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Grad student fined $675,000 for downloading music

by on03 August 2009


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$22,500 per song


A Boston federal court has ordered a grad student to pay four music labels $675,000 of damages, for illegally downloading 30 songs.

Joel Tenenbaum, 25, says he will be forced to file for bankruptcy if his appeal fails. Although Tenenbaum was fined a whopping $22,500 per song, he says he's thankful "it wasn't millions".

At the trial, Tenenbaum admitted downloading more than 800 songs from 1999 to 2007. He said that he grew up in a family that loves music, and his mother, a professional harpist, appeared in court every day.

Tenenbaum's personal taste in music doesn't have much to do with harps, bugles and violins, as some of the songs he downloaded were Nine Inch Nail's "The perfect drug" and Nirvana's "Come as you are".

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