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RIAA music fan litigation to be webcast
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 15 January 2009
Those previously reported attempts by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson to force the court proceedings from what could be one of the last Recording Industry Association Of America lawsuits against an individual music fan to be webcast have been successful.
Judge Nancy Gertner of the Massachusetts District Court has agreed to let the proceedings from RIAA v Joel Tenenbaum to be webcast online via the Courtroom View Network.
Explaining her decision, Gertner told reporters: “In many ways, this case is about the so-called ‘Internet Generation’ – the generation that has grown up with computer technology in general, and the internet in particular, as commonplace. It is reportedly a generation that does not read newspapers or watch the evening news, but gets its information largely, if not almost exclusively, over the internet”.
The decision could provide some PR stresses for the RIAA, even though the US trade body has in the main decided to stop suing music fans directly over the illegal file sharing of music, instead following their UK counterparts the BPI in lobbying the internet service providers to take a more proactive role in policing online piracy.
Although US copyright law has, in the main, favoured the record companies when it comes to the unlicensed distribution of their content on the net, when cases have gone to court various legal and especially evidential technicalities have caused some embarrassment for the plaintiffs.
Those who oppose the record companies and their previously litigious approach to music on the internet will be hoping such embarrassing technicalities arise aplenty if this particular case is available for all to enjoy online.
Of course it will most probably turn out to be either an open and shut case, or an incredibly tedious discussion of US copyright law.
