In a recent US copyright infringement action, a postgraduate student was found guilty of copyright infringement for illegally downoading and uploading songs on Napster and Kazaa, and was ordered to pay $22,500 per song (or $675,000 in total for the 30 songs in question). The student admitted illegally downloading and distributing the songs for which he was fined. However, he is seeking a retrial, claiming the eye-watering damages are 'grossly excessive.' FE and HE institutions may want to remind students (and staff) that copyright infringement can lead to substantial penalties, even if the UK legal system is unlikely to hit the American levels of award. More on this news story from The Register is available at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/05/tenenbaum_files_for_retrial/.