The Lost Logic of Deterrence: When "Sending A Message" To The Masses Outstrips Fairness
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-11-2013
Publisher
WBUR
Language
en-US
Abstract
The first morning that then Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum woke to the realization that he had a $675,000 court judgment against him, it must have felt like some kind of weird hangover. Here he was, a young man proven to have copied 30 songs, now owing copyright owners the price of a college education several times over. He must have thought, “this can’t be happening to me.”
Late last month, after years of appeals, the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Mr. Tenenbaum’s obligation to pay the money. One of the reasons the court gave for affirming this amazingly large amount was “the deterrent effect of statutory damages.”
Some theories of deterrence argue that if the legal system hurts one lawbreaker badly enough, that can and should compensate for low rates of enforcement.
Recommended Citation
Wendy J. Gordon,
The Lost Logic of Deterrence: When "Sending A Message" To The Masses Outstrips Fairness
,
in
Cognoscenti
(2013).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/shorter_works/158
Publisher URL
https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2013/07/11/joel-tenenbaum-wendy-gordon
