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The Boston University student, Joel Tenenbaum, had admitted in court that he had downloaded and distributed 30 songs at issue in the case.
It is the second such case to go to trial in the US.
In the first case, a woman in Minneapolis was ordered to pay $1.92m for sharing 24 songs.
On Friday, the jury ordered Mr Tenebaum to pay $22,500 for each infringement. The maximum that he could have been fined was $4.5m.
Following the ruling, he said he was glad the fine had not been in the millions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8177285.stmUnder US law, the recording companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement.
However, the jury can raise the amount to $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were willful - a matter that they will debate now that the judge has ruled Mr Tenenbaum violated copyright laws.
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This strikes me as ridiculous. The bulk of such a fine is obviously punitive damages, because the company is not losing anywhere near $22,500 due to the illegal distribution of a song. Punitive damages are fine, but they should be calculated relative to the severity of the crime. These fines far exceed those for crimes that we would normally consider more serious, like assault and battery, or driving drunk or with a suspended license.
Furthermore, notice that the jury is limited to $30,000 fines only if it does not consider the infringements willful — so apparently accidental distribution can still be punished by up to a 30-grand fine per song. These huge sums seem pretty excessive, since they are liable to ruin the convicted felon's life. ($1.92 million is more than a lot of people ever make in their lifetimes, so how can an average person be expected to pay it off?)
Especially considering the randomness of actually getting caught, these penalties seem counterproductive as well: wouldn't these felons be much better used for anti-piracy programs that would help to catch a higher percentage of the culprits (a form of community service)? Picking just a few file-sharers to make examples of will not discourage the crime nearly as much as simply catching more of them and slapping them with more reasonable fines.