In a case that has dragged on for nine years, and been in court for three, an American man is set to feel the full wrath of the music industry after it was confirmed by the court on Friday that he will have to pay $675 000 in damages for downloading and sharing just 30 songs from once-popular music-sharing sites, Napster and Kazaa.

Joel Tenenbaum, 28, lost his long-running case, and was denied his appeal for mistrial, and has been fined $675 000 for sharing 30 songs on the Kazaa network, or $22 500 per track. That’s over five and a half million rand, for what works out to be about one and a half albums. As unreasonable as that may seem, it actually falls well below the maximum fine for willful infringement which is a whopping $150 000 per song, the maximum for non-willful infringement is $30 000.

It all started back in 1999 when a letter was sent to Tenenbaum’s parent’s house, which demanded $5 250 for seven songs he had downloaded. He sent back a cheque for $500 and explained his financial status as a student. The industry top dogs were having non of it and sent back his cheque. Skip forward to 2007, industry heavyweights Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Inc., Warner Bros. Records, Inc., Atlantic Recording Corporation, Arista Records LLC, and UMG Recording, Inc., file a civil complaint claiming that “Joel used an “online media distribution system” to download, distribute, and make available MP3 files,” and the case goes to court. Jump forward a few more years, several court proceedings and all the expected back-and-forth between relevant parties and we end up in a Massachusetts court on 24 August 2012, Tenenbaum is denied his appeal for a mistrial, and his fine of $675 000 stands.

So, where will he go from here?

Tenenbaum is now left with few options. He can appeal the verdict, which looks likely to fail, or presumably declare bankruptcy since he’s unlikely to have that amount of money stuffed under a mattress.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but no matter which way you slice it, the fact remains that he illegally downloaded the songs. Of course debate will rage on about how many other people do it, some of a far grander scale, unfortunately for Tenenbaum though, he was the one that got caught and now has to face the full wrath of an industry that’s been more than disgruntled about allegedly bleeding profits to illegal downloaders for years.

[Source: Joel Fights Back, The Verge, The Register]