Fate of webcast RIAA trial to be decided today

In just a matter of hours, accused file sharer Joel Tenenbaum and his Harvard Law legal team will appear in the Boston Federal Courthouse for a hearing to decide the outcome of all his constitutional counterclaims against the Recording Industry Association of America.

Tenenbaum is being sued for more than one million dollars by the music industry for illegally downloading seven music files over P2P service KaZaa more than six years ago, when Joel was a teenager. Now a Boston University grad student backed by Charles Nesson of the Berkman Center and a legal counsel of nine Harvard law students, Tenenbaum stands at the center of a trial that has come to represent the "average David [versus] the corporate Goliath."

Among the topics that are to be covered today, the issue of webcasting the case on the Courtroom View Network could either be drawn to an abrupt end, or taken to an even higher court. In January, Team Tenenbaum moved to have the trial broadcast on the Web, as it is an issue of public interest. The District Court approved the motion, but the RIAA did not want the case to be watched by the denizens of the Web, so it appealed, and the Court of Appeals agreed with the RIAA, and found the move to be "palpably incorrect."

Team Tenenbaum filed a cert petition to the Supreme Court regarding the webcast, and filed a motion to stay the case until the Supreme Court could review the facts. Today, we will find out how the case will move forward.

"This issue is about Joel's Constitutional right to a public trial in today's digital world," Charles Nesson said.  "It is my ethical duty as an officer of the court to give the highest court of the land the opportunity to weigh in on the decision."