Tenenbaum v. Music Industry: The Copyright Wars Continue

On April 4th, the First Circuit will hear oral argument on the appeals of Joel Tenenbaum, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Department of Justice. All three parties appealed after the trial judge reduced a $675,000 jury verdict for sharing 30 songs down to $67,500. The only issues remaining on appeal regard the propriety of such an award for the conduct.

Represented by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and student Jason Harrow, Tenenbaum will argue that the copyright statute, is being misinterpreted and misapplied and runs afoul of the Constitution. First, the statute was never meant to cover consumer copiers and never has until the present litigation campaign. Second, Due Process will not tolerate an award that departs so egregiously and arbitrarily from any reasonable assessment of the harm actually caused by Tenenbaum. Third, the process by which the jury arrived at the award was replete with error.

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