Filesharing trial begins in Boston
THE GUARDIAN 29.7.2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/29/illegal-filesharing-trial-begins

The trial of 25-year-old graduate student Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued $4.5m for sharing music online, began with the defence claiming he was a 'kid doing what kids do'

The trial of Joel Tenenbaum, the man currently being sued for $4.5m (2.7m) for illegal filesharing, began in Boston this week with an attention-grabbing opening statement by the defence.

Charles Nesson, the Harvard professor representing 25-year-old Tenenbaum, displayed a piece of foam to the jury, telling them it represented the good old-fashioned compact disc. Nesson then sliced open the foam to let hundreds of tiny jigsaw pieces fall out, symbolic, he explained, of the nature of the music industry after the digital revolution.

"You have the ability to share, and this physical object suddenly broke into a million bits. Can you hold a bit in your hand? You can't ... And suddenly you have songs being shared by millions of kids around the world."

Tenenbaum, a physics student in Boston, is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for illegally sharing 30 songs via the P2P site Kazoo. He was one of roughly 40,000 people fined by the RIAA five years ago for breaching copyright by sharing music online. Many settled, but Tenenbaum contested the fine. Another filesharer, Jammie Thomas Rasset, did not pay her fine and was recently ordered to pay $1.92m to the RIAA. Tenenbaum was originally fined for sharing seven songs but the RIAA increased the number to 30...