April 17, 2009, 08:49 AM ET
Judge Bars the Internet From the Courtroom in a File-Sharing Case
So much for the long-awaited, fiercely contested Webcast in the recording industry’s hottest piracy case. A federal appellate judge ruled today that it cannot happen.
Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law School professor, had asked to Webcast a court hearing in the case against his client Joel Tenenbaum, a graduate student at Boston University whom Sony BMG Music Entertainment sued for copyright infringement. The presiding federal judge, Nancy Gertner, approved the request in January. But the recording industry, fearing that the hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston would become a circus, appealed to...
Read MoreMarch 23, 2009, 04:12 PM ET
Justice Department Favors Recording Industry's Position in Copyright Case
A defendant in a lawsuit who asks the federal government to intervene in his case might be careful what he wishes for.
The U.S. Department of Justice rejected over the weekend the argument that the recording industry’s litigation against alleged copyright infringers is unconstitutional. Charles R. Nesson, a professor at Harvard Law School defending Joel Tenenbaum, a student at Boston University being sued by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, had asked the Justice Department in February to prevent copyright holders from collecting statutory damages except from offenders seeking commercial gain.
The Justice Department fiercely denied that request, in a 31-page memo filed on Saturday.
“The...
Read MoreMarch 12, 2009, 04:33 PM ET
Student's Defense Against Recording Industry Hits Snags
Joel Tenenbaum, poster child for opposition to the recording industry’s mass-lawsuit campaign, has won much sympathy (and many Twitter followers), but going has been tough lately.
This week the federal judge on Mr. Tenenbaum’s case admonished his legal team, led by Charles R. Nesson, a professor at Harvard Law School and founder of its Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The judge, Nancy Gertner, denied a motion they had filed, calling it “plainly flawed,” and suggested that they were not, as judicial rules require, conferring “in good faith” with the other side, the recording...
Read MoreMarch 06, 2009, 04:23 PM ET
Blanket-Licensing Proponent Not Quite Preaching to the 'Choruss'
The collapse of online music services like Ruckus has left a void in students’ legal downloading options, which the recording industry promotes, colleges encourage, and federal law now requires them to offer.
Enter Choruss, a new blanket-licensing system that would bill colleges and compensate artists based on how much music students were downloading. The project, financed by Warner Music Group, is still in the works, and its president, Jim Griffin, has been out and about lately taking questions.
Last week he spoke to music-industry types at a conference of...
Read MoreFebruary 19, 2009, 12:55 PM ET
Judges Will Weigh Whether to 'Admit the Internet Into the Courtroom'
The most visible defendant in the recording industry’s supposedly dwindling mass-lawsuit campaign may still get his day in court Webcast — just not next week, a federal appellate judge decided yesterday.
Joel Tenenbaum, backed by Harvard Law School, has become a poster child for opposition to the recording industry’s copyright-infringement litigation. A graduate student at Boston University, Mr. Tenenbaum was sued for illegally downloading seven copyrighted songs. Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society is fighting to stream his case online.
Last month a federal judge in Massachusetts, Nancy Gertner,
Read MoreFebruary 09, 2009, 03:37 PM ET
Razing Ruckus
Students will download songs and movies one way or another, so part of deterring piracy is offering free, legal resources. But now a go-to option for many colleges, Ruckus, has dropped out of the dwindling business.
“Unfortunately the Ruckus service will no longer be provided,” says a message that reportedly replaced Ruckus’s Web site on Friday evening. “Thanks.”
The Chronicle’s calls to the company’s headquarters, in Herndon, Va., were not immediately returned on Monday.
Colleges began signing up for Ruckus five years ago, and in 2005, almost one in five was considering a subscription to a music or movie service, according to a survey by the education-technology group Educause. At first...
Read MoreFebruary 04, 2009, 04:13 PM ET
RIAA Drops Lawsuits but Keeps the 'Takedown' Notices Coming
The Recording Industry Association of America announced in December that it was shifting gears and would stop suing groups of students for alleged illegal file sharing. So what is it doing now?
For starters, the industry group is pulling back from pending cases. In many lawsuits that recording companies filed against anonymous students — “John Does” — legal hurdles and universities’ challenges inhibited identification of those defendants.
“We are by and large dismissing all John Doe cases where we have not received a discovery order or a subpoena response,” Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said in an e-mail interview. “Of...
Read MoreJanuary 15, 2009, 01:47 AM ET
Court Hearing in Music-Industry Lawsuit Can Be Broadcast Online
A federal judge ruled today that Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society can broadcast online a hearing in a recording-industry lawsuit scheduled for January 22.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is suing Joel Tenenbaum, a graduate student at Boston University, for alleged copyright infringement. Charles R. Nesson, a Harvard law professor representing Mr. Tenenbaum, had filed a motion last month to “admit the Internet into the courtroom.”
Today’s ruling goes beyond simply approving that request.
“The public benefit of offering a more complete view of these proceedings is plain, especially via a medium so carefully attuned to the...
Read MoreJanuary 05, 2009, 04:18 PM ET
Music Industry Ditches Company It Used to Gather Evidence on Students
The Recording Industry Association of America, which announced last month that it would stop suing groups of students for alleged illegal file sharing, has ditched the company it had hired to seek out such pirates.
That company, MediaSentry, had collected evidence for the RIAA’s mass lawsuits by using the LimeWire program to search for copyrighted song titles. But the industry group quietly ended its relationship with MediaSentry several months ago, for reasons it did not disclose, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
In any case, the move represents a “victory” against a company...
Read MoreDecember 18, 2008, 11:30 AM ET
Students in Music City Call for Early Education on Illegal File Sharing
The fracas over file sharing has prompted many proposals, but no grand solution. This semester, in a freshman seminar called Stealing in Music City, U.S.A., students at Vanderbilt University sketched out their own model of music distribution.
Lawyers, recording-industry executives, songwriters, and performers spoke to the students, and education became a critical component of their new music-world order. One student said that federal legislation — a la No Child Left Behind — should require copyright law to be taught in public schools.
The government should be more involved over all, the students decided (a video of their hourlong final presentation is on...
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