Oral arguments held over proposed Webcast in filesharing case

The Globe has a report on oral arguments today in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston (1st Cir.) over whether a federal judge was right to approve live Webcast of a hearing in an illegal filesharing case.

The hearing in question has yet to occur; the judge seemed open to reconsider her ruling after a 1996 resolution surfaced that apparently barred televised or radio coverage of court proceedings in the circuit. Lawyers for the defendant in the filesharing case, a Boston University student, argued in favor of allowing Web coverage of the hearing.