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P2P lawyer calls for court case to be streamed
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 5 January 2009
The Recording Industry Association Of America may have announced it is moving away from excessive litigation in relation to its battle against online piracy, but some unresolved lawsuits continue, and one lawyer involved in defending one such case has called for the court hearing relating to it to be streamed on the internet.
Harvard law professor Charles Nesson has been planning the defence for Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum who is being sued by SonyBMG and the RIAA for alleged file sharing.
Nesson was recently quoted thus: “Given the keen interest of the diverse parties following this litigation closely, and the potential learning value of this case to a broad audience beyond, this case presents an ideal instance in which judicial discretion should be exercised under the auspices of the rule to admit internet to the courtroom”.
It could be that Nesson genuinely wants such court cases to be streamed out of academic interest. Or it could be a tactic to persuade the now lawsuit-cautious RIAA to drop its litigation against Tenenbaum. While US copyright law is generally on the RIAA’s side when it comes to illegal file sharing, various technicalities have caused some problems when specific cases have gone to court in the past.
I don’t think the judge overseeing the case has commented on Nesson’s proposals. Perhaps he just doesn’t care what Nesson thinks – the Harvard prof won’t be able to actually defend Tenenbaum in court because he’s not licensed in the state where the case will be heard.
