The music industry's courtroom campaign against people who share songs online is coming under coun-terattack. Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nes-son has launched a constitutional assault against a fed-eral copyright law at the heart of the industry's aggres-sive strategy, which has wrung payments from thou-sands of song-swappers since 2003.

美國唱片樂界對網上音樂共享到法庭興訟已經遭到反擊。哈佛大學法學院教授奈森（見圖），已針對唱片樂界積極行動策略核心的聯邦版權法展開憲法攻擊行動，按照該法，自2003年以來已經有數以千計的音樂交換分享者付出罰款。

Professor Nesson, has come to the defense of a Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum targeted in one of the music industry's lawsuits. By taking on the case, Nesson hopes to challenge the basis for the suit, and all others like it. Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Im-provement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets a private group--the Recording Indus-try Association of America, or RIAA-- carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law. He also says the music industry group abused the legal process by brandishing the prospects of lengthy and costly lawsuits in an effort to intimidate people into settling cases out of court.

奈森教授出面為和唱片界打官司的個案之一波士頓大學研究生特倫鮑姆辯護。奈森接下這個案子，是希望向這類官司的基礎下戰書。奈森指稱，1999年的「遏止數位侵權及強化版權賠償法」違憲，因為該法不啻讓民間的「美國唱片產業協會」以民事方式執行刑事案件訴訟。他也指出，唱片業界濫用法律程序，藉著掀起冗長昂貴的官司，意圖嚇阻民眾和業者達成庭外和解。

The 24-year-old Tenenbaum is accused by the RIAA of downloading at least seven songs and making 816 music files available for distribution on the Kazaa file-sharing network in 2004. He offered to settle the case for $500, but music companies rejected that, de-manding $12,000. The Digital Theft Deterrence Act, the law at issue in the case, sets damages of $750 to $30,000 for each infringement, and as much as $150,000 for a willful violation. That means Tenenbaum could be forced to pay $1 million if it is determined that his alleged actions were willful.

24歲的特倫鮑姆被美國唱片產業協會指控非法下載至少7首歌曲，且於2004年將816個音樂檔上傳至Kazaa音樂分享網站。他要求以500美元與業者達成庭外和解，但唱片公司拒絕，他們要求12,000美元。根據有爭議的「遏止數位侵權及強化版權賠償法」，每一起侵權案損害賠償在750美元至3萬美元之間，蓄意侵權更可高達15萬美元，這意味著，如果特倫鮑姆被法院裁定蓄意侵權，恐被迫付出100萬美元賠償金。

Nesson, the founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said that his goal is to "turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency.

奈森是哈佛大學伯克曼網路社會中心創辦人，他表示，他的目標是「使法院不致自甘淪落，被利用為低級的收錢機構。」