Title

The Lost Logic of Deterrence: When "Sending A Message" To The Masses Outstrips Fairness

Authors

Wendy J. Gordon, Boston University School of LawFollow

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