Joel — Give us more!

Posted by Joel Tenenbaum
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Hi all,

You may have noticed that I’m not a terriblJy diligent blogger these days. While Cara Duckworth and the RIAA might put in full-time hours on publicity,* all I seem to manage is a few posts a month and interviews where I often seem like I could have said things better.  The reason for this is that I’m not a professional and this is not my professional life.

I’m not a news pundit or a lobby spokesperson.  My full-time job, the thing I am paid to do, involves doing research: investigating earthquakes, network physics, and statistical properties of economics data and sometimes teaching.  I am a graduate student, pursuing my PhD in physics.  I’m very fortunate to work under Gene Stanley, and while he’s amused when I appear in the news, I know he’s concerned for how it will impact my studies and the work I need to be doing.  Professor Nesson puts this better than I, and, with the benefit of observers’ objectivity, often recognizes this better than I:

“He’s had this hanging over his head.  He’s a grad student in physics going for his Ph.D and this has been a major distraction on his life.”

Then you ask:

“So Joel, why do you persist in this case?”

Because it’s not my choice.  I’m not the one who filed the lawsuit 3 years ago.  I’m not the one who can dismiss it.  And I suspect that the RIAA is much more capable of going without $70,000 than I am of filing for bankruptcy or spending the next decade of my life paying it off.  I would end this immediately if it were within my power.

So who are we? We’re a wiki-team, comprising only volunteer help, graciously provided by Professor Nesson, Harvard Law students, and strangers who saw the situation and wanted to chip in.  And I’m far more qualified to explain Simple Harmonic Motion or write a C++ code that computes seismic correlations than be a reliable deliverer of talking points.  My future lies in physics, not in news punditry.  Fortunately, I have wonderful friends and family whose support has proven invaluable to me.  Thank you all so much to everyone who’s been there with me, who has listened to me when I’ve blabbed way too much about all the craziness, who has let me be an amateur and cheered me on anyway.

*Full disclosure: Debbie Rosenbaum, a former Harvard Law and Harvard Business School student does oversee the “PR” around our side of the law suit. And she’s great at it, considering she’s not paid; in fact, she’s not even in school anymore and she has a real full time job like the rest of us.  Her dedication to the case and her loyalty as a friend remain unwaivering — even when I say things to reporters that she tells me not to. =)