Tenenbaum Trial Expected To End By Friday

Joel Tenenbaum

JOEL TENENBAUM "just wanted to hear music and his illegal downloading and sharing of songs caused little damage to the music industry," CNET reports his attorney argued in court TUESDAY. TENENBAUM has been accused of copyright violations by the RIAA, and decided to fight music labels in court rather than to settle the case.

HARVARD professor CHARLES NESSON, who is representing TENENBAUM, told THE ASSOCIATED PRESS "He was a kid who did what kids do and loved technology and loved music."

Copyright attorney BEN SHEFFNER blogged that NESSON is simply fighting to limit the damages TENENBAUM will likely be required to pay. "What NESSON is saying is that what TENENBAUM did isn't so bad and he didn't cause much harm," SHEFFNER said. "His overall point was that whatever harm was caused was due to the Internet in general, not because of what JOEL TENENBAUM did."

SHEFFNER also wrote that, U.S. District Judge NANCY GERTNER has not been happy with some of the trial's tone. "I think there was a lot of talk in the press when NESSON came on that finally this prominent professor from HARVARD was taking on the labels. Finally, someone is going to put (the music industry) in their place. That hasn't happened, primarily because the law is simply not on their side and two because he's litigated this case in a way that has annoyed the judge."

The judge delivered a setback MONDAY, when her decision to prevent TENENBAUM from arguing that sharing copyright content on peer-to-peer networks is fair use.

The trial continues this week, and is thought to wrap up on FRIDAY, with jury deliberations likely to go into next week.

« see more Net News