Appeals Court Says RIAA Hearing Can't Be Streamed

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has overturned a lower court order permitting webcast of an oral argument in an RIAA case, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, in Boston. As one commentator put it, the decision gives the RIAA permission to 'cower behind the same legal system they're using to pillory innocent people.' Ironically, the appeals court's own hearing had been webcast, via an mp3 file. The court admitted that this was not an appropriate case for a 'prerogative writ' of 'mandamus,' but claimed to have authority to issue a writ of 'advisory mandamus.' The opinion came as a bit of a surprise to me because the judges appeared, during the oral argument, to have a handle on the issues. The decision gave me no such impression. From where I sit, the decision was wrong in a number of respects, among them: (a) it contradicted the plain wording of the district court rule, (b) it ignored the First Amendment implications, and (c) there is no such thing as 'advisory' mandamus or 'advisory' anything — our federal courts are specifically precluded from giving advisory opinions."

Comments

Re:No Justic in the legal system.

[gringofrijolero]

*In this life there is no justice, only law. In the afterlife there is justice.*

Don't remember who said it, and I probably mangled up bad enough to make it unrecognizable.

wait for the bootleg...

[pyrote]

Wait for the bootleg, it'll be on all the torrents in no time

duh..

[QuantumG]

A writ of mandamus or simply mandamus, which means "we command" in Latin, is the name of one of the prerogative writs in the common law, and is "issued by a superior court to compel a lower court or a government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandamus

Obviously. I mean, come on, it's a prerogative writs and stuff.

NYCL's analysis is just... wrong.

[Zurk]

i'm sorry but as a fellow attorney (NY too!) i have to correct NYCLs analysis.
Advisory mandamus has its roots in the Supreme Court's reference to mandamus review of "basic, undecided question[s]." Schlagenhauf v. Holer, 379 U.S 104, 110 (1964); see Horn, 29 F.3d at 769; see also 16 Wright et al., supra, 3934. It is appropriately invoked when the action or inaction of the district court presents an issue of great importance and novelty, and one the resolution of which will likely aid other jurists, parties, and lawyers. See Horn, 29 F.3d at 769-70 (citing In re Justices of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 695 F.2d 17, 25 (1st Cir. 1982), and In re Bushkin Assocs., Inc., 864 F.2d 241, 247 (1st Cir. 1989)).
To summarize : They are allowed to issue advisory mandamus in cases such as these.

Re:NYCL's analysis is just... wrong.

[mr_matticus]

Correct. More to the point for laypeople, the prohibition on "advisory" opinions (rooted in the fact that American jurisprudence requires a "real case or controversy") extends only to the practice of providing opinions on issues not ripe for litigation or where there are no parties before the court asserting an injury/requesting relief.

This is an actual case, being litigated in a real court. It does not meet the requirements for the issuance of a writ of mandamus, which makes the question one that is likely to escape review. Issuing an "advisory" component for the purpose of assisting practitioners and courts likely to face the same question in the near future doesn't implicate the problem the advisory opinions rule was meant to prevent. Cf. Canada, whose Supreme Court can offer their advice before the fact when questioned by Parliament; US courts cannot respond in this same way to Congress.

In short, the rule prevents the courts from expending resources on hypotheticals--not on elaborating its own procedures and authority in an issue within an actual case that might otherwise evade direct review.

It's a question of courtroom discretion, not one couched in the facts of a specific set of copyright infringement actions. The irreparable bias of the summary writer is highly problematic here; no professional judge or attorney would approach this question with such hamfisted incredulity. The legal questions here are administrative, not based on the parties. Anti-RIAA sentiment has no place contaminating the entire subject here.

The local court rule as written does not grant such broad authority to the judge; the appellate court was correct. Courtroom proceedings are not normally permitted to be broadcast while they are occurring, subject to limited exceptions in local rules. The risks of prejudicial effect are entirely too high. No applicable exception was referenced by the trial court, and therefore the general ban on broadcasting must be upheld.

Re:Can they appeal?

[Zurk]

yes, the district court must follow it. NYCLs analysis was essentially, trolling. I realize NYCL is popular here, but that does not make his reasoning correct.
NYCL stated : (a) it contradicted the plain wording of the district court rule, (b) it ignored the First Amendment implications, and (c) there is no such thing as 'advisory' mandamus or 'advisory' anything -- our federal courts are specifically precluded from giving advisory opinions.

(a) is plainly incorrect because the opinion was from a higher court -- they do not need to follow the wording of a lower court - they can -- and do -- explicitly contradict it. hence the term "appeal" or "appeal to a higher power who can disagree with you if it so desires".
(b) is incorrect because there is no First Amendment implication to publish. The court is still allowing you to speak in front of it, you do not have any republication rights in the 1st amendment. its free speech not free license to republish for a mass audience. My reasoning would be similar if i were to judge this case - publishing a stream would risk the trial turning into a circus. You may disagree with this (as NYCL did) but it does not make the reasoning incorrect or invalid.
(c) is incorrect for all the reasons i have layed down in my later post. basically SCOTUS allows advisory mandamus rulings.