EFF urged a federal appeals court to allow the live webcasting of a hearing in one of the thousands of lawsuits that have been brought against users of peer-to-peer file-sharing systems.

The District Court granted defendant Joel Tennenbaum's request to allow an upcoming hearing to be webcast on the website of the Berkman Center at Harvard which also serves as Mr. Tennebaum's counsel. The record company plaintiffs have now asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the webcast.

In its amicus brief EFF -- representing a coalition of media and public interest nonprofits -- notes that the RIAA litigation campaign has elicited strong opinions and passions on both sides making this case a good one for an initial experiment in webcasting federal district court proceedings.