WebProNews » judge http://www.webpronews.com Breaking News in Tech, Search, Social, & Business Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:01:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 RIAA Trial To Be Broadcast Over The Internet http://www.webpronews.com/riaa-trial-to-be-broadcast-over-the-internet-2009-01 http://www.webpronews.com/riaa-trial-to-be-broadcast-over-the-internet-2009-01#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:48:07 +0000 Bruce Houghton http://www.webpronews.com/?p=48323

 The RIAA says it is abandoning new lawsuits against file sharers. but existing court actions are moving forward.  Thanks to a team of Harvard law students, one of these trials will be shared with the world in an unprecedent fashion. A Massachusetts District Court judge has granted the request of a Harvard Law legal team authorizing internet broadcast coverage of a case brought by the RIAA.

]]>

 The RIAA says it is abandoning new lawsuits against file sharers. but existing court actions are moving forward.  Thanks to a team of Harvard law students, one of these trials will be shared with the world in an unprecedent fashion. A Massachusetts District Court judge has granted the request of a Harvard Law legal team authorizing internet broadcast coverage of a case brought by the RIAA.

RIAA Professor Charles Nesson and his team of Harvard Law students had filed a motion to admit the Internet into the courtroom, which is traditionally prohibited. Nesson is defending Joel Tenenbaum, who has been sued by the RIAA with punishment of more than $1 million dollars for downloading 7 songs.

“In many ways, this case is about the so-called Internet Generation — the generation that has grown up with computer technology in general, and the internet in particular, as commonplace,” wrote JudgeGertner in her opinion. “It is reportedly a generation that does not read newspapers or watch the evening news, but gets its information largely, if not almost exclusively, over the internet.”  The full opinion can be viewed here.

CVN will provide a live feed to the Berkman Center, and although details are still being worked out, it is anticipated that the Berkman Center will make the stream publicly available on its website for free.  The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School will be underwriting costs and making the content available to the public under a creative commons noncommercial license.  

“The federal court is open not only as a court of justice but a forum of civic education,” said Nesson. This opportunity will allow intelligent public domain to shape itself by attending and engaging in a public trial of issues conflicting our society.”

“The immediacy of internet-based access to court opinions allows lawyers, professors, students, and reporters to better keep abreast of the most recent legal developments,” said Aaron Dulles, one of Nesson’s students.   Debbie Rosenbaum, another student who is keeping a daily Twitter account of every development in the case, added, “It seems like the new media community is eagerly anticipating this opportunity.  The response from people following the case has been tremendous.”

For more information visit www.joelfightsback.com.

Comments

 

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/riaa-trial-to-be-broadcast-over-the-internet-2009-01/feed 0 Patent judge situation patently disastrous http://www.webpronews.com/patent-judge-situation-patently-disastrous-2008-05 http://www.webpronews.com/patent-judge-situation-patently-disastrous-2008-05#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 15:31:56 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://blogs.webpronews.com/2008/05/06/patent-judge-situation-patently-disastrous/ A law professor discovered a constitutional flaw in the way 46 judges have been appointed to positions of hearing patent cases, as their appointee had no right to do so.

Oh this could be fun.

George Washington University law professor John Duffy discovered, and confirmed with several colleagues, the appointment of US patent judges by the director of the USPTO, and not the Secretary of Commerce, goes against the law. Per the New York Times:

Some provisions of the Constitution are open to interpretation, but some are clear. The Constitution says, for instance, that some government officials may be appointed only by the president, the courts or “heads of departments” like the attorney general or the secretary of commerce.

But a 1999 law changed the way administrative patent judges are appointed, substituting the director of the Patent and Trademark Office for the secretary of commerce. Jennifer Rankin Byrne, a spokeswoman for the office, said 46 of the 74 judges on the patent court, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, were appointed under the new law.

“That method of appointment is almost certainly unconstitutional,” Professor Duffy wrote in his paper, first published last summer on an influential patent law blog.

Two possible arguments against Duffy’s discovery appearing in the report appear to fail the basic tests a court would require to assert the validity of decisions by patent judges since March 2000.

One company with an $86 million stake in this fight may be the harbinger of numerous other cases. Imagine if Microsoft, Apple, or Google is caught up in this situation, just to give three examples. If years of cases need to be retried, the Patent Office could end up backlogged for a long time remedying the problem.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/patent-judge-situation-patently-disastrous-2008-05/feed 0