| January 22, 2009 History, delayed: Web streaming of federal case postponed
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(NECN: Ted McEnroe) - Massachusetts will have to wait a little longer for the state's first webstreamed case in Federal Court. Judge Nancy Gertner has postponed a hearing in a copyright infringement case against a Boston University graduate student, pending an appellate decision on whether the streaming should be permitted.
The case involves B.U. graduate student Joel Tenenbaum, who acknowledges streaming seven songs on the peer-to-peer network Kazaa in 2003. Tenenbaum is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America under th Digital Theft Deterrence Act. He is one of more than 30,000 people sued by the RIAA under the act, which says willful violators could be sued for $150,000 per song illegally shared. Tenenbaum being represented by a group of Harvard law students and law Professor Charles Nesson - they argue that the damages being sought are excessive, and want to stream the case on Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society website as a way to inform the pubiic, particularly younger 'digital natives' about the issue.
But the RIAA is challenging the idea - over concerns that the exposure could taint the jury pool, and that the RIAA's arguments could be unfairly edited to present their case in a negative light.
The appellate court is expected to hear the case on February 2. The case could return to Gertner's courtroom (and could be streamed) later in February.
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