Sony BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum began in 2007, when graduate student Joel Tenenbaum was sued by a number of record labels for downloading and distributing 30 songs using file-sharing services like Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa and LimeWire.

After a five-day trial in 2009, the jury found Tenenbaum liable for infringing the copyrights in the 30 songs. It awarded statutory damages of $22, 500 for each song – an order that was allowed to stand after an appeal and remand.

Mr. Tenenbaum currently owes $675,000 in statutory damages. Mintz Levin explains how the jury came up with the damages figure of $22, 500 per song.