Law prof Charles Nesson has filed his final argument in the Joel Tenenbaum filesharing case. Nesson lost the case brilliantly, so this argument concerns only the extent of the damages.
A jury ordered Tenenbaum to cough up $675,000 for illegally downloading 30 songs. Nesson argues that the most record companies could have possibly earned, had Tenenbaum purchased the songs on iTunes, was $21.
Nesson argues against the idea that Tenenbaum should pay damages for uploading the songs, since no loss of profits can be directly attributed to his clients' specific sharing.
According to Nesson:
"In 2008, one study reported that the average British teenager had 800 illegal tracks on his iPod. If $22,500 per infringement were constitutional, this would mean the average teenager is exposed to an $18 million dollar verdict against him, clearly an absurd, arbitrary, and unconstitutional result."
(link).
