Tenenbaum Music File-Sharing Trial Set To Resume

The civil trial of a graduate student sued for illegally downloading music from the Internet resumes today, but the only real question seems to be just how big of a judgment the jury is going to award the four major record labels that brought the lawsuit.

The student, Joel Tenenbaum, 25, a Boston University physics graduate student could face penalties of as much as $4.5 million in the case " more than the $1.92 million judgment in a similar trial in Minnesota last month.

The outcome of the Tenenbaum case seems to be a foregone conclusion given that the Providence, R.I., resident has admitted using the Kazaa peer-to-peer networking site to download songs without paying for them. The copyright infringement suit accuses Tenenbaum of illegally downloading 30 songs, although they say he actually downloaded as many as 800 songs.

Earlier this week the judge in the case, Nancy Gertner, ruled that downloading the songs did not constitute a "fair use" exemption to U.S. copyright laws " an argument Tenenbaum's lawyers intended to use as a defense. The plaintiffs also have depositions of Tenenbaum admitting he downloaded the songs and recording industry investigators have the hard drives from his computer.

The recording industry has filed a number of lawsuits against individuals they charge with illegally downloading music. Last month a jury awarded record companies $1.92 million in their lawsuit against Jammie Thomas-Rasset of Minnesota. And the consensus seems to be that Tenenbaum's case is even weaker than Thomas-Rasset's given that she denied downloading any songs and the plaintiffs did not have possession of her hard drive.

The Tenenbaum trial began this week in Boston with witnesses for the plaintiffs: Arista Records LLC, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group Recordings Inc. and Warner Brothers Records Inc.; testifying about the financial damage caused by illegal downloading of music files. The defense could begin presenting its case, such as it is, as early as today with the jury getting the case by the end of this week or early next week.

The jury could award the record labels damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 for each copyright infringement and another $150,000 for each "wilfull" infringement, pushing the potential judgment to $4.5 million.

The recording industry has settled some cases out of court for as little as $3,000. Tenenbaum told The Bloston Globe that each time he offered to settle the case, the plaintiffs demanded a higher settlement. But an industry spokeswoman told the newspaper the industry prefers to settle out of court, so it's unclear why the two sides haven't settled.

The record labels brought the lawsuits as a way to publicize the issue of illegal music downloading. But the suits began to become a public relations problem for the industry and the record companies now say they prefer to work with Internet service providers to prevent illegal music sharing.