The Tenebaum copyright infringement file sharing case, about which we first reported in an earlier blog, reached another milestone this week when the First Circuit upheld the jury's $675, 000 damages award. Tenenbaum had been found liable for illegally downloading 30 songs and a jury awarded statutory damages of $22, 500 for each song infringed. The award was appealed on grounds that it was so large that it violated Tenenbaum's constitutional right to due process of law.
The court analyzed the function and purpose for statutory damages under the Copyright Act, which are to provide "reparation for injury" and "to discourage wrongful conduct." The court rejected Tenebaum's argument that the amount of the award violated due process because it was not tied to the actual injury that he caused, stating that such an argument disregarded the intended deterrent effect of statutory damages. Moreover, the award of $22, 500 per song was only 15% of the maximum award possible for willful copyright infringement and even less than the maximum award for non-willful violations. Accordingly, the court held that the jury's award did not violate the Constitutional right to due process and the judgment was affirmed.
Unless this decision is appealed to the US Supreme Court, this dispute is concluded. It is unlikely the Court would review any such appeal since review of similar cases have previously been declined.
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