Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Citizen Media Law Brief, a weekly newsletter highlighting recent blog posts, media law news, and other new content on the Citizen Media Law Project's website. You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in the CMLP or registered on our site, www.citmedialaw.org. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, you can unsubscribe by following the link at the bottom of this email or by going to http://www.citmedialaw.org/newsletter/subscriptions.

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The latest from the Citizen Media Law Project...

Sam Bayard comments on Tim Wu's new guide for content creators
A Useful Online Guide for Content Creators

David Ardia looks at Justice Thomas and the First Amendment
Justice Thomas's Myopic View of the Internet

Sam Bayard tees up some practical and ethical considerations for terms of use
Some Pointers on Website Terms of Use

Mary-Rose Papandrea reports on a novel student speech case
School Forced to Defend Removal of Student Posters Referencing Website Containing Links to Violent Videos

Sam Bayard discusses a new misuse of copyright claims online
Copyright Misuse and Cease-and-Desist Letters

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Other citizen media law news...

Court Dismisses Shipyard's Libel Action Against Left-Wing Website
Reporters Without Borders, 10/12/07

Roommates.com En Banc Hearing GRANTED!
Technology & Marketing Law Blog, 10/12/07

A Small Observation About the Copyright Office Web Site
Silicon Valley Media Law Blog, 10/10/07

Newspapers, Bloggers Now on Same Page
Los Angeles Times, 10/9/07

MSNBC Joins Web 2.0 World With Citizen Journalism Site
Computerworld, 10/8/07

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The full Brief...

"Columbia Law School's Program on Law & Technology, directed by law professor Tim Wu, recently launched another valuable online resource: Keep Your Copyrights: A Resource for Creators. It features an excellent guide that explains what rights you have as the creator of expressive content for a website, blog, or other medium and gives advice on how to manage those rights in a proactive way."
Sam Bayard, A Useful Online Guide for Content Creators

"Timed to coincide with the release of Justice Clarence Thomas’s autobiography, the First Amendment Center today published an online symposium concerning Justice Thomas’s First Amendment jurisprudence. Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke Law School, Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, and Supreme Court practitioner Tom Goldstein are among the scholars and practitioners who scrutinized Justice Thomas’s thoughts on a variety of free speech issues, from commercial speech to campaign finance."
David Ardia, Justice Thomas's Myopic View of the Internet

"Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review, posted a helpful article today about updating website Terms of Use in order to minimize inter-user abuse and conflict. He advocates telling users in plain language what rules the website expects them to follow when they post comments and suggests rules prohibiting impersonation, offline harassment, and the creation of multiple unlinked user accounts."
Sam Bayard, Some Pointers on Website Terms of Use

"Last week a Massachusetts district court rejected a school district's effort to dismiss a novel student speech case, Bowler v. Town of Hudson, in which school administrators removed the Hudson High School Conservative Club's posters advertising its first meeting because the posters contained the website address for the club's national organization, which in turn contained a link to graphic videos on another site that depicted beheadings in Iraq."
Mary-Rose Papandrea, School Forced to Defend Removal of Student Posters Referencing Website Containing Links to Violent Videos

"William Patry has an excellent post today called 'Misuse via Cease & Desist Letters.' It discusses the recent trend of lawyers asserting copyright in cease-and-desist letters in an effort to prevent posting of those letters on the Internet."
Sam Bayard, Copyright Misuse and Cease-and-Desist Letters