[Infowarrior] - Mirror of RIAA deposition of Tannenbaum

[Richard Forno]

(Nesson does a great job here in keeping the RIAA hounds in check.    
But in moving to get this file 'off' the Internet, it shows that the  
RIAA clowns STILL don't understand the nature of the Internet or the  
Streissand Effect.  Is it any wonder they're resorting to litigation  
to save their business models? They just don't know any better!    
Bravo to Charles Nesson!   --rf )

52MB MP3 Source: Thoughts on Joel Tenenbaum’s Deposition
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/2008/09/25/thoughts-on-joel-tenenbaums-deposition/

52MB file mirror:   http://infowarrior.org/users/rforno/mirror/tennebaum-nesson.mp3

====

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
RIAA Seeks Web Removal of ‘Illegal’ Court Recordings
By David Kravets
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/nesson/

The Recording Industry Association of America on Monday demanded a  
federal judge order Harvard University’s Charles Nesson to remove from  
the internet “unauthorized and illegal recordings” of pretrial  
hearings and depositions in a file-sharing lawsuit headed to trial.

“Enough is enough. For the past five months, this court has repeatedly  
warned defense counsel regarding his insistence on engaging  
unauthorized and illegal recordings of counsel and proceedings in this  
case,” RIAA attorney Daniel Cloherty wrote (.pdf) U.S. District Judge  
Nancy Gertner of Massachusetts. Cloherty urged the court to sanction  
Nesson, the founder of the 12-year-old Berkman Center for Internet and  
Society at Harvard University.

“The idea that a court is being asked by them to order educational  
material to be removed from the Berkman Center for Internet and  
Society website seems a questionable intrusion both on my liberty and  
the public interest,” said Nesson in a telephone interview. “I  
certainly don’t agree that I am violating any law.”

The case concerns former Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum, who  
Nesson is defending in an RIAA civil lawsuit accusing him of file- 
sharing copyrighted music. Jury selection is scheduled in three weeks,  
in what is shaping up to be the RIAA’s second of about 30,000 cases  
against individuals to reach trial.

The labels, represented by the RIAA, on Monday cited a series of  
examples in which they accuse Nesson of violating court orders and  
privacy laws by posting audio to his blog or to the Berkman site.  
Among them, they include:

	• In a 2008 deposition of his client, “a surreptitious recording,”  
that included “confidential communications between the attorneys  
involved in the case.”
	• A January telephone conversation between the judge and RIAA lawyers  
“without the prior consent of participants.”
	• The July 1 deposition of defense copyright expert John Palfrey,  
which Nesson was also simultaneously twittering.
	• The July 2-3 deposition of defense peer-to-peer expert Johan  
Pouwelse, which Nesson is accused of videotaping.
Judge Gertner, in February, issued an order in response to RIAA  
complaints about  unauthorized recordings. “The parties are advised  
that any such recording without permission of participants, as well as  
the broadcast of such communications, runs afoul” (pdf) of state law.  
On June 16, Gertner said such taping was a “violation of the law.”

Still, Nesson took Monday’s court filing in stride. At one point, he  
said he had been “unaware” of the Massachusetts law requiring all  
parties of a communication consent to its recording.

“I have to say I was completely unaware of this Massachusetts law.  
When I dug into this thing, I am amazed to what it purports to be,”  
said Nesson, who is defending the Tenenbaum case for free.

He labeled as “gobbledygook” the felony privacy law that is punishable  
by up to five years in prison.

“That is so outrageously unconstitutional that I would prefer myself  
to honor the United States Constitution and take my chances that  
recording a conversation with a judge in a federal case and opposing  
lawyers is somehow in violation of a Massachusetts statute that makes  
me a felon,” Nesson said.

Nesson, who has attempted but so far failed to get the upcoming trial  
and pretrial proceedings webcast, said the lawsuit’s proceedings  
should be in the public domain.

“I’m opening it up,” he said. “That’s what I founded the Berkman  
Center to fight for.”