The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from Joel Tenenbaum, a Providence, R.I., man who was hit with a $675,000 fine for downloading and sharing 30 songs online.
In 2010, a federal judge called the fine unconstitutionally excessive, the Associated Press reports, but the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated the fine. Tenenbaum received a Ph.D. in physics on Sunday from Boston University.