Judge Grants RIAA Review of Internet Broadcast of File-Sharing Trial

[nsane.forums]

Agrees to review "how" the recording will be made and distributed, and not "whether" the hearing can be recorded

Late last week District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, the judge hearing the case, decided to authorize Courtroom View Network (CVN) to broadcast the trial of accused file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum, whom the RIAA alleges "made available" 7 songs in KaZaA's shared folder when he was 17 years old. 

Nevermind the fact that a number of judges and copyright law professors have argued that simply placing music in KaZaA's "shared folder" does not by itself constitute copyright infringement.

The RIAA quickly filed a petition to prohibit its broadcast, objecting to the fact that the trial would be streamed by the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society website, which was founded by Charles Nesson, who's representing Tenenbaum in the case, since the site is “specifically designed to promote Defendant’s interests in this case.”

The RIAA also oddly argued that broadcasting a single trial "would not put the spotlight on the courts’ decisions in these cases nationwide or even the single decision in this case. Instead it would likely serve to highlight selectively the arguments of a single counsel in a limited part of a single case.

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