p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- I was wrong.

“Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA seem to have gotten things a little backward in their fight with Harvard law students, their professor, Charles Nesson, and alleged massive online file sharer Joel Tenenbaum, their client,” I said recently, going on:

“Normally, the corporate music extortion unit attacks victims’ parents first, and only then goes after their real target, the children.

“This time, however, Joel’s mother and father, Arthur and Judie Tenenbaum, have been dragged into it.”

But the RIAA hadn’t, in fact, abandoned its Standard Operating Procedure.

In a Q&A with p2pnet,  “My parents found out about it before I did,” says Joel, who’s currently at Boston University pursuing a physics PhD.

What does he think of the RIAA lawsuits?

They’re a, “gross extortion of a generation”.

Subverting American schools

Harvard professor Charles Nesson, colleagues of his and students he’s teaching, “are leading the way in demonstrating plainly and unequivocally to Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) and their RIAA they have no business trying to subvert American schools in the interests of corporate profits,” said p2pnet recently, going on »»»

Nesson has, “gone to bat for an RIAA defendant in Boston, entering a case in which he will be taking the RIAA on directly, squaring off against Timothy Reynolds, Eve Burton, and Laurie Rust, the same Denver, Colorado, lawyers trying to dismiss UMG Recordings v Lindor in Brooklyn,” said Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman recently.

“The Massachusetts case is SONY BMG Music v Tenenbaum, one of the hundreds of cases consolidated in Boston under the caption London-Sire v. Does 1-4.”

The Big 4’s RIAA is, “in the process of bringing to bear upon the defendant, Joel Tenenbaum, the full might of its lobbying influence and litigating power,” says Nesson and his “crack team of CyberOne students” on Harvard’s CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion blog.

Ten days ago Nesson and his team stood up for Joel’s parents, Arthur and Judie Tenenbaum.

The recording industry wanted to use a US court to force Arthur and Judie to produce their home PC for corporate inspection.

The trouble is, not only wasn’t the computer used for the alleged transgressions took place, Arthur and Judie didn’t even own it when Joel lived with them.

p2pnet Q&A with Joel Tenenbaum

p2pnet: - What kind of Music do you enjoy?

Joel Tenenbam:- I like: Elliot Smith, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Janis Joplin, Nine Inch Nails, Simon & Garfunkel, The Kinks, Beatles, Unity Reggae Band, Shostakovich, Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, and I have a soft spot for doowop and a capella as genres.

p2pnet: - Is your family musical?

Joel Tenenbaum:- My mother is a professional harpist and everyone in my immediate family plays at least one instrument.

p2pnet: - Do you play an instrument and if you do, are you in any kind of a band or group?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I play piano, drums, and I can play a few songs on guitar and a weak “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on a half dozen other instruments.  In college I played in orchestra.  In high school, some friends and I pretended to form a band that could have been named “No Talent and No Effort”. If you’d like to hear my college piano recital, I’ve made the mp3s
available: http://physics.bu.edu/~jesusina/piano.html

p2pnet: - When did you first learn you were being singled out for special attention?

Joel Tenenbaum:- In early college.

p2pnet: - How did the news affect you?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I worried.

p2pnet: - Did you tell your parents and friends from day one, or did they learn about this later?

Joel Tenenbaum:- My parents found out about it before I did.  They received the letter.  I mostly avoided telling my friends about it.  Until it showed up in the Boston Herald.

p2pnet: - What do your friends at Goucher have to say about it?

Joel Tenenbaum:- 

• “I’m praying to St. Thomas More (patron saint of lawyers) that your case goes well.”
• “Stick to those bastards.”
• “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

My friends in Boston say things like:

• “What’s going to happen?”
• “What are they going to do?”
• “How can they sue you for a million dollars?  Do you have a milliondollars?”
• -”Are you going to go to jail?”

And my advisor says:

• “I’m worried how this is going to affect your research.”

p2pnet: - According to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG and their RIAA, anyone who shares corporate-owned music with someone else without first paying them is a criminal and a thief. How do you view sharing?

Joel Tenenbaum:- It’s not something I’ve done in a while.  Any true music fan will agree that the artists deserve compensation.

Before Napster, it was a challenge to discover new artists or albums.  To guarantee you weren’t wasting $16, you had to limit yourself to what you and your friends knew.  Everyone had the experience of buying some shit album because its one good song was on the radio.  I never would have discovered Elliot Smith and bought all his albums on iTunes had a friend of mine not shared a few songs with me.  Traditionally, you learned about new music through your friends.  Sharing seems to me the natural extension to that.  Pandora impresses me as well.

I grant that a record company and an artist do not get paid when a song is shared, and that there are people that exploit this to avoid paying for music.  That’s the cost.  But the record companies quietly omit the benefits which accrue to themselves: free advertising.  Sony BMG used to actually (and illegally) pay radio stations to play the music they sold (payola).  That fact attests to the value of advertising.

p2pnet: - You’re said to have downloaded at least seven songs and made another 816 available via Sharman’s Networks’ Kazaa P2P file-sharing application. How how did you find out about it ?

Joel Tenenbaum:- It was the next thing everyone was using after Napster was shut down.

p2pnet: - How long had you been using it?

Joel Tenenbaum:- Probably a couple of years.

p2pnet: - Did you know when you bought it that unless you specifically closed the music folder, you’d be sharing online whether you intended to not?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I don’t think I knew this *when I got it*.

p2pnet: - I understand you offered to settle for $500, but the music companies demanded $12,000.

Joel Tenenbaum:- Actually, I offered them $5,250 at one point.

p2pnet: - Would you have paid if you’d had the money?

Joel Tenenbaum:-  I don’t know what I would have done.  After dealing with these people, it seemed worth it to file for bankruptcy on the principle.

p2pnet: -  When did professor Nesson and his students take you on as a client?

Joel Tenenbam:- I believe Professor Nesson’s first appearance with me was in court September 23rd, the day before my 9-hour deposition.

p2pnet: - Do you think the music industry settlement plan is helpful to students, perhaps saving them from having to face the same kind of difficulties now confronting you?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I think the “music industry settlement plan” only shows how much this is a full-time business to the record companies.  I wouldn’t call the bureaucracy of hourly paid operators who shuffle you around when you say you can’t pay, routinely lose anything you fax to them “easy to deal with”.  It also costs them less to pay operators hourly than lawyers, so I hardly think they’re set up for our benefit.

p2pnet: - Most victims heard from people working at settlement centres designed to get them to pay the RIAA to go away. Did you have the same experience?

Joel Tenenbaum:- Yes.

p2pnet: - Before the labels decided you were ripe for attack, did you know about their sue ‘em all campaign?

Joel Tenenbaum:- No.

p2pnet: - Do you believe American schools are right to be cooperating with the labels?

Joel Tenenbaum:- They’re just being practical, unfortunately.

p2pnet: - What kind of effect is this lawsuit having on you and your studies?

Joel Tenenbaum:- It is seriously draining time away from my research and will probably end up delaying my graduation from the PhD program.  See comment above from my advisor.

p2pnet: - What would you say to other American students similarly lined up as alleged illegal distributors of online music?

Joel Tenenbam:- Could you recommend good music for me, along the lines of Janis Joplin?

p2pnet: - What would you say to teachers and administrators?

Joel Tenenbaum:- Admins, don’t fold when you’re in the right.

p2pnet: - Were you, or are you, a customer of any of the labels?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I own a 101-disc changer that I used to use.  I’m willing to bet these labels sold a good number of the CDs in there.

p2pnet: - If you could advise labels and their trade associations on what to do and how to do it, what would you say?

Joel Tenenbaum:- There are better ways to do business.  You’ll find yourselves maligned far less and profiting far more.  You can distribute music with advertisements, release music that only lets itself be played a certain number of times, etc…  To paraphrase professor Nesson: “The architecture of the internet is code, and that architecture is limitless.”  The internet is better looked upon as a tool for business than a weapon against it.  A broad base of passionate fans would eagerly reward innovation and good will.

p2pnet: - How’s Professor Nesson?

Joel Tenenbaum:- Magnificent.  I’ve been very fortunate to have him.

p2pnet: - How are his students that are working on the case?

Joel Tenenbaum:- They’ve been wonderful. They’re very talented and yet very down-to-earth.  Shubham, Nnamdi, Matt, Isaac and Debbie have been great.  (Sorry to anyone who’s name I don’t know who I left out).

p2pnet: - How would you like this to end?

Joel Tenenbaum:- I’d like the gross extortion of a generation to stop.  I’d like these lawsuits to cease being a full-time business and money tree for the record companies.  I’d like the artists to continue to be rewarded for the talent, effort, and emotion they pour into their work.

My fairy tale perfection ending involves Antonin Scalia reading a unanimous decision striking down the statute as unconstitutional, chiding the record companies for not knowing better.

And a celebratory dinner with free beer afterward.

p2pnet: - What’s the worst part of this process?

Joel Tenenbaum:- Obliterated privacy.  They want unlimited access to the hard drive contents of every computer I or my family has ever owned, none of which is involved.

I’d rather they not look through every image, text file, Word file, video, and sound recording I’ve put on my computer in the last six years.  We’re going to see if we can prevent this.

p2pnet: - What’s the dirtiest part about what they’re doing?

Joel Tenenbaum:- In many cases, the students they sue end up settling so they don’t have to reveal the mountains of porn they have to their parents and the general public.  I’m sure this blackmail isn’t an accident.

For more information, please visit: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/riaa/.

Stay tuned, and don’t forget to check out the team’s Facebook page.

 Jon Newton - p2pnet

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 10:11 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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