The U.S. Department of Justice has ruled that a recent $675,000 fine over copyright infringement is Constitutional. Media Post reports that the DOJ says that any such damages within the range set by Congress are within the law. Last year, Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to pay out the hefty fine for sharing 30 songs online illegally.

"There exist situations in which actual damages are hard to quantify," the DOJ stated in a brief. "In establishing the range, Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many violators believe they will go unnoticed. The harms Congress sought to address, moreover, are not negated merely because an infringer does not seek commercial gain."

The DOJ took a similar position in the much-publicized case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Tenenbaum and Thomas-Rasset are the only two individual sued by the RIAA for file-sharing to take their cases to trial.

In fact, Thomas-Rasset is in the news again today as well, as a U.S. district court judge has reduced the $1.9 million fine she had previously been ordered to pay out. "The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music," wrote Michael Davis, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, according to CNet.

In June 2009, a federal jury in Minnesota found Thomas-Rasset guilty of copyright infringement and ordered her to pay out $1.9 million to the music industry.