Illegal Downloading Court hearing may be Webcast
Although the RIAA has recently said that it will stop suing individual who may be illegally sharing music files - in other words, people the RIAA believes may be infringing their copyright but not as a commercial piracy operation - it is still vigorously pursuing one remaining case in Massachusetts. The defendant, Joel Tenenbaum, has legal representation from copyright specialists through the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Nearly all the previous individuals sued by the RIAA were unrepresented by any legal counsel at all, let any of such expert status.
The case was scheduled for a hearing today, which the defendant had asked to be webcast live. Webcasting is extremely rare in the federal courts, but the judge granted the request. However, the RIAA filed an appeal of the decision and so last night the Judge postponed the hearing until the appeal can be heard. Excerpts from the Judge’s order are here.
While it is clearly uncommon for any court proceeding to be webcast, most courts do allow recording of various types much of the time. It’s hard to imagine what reason the RIAA could have to try and stop the webcast other than the fact that many, many young people will potentially watch it in that medium, and young people are the primary group that has been targeted by the RIAA in the illegal file sharing cases.
If the RIAA wants to educate the music listening public on the rules of copyright and the negative consequences of violating those rules, it seems like a live webcast of a court case arguing those very points would be a wonderful venue. The audience tuning in to the webcast is likely to be the very audience the RIAA wants to talk to - and a well crafted legal presentation can do just that. The RIAA should welcome a targeted audience before which to make it’s case.
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