For years now, the Recording Industry Association of America has sued small-time offenders for downloading copyright music. During the initial wave of lawsuits, the RIAA nabbed Joel Tenenbaum as a teen for downloading seven songs from Kazaa. However, the teenager offered only $500 to the RIAA in payment for the legal fees. Unsatisfied, the RIAA responded by filing a suit against Tenenbaum. Now a graduate student at Boston University, Tenenbaum has returned the legal volley back to the RIAA with the help of a Harvard professor.

Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law School professor, has sided with Tenenbaum to challenge the RIAA at its core reasoning for lawsuits. Nesson questions the constitutionality of the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999, the basis for which the RIAA sues music pirates. Nesson claims that the law is a criminal statute, therefore wrongly applied in a civil suit.

Should the law be confirmed as criminal in nature, then Congress would have violated the Constitution by allowing a private party to carry out a criminal prosecution. Additionally, Nesson claims that Congress bypassed the 5th and 8th Amendments by allowing the RIAA to sue for “grossly excessive” damages. The countersuit seeks to compensate Tenenbaum and his family for damages done by the RIAA.

by Ben Benson