While British judicial authorities dither about whether to allow cameras into courts, a US federal judge has shown she’s ‘well up wiv tha yoof’ when it comes to embracing the new media age. Massachusetts District Court Judge Nancy Gertner is allowing a continuous video feed of a crucial hearing to be broadcast live on the internet.

Appropriately enough, the case in question is a landmark lawsuit brought by record companies against individuals accused of sharing music on internet ‘peer-to-peer’ services.

The defence team – a Harvard University professor and his law students – is challenging the constitutionality of the lawsuits, and, even in presidential inauguration week, the case is attracting a certain amount of attention on the web.

Dismissing the Recording Industry Association of America’s objection to the webcast, Gertner described the hearing as an instance where broadcast falls ‘squarely within the public interest’ and where the interested parties are members of a generation that doesn’t read newspapers. ‘The public benefit of offering a more complete view of these proceedings is plain, especially via a medium so carefully attuned to the internet generation captivated by these filesharing lawsuits.’

Tweeps, geeks and other members of the web 2.0 generation should be able to follow the hearing at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu