Do federal judges have the power to reduce jury awards in copyright-infringement cases?

The Obama administration and the Recording Industry Association of America don’t think so. They argued that point Monday before a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which has released a 41-minute audio recording (.mp3) of the hearing.

They were urging the circuit to reinstate a $675,000 file sharing verdict that a Boston jury levied against Joel Tenenbaum, the nation’s second defendant to go to trial against the RIAA in an individual file sharing case. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner reduced the verdict to $67,500 last year.

Sony v. Joel Tenenbaum

Listen to the April 4, 2011 appeal

Both sides appealed, with Tenenbaum claiming it was still too excessive, and the RIAA and government arguing the reduction was an abuse of judicial power.

The Copyright Act allows damages ranging from $750 an infringement to $150,000.

The RIAA had sued thousands of individuals for file sharing over five years ending last year. Most defendants have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars.

Only two cases have gone to trial. Enormous jury verdicts In both were reduced by the presiding judges.

The outcome of the other case against Jammie Thomas-Rasset is pending.

The significance of the Tenenbaum and Thomas-Rasset cases appears to be minimal in the illicit music-sharing context. The RIAA has abandoned its litigation campaign and instead is working with internet service providers to warn file sharers, or kick them off the internet if they repeatedly engage in online copyright infringement. The RIAA has also successfully lobbied for the Obama administration to seize file sharing websites.

But where the RIAA litigation campaign left off, independent movie makers have picked up. In the last year, they have sued about 130,000 BitTorrent users for downloading and sharing low-budget movies.

The players you’ll hear on the tape include RIAA attorney Paul Clement, who is the former solicitor general; Jeffrey Clair, for the Obama administration; Jason Harrow, a Harvard Law School student, and Harvard professor Charles Nesson, both for Tenenbaum; and Julie Ahrens of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for Tenenbaum.

The circuit panel consists of Judge Sandra Lynch, Judge Juan Torruella and Judge Rogeriee Thompson.

Briefs in the case were filed in February.

Hat Tip: techdirt

See Also: