A lawyer representing accused file sharer Joel Tenenbaum is claiming that his client only did $21 worth of damages to the music industry, and should not have to pay out $675,000 in fines. The Boston University grad student was ordered to pay out the hefty amount to RIAA and the major labels last summer.

Tenenbaum's attorney, Harvard law professor Charles Nesson, says the law that the jury used to determine the amount "produced absurd results." Speaking to the Boston Globe, Nesson said that if Tenenbaum had bought the songs legally online for 99 cents each via iTunes, and Apple would have passed on 70 cents per track to the labels, then the damages should add up to just $21.

"The idea that somehow Congress has done this," Nesson said of the 1999 federal law in question, "it's almost like an insult to the Congress."

On the other hand, the major labels' lawyer say that the 1999 Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Act is perfectly applicable in Tenenbaum's case. "This defendant has no one to blame but himself," said Timothy M. Reynolds, one of the labels' lawyers.