STAFF EDIT: Not music to our ears

The Obama administration is taking a side in the case of Joel Tenenbaum vs. the Recording Industry Association of America, and it’s not looking good for the Boston University graduate student. Essentially, President Barack Obama and his justice department are taking the same absurd stance as former President George W. Bush’s administration by declaring that fines of up to $150,000 per illegally downloaded song is a fair penalty. This generation expects better of Obama. For someone who promised to take a ‘common-sense approach’ to government, this action is completely nonsensical. The average song on iTunes is sold for 99 cents; the punishment simply does not fit the crime. There’s room for debate regarding whether those who share music illegally should be tried criminally, but any rational person can recognize that fines of tens of thousands of dollars are unreasonable. If the punishment for illegally downloading copyrighted work were only a few dollars, then of course it would continue to happen, given the low risk of getting caught. A more sensible approach would be to treat the punishment for illegal downloading as one would a parking ticket. A parking ticket fine is high enough to deter many from parking illegally, but few are going to be in the poorhouse if they should get one. The current policy for punishing those who download music illegally is so out of whack, that a Massachusetts citizen would rather be caught with an ounce of marijuana than to be caught illegally downloading the latest hit from Britney Spears. The government’s support of the RIAA’s self-righteous policies is a slap in the face of Obama’s youth base. It may not gather much attention in the national media, but this decision seriously calls into question whether Obama will turn out to be the progressive president that so many young people hoped he would be.