Thursday, January 15, 2009

RIAA trial against BU student Tenenbaum to be webcast

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Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has ruled to allow streaming video at the Jan. 22 hearing next week of the Recording Industry Association of America trial against Joel Tenenbaum over the Internet, according to Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Harvard University law professor Charles Nesson had filed a motion with Gertner asking that Courtroom View Network be allowed to provide a live feed from the courtroom to the Berkman center. Gertner has not yet ruled on whether to broadcast the whole trial.

In her decision, Gertner noted that the case involves a generation that has grown up with computers and the Internet, and that they are less likely to rely on traditional media sources such as newspapers and television.

Nesson and his team of law students are defending Tenenbaum, a Boston University graduate student.

The RIAA has filed a $1 million lawsuit against Tenenbaum over seven songs the student allegedly downloaded from the Kazaa file-sharing network in 2004. Tenenbaum’s parents are also named in the suit.

Courtroom View Network will provide the audio/visual coverage of the hearing. Details are still being worked out, but CVN plans to provide a live feed to the Berkman Center, which will make the stream publicly available on its website for free. The Berkman Center said it plans to underwrite the costs and make the content available to the public under a creative commons noncommercial license.

The Berkman Center has also set up a website with information about the case at www.joelfightsback.com. The judge’s opinion allowing the coverage can be found here: http://joelfightsback.com/wp-content/uploads/730.pdf.

The Harvard Law team will also be using Twitter to provide updates from the trial: http://twitter.com/joelfightsback.