File Sharer Joel Tenenbaum Found Guilty. Huge Fine to Follow

Joel Tenenbaum

The record industry has been carrying a real battle against the alleged illegal file sharer Joel Tenenbaum for quite some time now. P2POn has covered the case in several posts but as it finally approaches the end, things don’t look to good for Tenenbaum

The fact that Tenenbaum received much support from various directions was of no good eventually – Judge Nancy Gertner ruled on Thursday against Tenenbaum, saying that he is liable for violating the music industry's copyrights on all 30 of the tracks he has been accused of sharing online, ArsTechnica reports.

After the defendant admitted he did share those songs via Limewire and other file sharing clients and his case was submitted to a jury that will assess his guilt and set the matching penalty. Tenenbaum is facing a fee that could go as high as $4.5 million USD, (or $150,000 per song).

It seems that Tenenbaum’s confession towards his infringing act was the one to make the difference and motivate Judge Nancy Gertner’s decision:

"Notwithstanding the protestations of Tenenbaum's counsel, Tenenbaum's statement plainly admits liability on both downloading and distributing, does so in the very language of the statute (no 'making available' ambiguity) and does so with respect to each and every sound recording at issue here," she said.

After another notorious case – the ‘file sharing mother’ – recently ended with Jammie Thomas being ordered to pay $1.92 million USD to the music labels, Tenenbaum appears to walk the same path and it just makes you wonder how trials will look from now on for file sharers brought to court. Music industry must be hearing its own tune being played.