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Lawyer defends song swapper in Mass. download case
Court Feed News |
2009/07/28 17:07
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A lawyer for a Boston University graduate student accused of illegally distributing music online says his client was "a kid who did what kids do" when he swapped songs.
Attorneys in U.S. District Court in Boston gave opening statements Tuesday in the recording industry's lawsuit against 25-year-old Joel Tenenbaum of Providence, R.I. Tenenbaum, represented by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, is accused of downloading and distributing thousands of songs, though the case focuses on 30. Recording industry lawyer Tim Reynolds says song swappers such as Tenenbaum seriously damage music labels. Tenenbaum is only the second music-downloading defendant to go to trial. Last month, a federal jury ruled a Minnesota woman must pay $1.92 million for copyright infringement. |
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Conn. home-invasion survivor faces court ordeal
Court Feed News |
2009/07/27 10:57
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At 52, Dr. William Petit faces years — perhaps decades — of emotionally draining court hearings before the two men charged with murdering his family in a 2007 home invasion may be convicted and executed.
He'll have to listen repeatedly to the horrific details of the crimes against his wife, who was strangled, and two daughters, who were tied to their beds. All three died of smoke inhalation from a fire police say the intruders set as they fled Petit's house after holding the family hostage for hours. Petit, a prominent physician who was beaten during the ordeal, will sit feet away from the defendants as they assert their rights and file appeal after appeal. Attorneys for defendants Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky said this week in court that their offer to plead guilty on exchange for life in prison could have ended it all. But defense attorneys said prosecutors refused because they want to win death sentences. |
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ACLU fights RI judge's ban on Facebook comments
Court Feed News |
2009/07/23 09:14
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A civil rights watchdog group wants a Rhode Island judge to reverse a gag order banning a woman from commenting on a child custody case on Facebook.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it considers the restraining order against Barrington resident Michelle Langlois an infringement on her right to free speech. ACLU executive director Steven Brown said a Kent County Family Court judge ordered Langlois in late June not to post comments about a child custody case involving her brother and his ex-wife, Tracey Martin. Langlois deleted her postings on the social networking site. Martin's attorney, Jerome Sweeney, says the comments traumatized the couple's children and included intimate details about their parents' marriage. |
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Ex-compliance officer at Conn. firm pleads guilty
Court Feed News |
2009/07/22 16:14
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The former chief compliance officer at a Connecticut securities company has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Deborah Duffy participated in a scheme to defraud investors in Greenwich-based WG Trading Co. from 1996 through February. They say she and others at the company failed to invest $131 million as promised and instead used it for their personal benefit. The government says the company's customers included charitable and university foundations, pension and retirement plans and other institutions. Two investment advisers who ran the business have been charged in the case. Duffy entered her plea Tuesday. She signed a cooperation agreement with the government. Sentencing is set for Jan. 21. |
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Lone surviving Mumbai attacks gunman admits guilt
Court Feed News |
2009/07/20 17:56
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The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks pleaded guilty Monday and gave a detailed account of the plot and his role in the rampage that left 166 people dead and paralyzed the city for three days.
In a verbal statement, Ajmal Kasab described his group's journey from Karachi, Pakistan on a boat, their subsequent landing in Mumbai on Nov. 26, and his assault on a railway station and a hospital with a comrade he identified as Abu Ismail. The other gunmen, also armed with automatic rifles and grenades, attacked a Jewish center and two five-star hotels, including the Taj Mahal. The rampage ended at the historic hotel days later after commandos killed the attackers holed up there. "I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades (at the railway station)," Kasab told the court. "We both fired, me and Abu Ismail. We fired on the public." Earlier Kasab, 21, stood up before the special court hearing his case just as a prosecution witness was to take the stand and addressed the judge. "Sir, I plead guilty to my crime," he said, triggering a collective gasp in the courtroom. |
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Court: O'Keeffe Museum has no right to Fisk U. art
Court Feed News |
2009/07/17 16:23
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The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum may represent the painter's estate but has no right to an art collection she donated to Fisk University, Tennessee's Court of Appeals has ruled.
In the ruling filed Tuesday, the court said any right O'Keeffe had to most of the 101 works of art ended with her death. The financially struggling university had asked a lower court for permission to sell two of the works — O'Keeffe's 1927 oil painting "Radiator Building — Night, New York," and Marsden Hartley's "Painting No. 3." The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum objected to the plan, arguing that Fisk was violating the terms of the bequest, which required the works be displayed together, and asking for the artwork to be turned over to the estate. The Davidson County Chancery Court blocked the sale as well as a proposed $30 million arrangement to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark. Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ordered last year that the university had to take the collection out of storage and put it back on display or forfeit it to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. But the state appeals court overturned that decision, ruling the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum has no right to the work and no standing in court. Representatives of the museum could not immediately be reached for comment. They will have 60 days to appeal the decision. Ninety-seven of the works were part of a collection that belonged to O'Keeffe's late husband, the photographer and art promoter Alfred Stieglitz. O'Keeffe donated those works to the university in 1949 while executing Stieglitz's will. |
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