Lawyer in Tenenbaum music piracy case to seek retrial

“In her decision, Gertner wrote that the court might have been
willing to hear the “fair use” defense asserted by Nesson had it
been presented in a proper manner. Gertner said she had to forbid
Nesson from presenting a fair-use defense in the case because the
manner in which it was presented to the court was too broad and
vague.

“If Nesson had tailored his defense to suggest a “modest
exemption” to copyright protections, the court would have been
willing to entertain it, Gertner noted. As an example of such an
exemption, Gertner wrote that individuals who had used new
file-sharing networks in the “technological interregnum” before
legal paid music downloads were available might be able to rely on
a fair-use defense, if they had later started paying for such
downloads.

“The fair-use doctrine allows for the use of copyrighted
material without permission from the rights holders in certain
limited circumstances.”

Complete Story