Sony v. Tenenbaum, only the second copyright infringement case brought to trial out of approximately 18,000 individuals targeted by the RIAA, concluded late Friday afternoon with the RIAA awarded a penalty of $675,000. That’s a tough pill for a Boston University graduate student to swallow, though significantly less than the $1.92 million Jammie Thomas-Rasset currently owes.
According to the labels’ attorneys, there remain about 100 cases pending where the defendant has filed an answer, about a dozen of which are being actively litigated in the discovery stage. Following these cases, the RIAA has promised to stop suing individuals (though they will ask your ISP to cut you off).
Oh, and for those asking: no, the artists whose songs were infringed in these cases see none of the money.
