Copyright Law

Court sets new schedule in SONY v. Tenenbaum and cancels February 24th hearing [#RIAA]

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court has cancelled the hearing scheduled for tomorrow and made the following rulings:

-the defendant must make a dismissal motion by March 9, 2009, based upon its unconstitutionality defense;

-no conversations among counsel can be tape recorded without the consent of all of the participants;

-discovery relating to the claims and discovery relating to the counterclaims are bifurcated; discovery relating to the claims may proceed; discovery relating to the counterclaims is stayed;

-the substantive motions relating to the counterclaims and unconstitutionality defense (the proceedings which the Court ruled could be televised) are adjourned to April 30, 2009, at 10:00 A.M.;

-the pending discovery motions will all be decided upon the papers, without oral argument;

-initial disclosures and expert disclosures are due March 30, 2009;

-each party may take up to 5 additional depositions, not counting expert depositions, but no party may be deposed who has previously been deposed except with the permission of the Court;

-all discovery must be completed by May 30, 2009; and

-if the unconstitutionality dismissal motion is denied, the parties should expect to go to trial by the end of June.

At the end of the order, the Court made the following comment:

For the period from August 7, 2007 until September 22, 2008, defendant Joel Tenenbaum was not represented by counsel. The Court understands that a pro se litigant may not be familiar with the Court's Rules and, during that time, took this into account in construing his submissions. Tenenbaum, however, is now represented by counsel -- accordingly, familiarity with the both the Federal Rules and the Local Rules of the District of Massachusetts is presumed and expected.

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on February 23, 2009 (boomark / email).