We’ve seen some huge judgments in file-sharing cases: the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case involving 24 songs where the damages rose from $222,000 to $1.92 million on re-trial, and now the Joel Tenenbaum case with damages on the order of $675,000 for 20 songs. While Thomas-Rasset’s lawyers will appeal the ruling and the constitutionality of the judgment,…
Category: Court
A hard case makes bad law
What case did Debbie Purdy win on Thursday? I am sure that most people believe that, as Channel 4 News put it, she won “a landmark ruling allowing her husband to travel with her to Switzerland where the MS sufferer plans to end her life”. That is how most of the media, who seem to…
UBS, Swiss reach pact on tax battle
UBS and the Swiss government, rocked by months of embarrassing details about bank secrecy and guilty pleas for UBS clients, agreed to settle a tax-evasion probe with US authorities. The agreement appears to signal that thousands of US client accounts, hidden in offshore shadows, will be turned over to US revenue agents. The settlement, announced…
Tenenbaum hit with $675,000 fine for music piracy
In another big victory for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a federal jury has fined Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum $675,000 for illegally downloading and distributing 30 copyrighted songs. In finding Tenenbaum guilty of willful copyright infringement, the Boston court’s jury fined the 25 year-old doctoral student a sum of $22,500 for each…