[Infowarrior] - Motion made to televise RIAA proceedings

[Richard Forno]

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html#4869726205727420719

Defendant makes motion for proceedings to be televised over the  
internet in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the defendant has moved  
for all court proceedings to be televised over the internet through  
Courtroom View Network. The motion argues:

     Information is the currency of democracy, sunshine laws open  
government. The federal court is open not only as a court of justice  
but a forum of civic education. WE the PEOPLE are the ultimate check  
in our constitutional system of checks and balances, we the people of  
the integrated media space opened and connected by the net in a public  
domain. Net access will allow an intelligent public domain to shape  
itself by attending and engaging in a public trial of issues  
conflicting our society.

     Net access to this litigation will allow an interested and  
growingly sophisticated public to understand the RIAA’s education  
campaign. Surely education is the purpose of the Digital Deterrence  
Act of 1999, the constitutionality of which we are challenging. How  
can RIAA object? Yet they do, fear of sunlight shone upon them.

     Net access will allow demonstration by the parties to the jury of  
the nature and context of the copyright infringement with which Joel  
Tenenbaum is charged.

     Net access will allow an intelligent public domain to shape  
itself by attending and engaging a public trial prosecuted by a dying  
CD industry against a defendant who did what comes naturally to  
digital kids.

     Net access will allow educational and public media institutions  
to build a digital archive and resource for understanding law akin to  
Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action reconceived in execution for legal  
pedagogy in a digital age, Another Civil Action. The immediacy of net- 
based access to court opinions already allows lawyers, professors,  
students, and reporters to better keep abreast of the most recent  
legal developments, but none with the immediacy the Net allows.

If the motion is granted, it will be the first RIAA case of which we  
are aware to be televised.