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SCOTUS Refuses To Hear Tenenbaum Appeal
quantr writes "The Supreme Court has declined to hear Joel Tenenbaum's appeal. A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. A federal judge called the penalty constitutionally excessive, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it at the request of the Recording Industry Association of America. Tenenbaum's attorney, Harvard law professor Charles Nesson, said he's disappointed the high court won't hear the case. But he said the 1st Circuit instructed a judge to consider reducing the award without deciding any constitutional challenge. Nesson said 'Tenenbaum is just entering the job market and can't pay the penalty.'"
A couple of points:
1) Murder is generally the only way to get real change accomplished. Look at how America's Founders went about changing things, successfully: a bunch of people were killed. That's what happens in revolutionary wars. However, this is an extremely risky path to take; if you succeed, you're a "freedom fighter", "revolutionary", and become a "Founding Father", revered for centuries afterward. If you fail, however, you're a "terrorist", a "separatist", a "traitor", and you get executed for treason. Successful revolutions generally happen because there's a lot of popular support; basically the people are so pissed they're ready to take matters into their own hands, even if it means risking their lives or safety.
Personally, my take is that, while a lot of people are indeed pissed about the state of affairs in the US today, they're not that pissed; they're still well-fed and comfortable, and happy to go home and watch reality TV.
2) Moving out of the country is a pretty good option these days. It's not like getting on a wooden sailboat, hoping you don't die in a storm, and going to a faraway land and never being able to see your family again; you just hop on a plane to a friendly country, and use Skype to talk to your folks and discuss their upcoming visit to see you. In addition, there's a huge number of Americans ditching this dump lately and moving overseas, to countries like various western European nations, Canada, Thailand, South Korea, Costa Rica, Australia, and many more. The only problem here is that, if you don't already have money (as most American expats do; many are either retired or well-established financially), it can be hard to make such a move. Some countries have strict immigration policies, like Canada, and require you to either have a shitload of cash ready to deposit in a bank in their country ($300k in Canada IIRC), or have a job offer in hand for a company there, and be in a profession they really want to bring people in for (computer-related jobs are high on this list). Other countries don't have much local industry (like Panama), so unless you're going there with a bunch of money to start a restaurant or something, what are you going to do for a living there?
I don't know much about this Tenenbaum guy other than what the fine summary said, but it sounds like he's a broke college student, about to start his career. Is his degree in CS or engineering or something like that? If so, then he might be able to get a company in Australia or Canada to hire him, and flee this shithole that way. However, countries like that also have strong extradition treaties with the USA, and you can't flee to them to avoid paying court judgments or outstanding debts (they'll extradite you if you don't pay). Generally, the countries where you can flee to are the ones that also don't have much in the way of high-paying jobs for professionals.