The court, without comment, refused to hear an appeal brought by Tenenbaum, who argued in his petition that Congress did not intend in the copyright law “unrestrained discretionary jury damage awards against individual citizens for copyright infringement.”
Tenenbaum argued that “this pernicious interpretation of the Copyright Act transforms every bit of cyberspace into a potentially exploding lawsuit and is sparking the development of a spam-litigation industry.”
In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 per song, or a total of $675,000, for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. The lawsuit was brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on behalf of Sony Corp. and its Arista Records, Warner Music Group’s Warner Bros. and Atlantic labels, and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group.
A federal judge reduced the penalty to $67,500, saying the original amount was excessive, but an appeals court reinstated the penalty in response to a request by RIAA. Tenenbaum then appealed to the Supreme Court.