Tenenbaum, who turns 25 on Christmas day, is a doctoral student in physics at . He also is involved in a high-profile legal fight with the RIAA for allegedly downloading and distributing songs belonging to several music labels. The recording companies claim to have discovered more than 800 songs stored illegally in a shared folder on Tenenbaum's computer, although the RIAA's case against him only identifies seven of the songs.

The RIAA says that despite its change in strategy, it doesn't plan to drop existing lawsuits. If found guilty of willful copyright infringement, Tenenbaum faces financial penalties that could exceed $1 million dollars ? $150,000 per song, the maximum fine allowed by the federal statute under which he is being sued.

Tenenbaum is being represented in the case by law professor , who in October challenging both the constitutionality of the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act and the attempted use of it against Tenenbaum by the music labels.

A hearing on Nesson's counterclaim ? which is much broader in scope than previous of the RIAA's antipiracy campaign ? is scheduled to be held Jan. 22 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Tenenbaum's run-in with the RIAA began in September 2005, when he was an undergrad at Goucher College in Baltimore. His parents, who live in Providence, R.I., received a pre-litigation notice from Sony BMG, Warner Bros. and other recording companies directing them to contact an RIAA "settlement hotline" and pony up $5,250 for alleged online music piracy involving a computer in their home.