Welcome to the Citizen Media Law Brief, a weekly newsletter highlighting recent blog posts, media law news, legal threat entries, 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 blog...

Sam Bayard examines a recent filing in the AutoAdmit case.
AutoAdmit Update: "A Horse Walks Into A Bar" Gets Feisty

Jason Crow comments on Professor Wasserman's new article on video evidence.
The Flipside of 1984: The Public Watching Big Brother

Sam Bayard looks at one blogger's response to a trademark demand.
Blogger Bullied Over Phrase "Branded Community"

David Ardia evaluates a real estate developer's libel lawsuit against two homeowners.
California Developer Sues Homeowners for Libel Over Disparaging Blog Comments

Sam Bayard reports on the Newspaper Tree's motion to unseal a public corruption prosecution in Texas.
Online News Site Challenges Secret Court Proceedings

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Murawski v. Gunzburger
Posted August 13, 2008

Matteo v. Rubin
Posted August 13, 2008

FreeLife International v. Burge
Posted August 13, 2008

Woody v. Carter
Posted August 11, 2008

Wargo v. Lavandeira
Posted August 11, 2008

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Other citizen media law news...

Google faces defamation lawsuit in India
Reuters - Fri. 08/15/08

Blogger ordered to reveal sources
Al Jazeera English - Thurs. 08/14/08

China: Citizen reporter Zuola carted off
Global Voices Online - Thurs. 08/14/08

Olympic Committee Takedown Shows Risks of Ill-Timed Take-downs
EFF Deep Links - Wed. 08/13/08

huge and important news: free licenses upheld
Lessig Blog - Wed. 08/13/08

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The full(er) Brief...

"One of the John Doe defendants in the sprawling AutoAdmit litigation has come out swinging, revealing his true identity and asserting that he 'has done nothing wrong.' Ryan Mariner, formerly known as 'A horse walks into a bar,' filed a motion to dismiss on Wednesday in federal court in Connecticut, asking the court to set him free from the case, which has been going on for over a year.  He argues that the two anonymous Yale Law students who are plaintiffs in the case have willfully failed to serve him and prosecute the action against him, despite repeated offers by his counsel to accept service of the complaint. He argues that the plaintiffs' only possible motive for continuing to name him as a defendant in their second amended complaint and yet failing to serve him 'seems to be to threaten and harass him by abusing the legal system.'  Ouch! . . ."
Sam Bayard, AutoAdmit Update: "A Horse Walks Into A Bar" Gets Feisty

"A recent post on Prawfs Blawg by Professor Howard Wasserman further explores some of the questions raised in my post, Searching for Both Sides of Body Slam Video, where I discuss some of the problems with videos that document forceful arrests. Prof. Wasserman's post profiles a video depicting someone being forcibly removed from a press conference by Dino Rossi, the state of Washington GOP gubernatorial candidate, and a discussion of his recent paper, 'Orwells Vision: Video and the Future of Civil Rights Enforcement,' that provides an analysis of the constitutional and civil rights that videos like this one may be protecting. The video is strikingly similar to the videos I describe in my previous post on the subject: a seemingly innocent person gets forcibly dragged out of a room while a handheld video camera captures everything. . . ."
Jason Crow, The Flipside of 1984: The Public Watching Big Brother

"Denise Howell at Lawgarithms points us in the direction of a recent legal threat that goes right to the intersection of trademark law and freedom of speech. On July 26, 2008, Rob Frankel of i-legions sent an email to tech blogger Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet Feeds complaining about a post by guest author Aaron Strout that used the term 'branded communities.' Frankel indicated that i-legions owns a federally registered trademark in the term 'branded communities' and claimed that Leggio 'should not be using the term at all without our express written consent.' Strout's July 23, 2008 post functioned as a 'primer' on what steps online businesses should take in evaluating their 'community engagement strategies.'  It used the term 'branded communities' in the ordinary, if slightly business-speak-y, sense to refer to an online community sponsored by a brand. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Blogger Bullied Over Phrase "Branded Community"

"Los Angeles real estate developer Barry Shy and his development company, 5th St Loft, have sued Jessica Jordan and Alan Dylan, who reside in a building developed by Shy and run the website Truedowntown, the 'unofficial' site for the Shybary Grand Loft in Los Angeles.  The lawsuit, which plaintiffs filed on June 17, 2008, claims that Jordan and Dylan libeled Shy and damaged his businesses by making disparaging comments about him. . . .  But it isn't the first time we've seen a real estate developer use a libel lawsuit to silence critical speech. We've collected at least seven such cases in our database of legal threats (see, e.g., Woody v. Carter, Jaeger v. Okon, Veranda Partners v. Giles, Hollo v. Lechuga, Montana Holdings v. Doe, McMann v. Doe 1, and McMann v. Doe 2). While not all of these cases are meritless attempts to stifle legitimate criticism, they invariably pit wealthy and well-connected business owners against individuals and community organizations with limited financial resources to defend themselves.  Not surprisingly, many defendants simply give up when faced with million dollar lawsuits. . . ."
David Ardia, California Developer Sues Homeowners for Libel Over Disparaging Blog Comments

"Last Wednesday, the Newspaper Tree, an online news site out of El Paso, Texas, which focuses on business, politics, and culture in the region, filed a motion objecting to an El Paso federal court's sealing of plea hearings and court documents in the pre-trial phases of a large public corruption prosecution. . . . In May 2008, Judge Montalvo rejected a similar motion by a community activist to open the court's proceedings, ruling that the government's interest in the integrity of its ongoing investigation and in preventing witness intimidation outweighed the public's interest in access. At that time, the court released a few documents in redacted form, but refused to provide access to plea hearings (including putting the date of such hearings on the public docket or providing transcripts), plea agreements, and affidavits filed in support of warrants in the case. The community activist who filed the previous motion represented himself, raising the possibility that the court did not have the benefit of the best arguments in favor of access. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Online News Site Challenges Secret Court Proceedings