RIAA Wants Harvard Prof to Take Case Recordings Off the Web

The Recording Industry Association of America says that Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson is violating court orders and privacy laws by posting recordings of pretrial hearings and depositions to his blog and to the Berkman Center for Internet and Society website.

Wired's Threat Level blog provides links to examples of what the RIAA is referring to: a deposition of Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued by the RIAA over file-sharing and represented by Nesson pro bono; a phone conversation between RIAA lawyers and U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner “without the prior consent of participants"; and two expert depositions taken last week. Threat Level notes that Nesson was tweeting the July 1 deposition of copyright expert John Palfrey.

“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 in a motion (PDF provided by Threat Level).

Gertner issued an order (PDF provided by Threat Level) in February stating that recording conferences "without permission of the participants, as well as the broadcast of such communications, runs afoul" of Massachusetts state law.

Nesson told Threat Level he was unaware of that Massachusetts felony privacy law—punishable by up to five years in prison—and considers it unconstitutional.

“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 told Threat Level.