• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 9, 2009

A Webcast of the legal proceedings against alleged file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum would further his right to a public trial, lawyer Charles Nesson argued Wednesday to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

"From a defendant's point of view, it's the opportunity to have the world actually see what the recording industry is doing to him," Nesson argued. "This is a kid who is being charged with clicking on his computer screen seven times," he continued. "The public should see this."

Tenenbaum faces a copyright infringement lawsuit for allegedly downloading seven tracks on Kazaa. Late last year, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, who is presiding over the case, granted Tenenbaum's request to have the proceedings Webcast.

The record industry filed an emergency appeal, which was argued at the First Circuit on Wednesday. That court posted an mp3 of the argument late Wednesday afternoon.

The record industry argues that local court rules ban the Webcast, and Daniel Cloherty, who argued the case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America, spent much of his allotted time parsing the language of those rules with the judges.

In addition to local court rules, The Judicial Council of the First Circuit issued a 1996 order banning "the taking of photographs and radio and television coverage" of court proceedings in the jurisdiction.

When the appellate court questioned Nesson about that order, he replied that the ban should not be extended to the Web because, unlike television or radio, it is "a medium that goes direct to the people."

The case drew attention from several outside groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief.

That group argued that the case is a matter of intense public interest, given that the RIAA has sued or threatened to sue more than 35,000 individuals in the last five years.

Late last year, the record industry said it would stop filing new lawsuits against alleged file-sharers, but that cases in progress -- such as the proceeding against Tenenbaum -- would continue.