Court Rejects RIAA's Request to Force Webcasters To Redact Their Briefs

CIS represents webcasters in the Internet Radio appeals concerning webcasting royalties set by the Librarian of Congress after a CARP arbitration in the Copyright Office. After webcasters filed two appeal briefs (one from webcasters that participated in the trial-like arbitration and one from webcasters that could not participate) the RIAA and the Department of Justice filed a joint motion seeking to strike both briefs on the grounds that they rely on certain evidence outside the record. Download file). They asked the Court to strike the briefs and require webcasters to file new briefs with all such references deleted before any other petitioners or the DOJ could be required to file responsive briefs. Today we learned that the Court referred the motion to strike to the panel that will hear oral argument of the case and will be setting a new briefing schedule. This is a victory because the judges who will be hearing the appeal will get to read the briefs as filed and decide for themselves what information is helpful and relevant.