The judge Nancy Gertner said in her ruling wrote: “There is no question that this reduced award is still severe, even harsh. It not only adequately compensates the plaintiffs for the relatively minor harm that Tenenbaum caused them; it sends a strong message that those who exploit peer-to-peer networks to unlawfully download and distribute copyrighted works run the risk of incurring substantial damages awards.”

But the RIAA harshly criticized the move by saying that “substituted its judgment for that of 10 jurors as well as Congress [and ignored the] profound economic and artistic harm to the recording industry that occurs when people illegally share songs online”.

Pundits will recall that many people criticized the legal team behind Tenenbaum as incompetent because they tried to argue that the fair use principle protected all filesharing which the judge found much too broad an interpretation.  The legal team was headed by a Harvard law professor and a team of students who backed up the legal research.

This is also the case where the Harvard professor Charles Nesson said he would represent Joel Tenenbaum.  Looks like it wasn’t helpful enough.  Harvard’s law faculty is well known for being very anti-RIAA.  I wonder what will happen now – the kid is going to go into bankruptcy probably.