Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum said Tuesday he will seek to lessen his recently confirmed $675,000 illegal file sharing fine in further court proceedings, but agreed with the ruling handed down Monday where U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner criticized the Recording Industry of America’s harsh punishments for music piracy. Tenenbaum said in an email that Gertner’s confirmation of the fine is unsurprising at this phase of trial, but he is not yet accepting defeat. As part of her ruling, Gertner said she could not punish Tenenbaum for his promotion of his actions, despite the prosecution’s repeated protests against his vocal lack of remorse. ‘I was positively thrilled to learn that my First Amendment rights were categorically affirmed,’ he said. Gertner, who Tenenbaum said has ‘been an outspoken critic of the RIAA’s campaign for years,’ wrote in her ruling that her main criticism of Tenenbaum and his lawyer, Harvard University law professor Charles Nesson, lay in their handling of the fair use defense. Fair use protects some sharing and distribution of certain copyrighted material without permission barring commercial gain. Gertner wrote though she supported fair use, the defense’s attempt to use it was too broad and ‘chaotic,’ causing her to throw it out early in the trial. Tenenbaum defended the argument. ‘My music sharing was fair use therefore it wasn’t copyright infringement,’ he said. ‘[Gertner] says she would have gone along with a fair use defense that was more specific to my situation, which was our plan to do later on in front of the jury. Judge Gertner dismissed the fair use defense without even letting the jury hear the phrase.’ But he agreed with her questioning of file sharing laws that enforce harsh fines for a broad range of cases. ‘I believe a $675k judgment is not a just outcome,’ he said. ‘The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built faulty levees which put a city underwater during [Hurricane] Katrina.’ They were ordered to pay $700k to a dozen homeowners. I shared music that was available for 99 cents. Something is wrong here.’ Students agreed the fine seemed too extreme. ‘I think you should pay the retail price of whatever you stole,’ College of Arts and Sciences junior Mauricio Figueroa said. ‘He should be charged the value of the songs.’ CAS sophomore Karen Huang said she has received warnings for downloading songs. ‘I got a warning from BU and I didn’t even download here, I downloaded at home,’ she said. ‘They didn’t fine me. I was scared because it was unintentional.’ Huang said she agrees the fine was exorbitant. ‘I guess it taught [Tenenbaum] a lesson but it should really be less strict,’ she said. College of General Studies sophomore Travis Gentile agreed. ‘It seems like the crime doesn’t match the punishment,’ he said. Staff writer Neal J. Riley contributed reporting to this article.