Hope he gets hit with the $4.5 mil judgment. Stealing is stealing even if 'everybody else' does it. That's not a legal defense.

This case and the other extortion moves by the RIAA are one of the main reasons why I will never spend another dollar on recorded music again.

If this is the way he is running his defense, why did he go to trial? Is this article leaving something out of the story?

If this is the way he is running his defense, why did he go to trial? Is this article leaving something out of the story?

these people are snakes the riaa.. they have screwed and left destitue thousands of musicians with worthless contracts and when an artist fights them in court and starts to win the riaa will open up the case in another state,the recording industry will go as far as opening the case in all fifty states so the artist could never finacially withstand defeating them...go ahead and download these snakes deserve what they are getting ..they are no more for artist then there own greed..they have yet to pay back millions of dollars in royalties to artist they screwed in a ruling that gave trhe artist ownership of their own master recvordings

While I agree this is stealing, a $4.5 million settlement for $30 worth of music is absurd. If he had gone in a store and shoplifted the equivalent in CD's he would get a few months probation tops, the same should apply here.

I get a $35 fine for turning righ on red and get the book thrown at me (meaning it will cost me about $1,200 with the increase in insurance so this punk should have to pay the 4.5 million. I agree with #1. Ha, ha, ha. I bet he didn't think he'd get caught. And he lied in swarn statements? Kids a punk. Hopefully mommy and daddy can bale him out of this too.

If I pay for a cd at the store and give it away for free, am i not guilty as well?

i haven't paid for music in about 10 years, and don't plan to anytime soon

anonymous proxy servers for the win!

Music lawyers are the enemy of the musicians...BMI and ASCAP are the same perverted thinkers that shut down live music venues in the name of royalties.... and guess what, they don't care that people have stopped buying music, and can't find entry level venues to hear live music...as long as they can squeeze the last cent out of an unfair and out of date ideology. (A lot like our daily newspapers...)

Yeah, this is bull, the industry is changing, the world is changing. Hop on or get out of the way.

Well, the kid had the option of settling for between 3,000 to 5,000 dollars. He refused and wanted to go to court. One lady also did so. She was found guilty and now owes over 1.2 million to the RIAA.

Gst he wishes now that he paid the 5 grand when the offer was made.

How much of this settlement will any of the artist(s) see? My guess is somewhere in the range of 0. What Tenenbaum did was wrong. (although I don't think it is worth a lawsuit) It is just really big company that steals from the artists themselves wanting even more money. The money should go into an account and maybe pay for some of the problems in this nation. Fund an after school program, hire some police, fire, teachers and other people.

Ron, he offered $5250 and THEY refused.

How much of this settlement will any of the artist(s) see? My guess is somewhere in the range of 0. What Tenenbaum did was wrong. (although I don't think it is worth a lawsuit) It is just really big company that steals from the artists themselves wanting even more money. The money should go into an account and maybe pay for some of the problems in this nation. Fund an after school program, hire some police, fire, teachers and other people.

For those who think 'the lady was guilty' or that shoplifting carees a lighter sentence, you clearly dont understand the difference between "civil" and "criminal" trials or "guilt" versus liability. That said, he didn't 'steal' by the traditional meaning. He didn't deprive someone of their product. He copied a copywritten file. I would think this should be a lesser offense than walking into best buy and removing their goods without paying. I dont get how $30 worth of music equals millions. Also, for those calling him a punk, this was standard practice at any college from 1999-2002. Every kid did it and not many realized the moral or ethical consequences. I doubt they are all 'punks' for it.

Downloading LOWER QUALITY digital copies of songs is NOT the same as stealing a CD, it's a lesser offense for sure. The RIAA uses outdated and flawed logic, because if the public had any sense we'd DEMAND that the record industry give us a CD for every album or tape that we have ever bought from them over and over.

Artists don't even NEED record labels anymore, record labels that CHARGE the artists they represent for every STAPLE and nickel and dime.

If he ends up losing and being fined hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, it won't matter at all. The music industry will not recoup the money from him. They can try to skim money off of his salary, but it will never equal the amount of money they may be rewarded. This is pure folly on the part of the RIAA, their lawyers and the music industry.

The recording companies are in a lurch trying to figure out how to make money in a day when the internet affords users the chance to trade music over p2p networks. Nowadays, people who purchase music don't buy full-length cds, they're purchasing singles . Thats the ultimate problem for the industry. They need to fix their business model of go the way of the Dodo bird.