On July 27th, in Capitol Records Inc. v. Alaujan, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the plaintiff record companies’ motion for summary judgment by holding that the defendant Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University student who was using the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing system to upload infringing music files, may not present a fair use defense before a jury at trial. 

The court said that the proposed defense was “so broad that it would swallow the copyright protections that Congress has created” and that Tenenbaum had failed to set forth any argument based on the fair use doctrine.  The court added that “…fair use is not a referendum on fairness in the abstract, as the Defendant would have it, but an effort to measure the purpose and effects of his particular use against the incentives for artistic and literary creation that Congress established in the Copyright Act.” 

In this case Tenenbaum admitted to using Kazaa to illegally distribute the music files, but takes the position that the potential penalties under U.S. copyright law are unconstitutionally excessive.  Opening arguments in the case began on July 29 and then, on July 31st -- following Tennenbaum’s admission in court that he was liable for infringing the copyright of 30 songs he downloaded and distributed -- the court quickly concluded that there was no issue for the jury on the question of infringement and granted the record company’s motion for a directed verdict of infringement.  

With the only issues remaining being willfulness and damages, the jury came back with a verdict that found Tenenbaum liable for willful copyright infringement of 30 songs to a tune of $675,000 - which amounts to $22,500 for each song (the same as Jammie Thomas).