A Boston University grad student was ordered to pay four record labels $675,000 Friday for illegally downloading and sharing songs on the Internet - but he's not singing the blues.
"I'm disappointed, but I'm thankful it wasn't millions," said Joel Tenenbaum, a 25-year-old doctoral student in physics. "To me it sends a message of 'We considered your side with some legitimacy.'"
If the verdict stands after a planned appeal, Tenenbaum said he'll file for bankruptcy to cut his losses.
A Boston federal court jury took just three hours to agree that Tenenbaum "willfully" infringed on the copyrights of 30 songs, including Nirvana's "Comes As You Are" and Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug."
The jury awarded the labels $22,500 for each infringement.
But the songs at issue were only the tip of the iceberg.
On the witness stand Tenenbaum unapologetically admitted downloading more than 800 songs from 1999 to 2007 on his home computer in Rhode Island and at college in Maryland.
Often smiling at the jury, he explained he grew up in a family that loves and plays music - his mother is a professional harpist who appeared in court every day - and that music-sharing networks made it easy for him to get the songs he liked.
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