Thirty Songs Somehow Worth $675,000: BU Student Fined for Downloads

There are a few songs in history that might be worth $22,500 apiece. "Thriller," "Yesterday," "Layla," "Stairway to Heaven." "Come As You Are" might even make it into the group. But "The Perfect Drug," much as we love(d) NIN, does not. So it's extremely unfortunate that a jury recently ordered a BU doctoral student to pay $675,000 for downloading and sharing 30 specific songs, including the aforementioned Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails tunes.

The Globe reports that the student, Joel Tenenbaum, "unapologetically admitted from the witness stand that he had illegally downloaded and shared hundreds [of songs] from 1999 to at least 2007," raising the question of why he was fined specifically for those 30 songs. Music sharing isn't always great for artists, of course (except when it propels them to massive popularity), but it hits record companies hardest. And since record companies (not artists) are the institutions with the incredible financial resources, they end up going after file sharers: but not the owners or developers of the software and servers that make such sharing possible. No, record companies prey on the little guys—like Joel—who are just trying to sample new bands before shelling out big bucks on albums.

With artists getting as little as 12 percent of the revenue from online music sales through storefronts like iTunes, it's hard to see how actually paying to download music benefits anyone but the big corporations. We can't officially come out in favor of stealing music, of course, and we're not. But we can encourage you to support your favorite artists as directly as possible, get into local acts and labels, and think twice before giving Major Record Company another ten dollars toward its world takeover.

What's worst about cases like Tenenbaum's is the endemic unfairness: not just of the fines, but of the prosecution itself. Why is Joel forking over nearly three quarters of a million dollars that he doesn't have when almost everyone in America probably has at least 30 songs she or he didn't pay for? If you feel super self-righteous about never downloading music for free, we bet you still have a number of mix CDs that your friends made for you, or songs someone emailed you, or—our fave—songs you taped off the radio back in the day. In none of these situations did your money make its way to the artist or the record company. So why is burning discs okay, when downloading bits is not?

Getting music for free is not new. Technology that allows millions of people to do so very easily is (relatively speaking). It's this technology (not individual music fans) that must be regulated addressed, not the users. Big bad music companies need to use their mad scrilla—like that oh-so-necessary $675,000 windfall from Joel—to come up with ways to protect their product. The record companies' failure to innovate in response to technology is not the music fans' fault, and music fans should not be penalized for it, whether that penalty is in dozens of cents or millions of dollars.

Lawsuits against individuals will never end music sharing. An affordable new way to acquire music that's fair to artists and fans alike might. But don't count on seeing that from major labels any time soon.

For more information on the case and what action you can take (if any), check Joel's Twitter or read the #jfb Tweets.