeal.

Joel Tenenbaum, 28, of Providence, R.I., is hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount. "I can't believe the system would uphold a six-figure damages amount for downloading 30 songs on a file-sharing system that everybody used," he said.

A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 per song, after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him on behalf of four labels, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Brothers Records. A federal judge called that unconstitutionally excessive and reduced the total to $67,500, but the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the $675,000.

Tenenbaum, who said he graduated Sunday with a doctorate in statistical physics, said he doesn't have the money to pay the judgment. He argued the U.S. Copyright Act is unconstitutional and Congress did not intend it to impose liability or damages when the copyright infringements amounted to "consumer copying." At trial, he admitted downloading and sharing hundreds of songs by Green Day, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and others. His lawyer suggested the damages should be as little as 99 cents per song, about the same cost for a legal online song purchase. -- AP