US District Judge Nancy Gertner Monday gave the verdict in the illegal file-sharing lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against 25-year-old Boston University doctoral student Joel Tenenbaum.

While formally signing off on the $675,000-penalty assessed by the jury against Tenenbaum, Gertner also expressed "very, very" deep concerns at the "astronomical penalties" that were secured as damages by the music companies under copyright laws.

In addition to the penalty, Tenenbaum, who was accused of illegally sharing 30 copyrighted songs, was also issued an injunction that prohibits him from undertaking file sharing in the future.

However, Gertner turned down the RIAA request whereby it was seeking a legal censor on Tenenbaum's piracy-promoting speech (.pdf).

In her verdict, Gertner wrote: "Although plaintiffs are entitled to statutory damages, they have no right to silence defendant's criticism of the statutory regime under which he is obligated to pay those damages. This court has neither the desire nor the authority to serve as the censor of defendant's public remarks (.pdf) regarding online file sharing."

Meanwhile, citing the "unconstitutionally excessive" damages, Tenenbaum's lead attorney, Charles Nesson has said that he would urge the court to reduce the verdict to the minimum fine of $750 per song allowed under the Copyright Act; thereby bringing down the penalty to $22,500.