Joel Tenenbaum, a graduate student of the Boston University who was ordered to pay music labels some $675, 000 over copyright infringement charges, has asked a judge handling his case to grant him a new trial and to reduce the amount of damages imposed earlier by the jury.
It will be recalled the Tenenbaum was ordered by the court to pay record labels more than $675, 000 for illegally downloading music files through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
The student, who was a native of Providence, Rhode Island, has admitted that he has downloaded and distributed some 30 songs in the P2P networks.
But he contested that the amount of damages imposed against him by the jury was simple “off the roof” and unconstitutionally illegal.
Lawyers of the student said that the damages for the songs he has illegally downloaded should be based on the actual cost of the music files being sold online, which is roughly around 99 cents per song.
During the trial, his lawyers consistently argued that the damages Tenenbaum has to pay for the illegal download should be in-lined with what customers pay for legal music.
In their motion filed on Monday, the camp of Tenenbaum insisted that the federal jury’s verdict on the amount of damages was too high.
The lawyers also said that their client is only one of the millions of people who have downloaded and shared the music files; and that the entire amount of losses should not be shoulder by the students.
Meanwhile, one of the lawyers of the record labels maintained their stand, saying that the damages imposed against the student is just and necessary to deter future copyright infringement.
They also stressed that Tenenbaum is a “hardcore copyright infringer” and should be set as an example to other violators to stop the proliferation of illegal file-sharing on the Internet.