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...

Arthur Bright reports on China's most recent foray into censorship.
China Blocks YouTube, Shoots Self In Foot

CMLP Staff put a Canadian court's anonymous speech decision in comparative perspective.
What We Often Take For Granted: Robust Protections for Speech

Sam Bayard announces this week's amicus filing.
Citizen Media Law Project and Berkman Cyberlaw Clinic Lead Amicus Effort to Protect Anonymous Online Speech in Illinois

David Ardia comments on a new bill aimed at revitalizing the newspaper industry.
Senator Cardin Introduces Bill to Allow Newspapers to Operate as Nonprofits

Arthur Bright discusses the Obama administration's FOIA policy.
Attorney General Holder Puts Freedom Back In FOIA

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Lonegan v. Brennan
Posted Mar. 27, 2009

Noiseux v. Avila
Posted Mar. 27, 2009 

Lennar Corporation v. Minkow
Posted Mar. 24, 2009

The Traditional Cat Association v. Gilbreath
Posted Mar. 24, 2009

Wisconsin v. Haluska
Posted Mar. 24, 2009

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Other citizen media law news...

Case Update: Online comments lawsuit draws national groups
My Web Times - Thurs. 03/26/09

Web Host Convicted of State Child Porn Crimes Despite 230 - People v. Gourlay
Technology & Marketing Law Blog - Wed. 03/25/09

Why cops fear cameras
Photography Is Not A Crime - Wed. 03/25/09

Ambiguous DMCA provision looms large in AP/Obama poster suit
Ars Technica - Tues. 03/24/09

Supreme Court hears political documentaries case
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - Tues. 03/24/09

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The full(er) Brief...

"Everyone knows that China's not fond of the Tibetan protestors. As a result, sad as it is to say, the world's press just doesn't pay much attention when China does something to smack the Tibetans down.  So long as China's actions aren't too violent or otherwise noteworthy, the press won't invest more than a sentence or two on the topic.  But when China, in order to censor a video of Tibetan protestors being beaten, blocks the whole of YouTube, the press is damn well going to sit up and take notice. . . .  And as if criticism over its human rights record wasn't enough, China is now on the receiving end of criticism over its censorship of YouTube to boot.  ZDNet's Richard Koman notes that the Center for Democracy and Technology (in a BBC story), The Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Global Network Initiative all slammed the move.  It only goes to show that censorship isn't just bad for the censored; it's bad for the censors, too."
Arthur Bright, China Blocks YouTube, Shoots Self In Foot

"Over the past few weeks everyone at the CMLP and Harvard's Cyberlaw Clinic (with whom we share an office) has been focused on the question of what legal protections courts should apply to anonymous speech (see this post about our amicus participation in the Maxon v. Ottawa Publishing case).  When you are immersed in an issue like this, it is easy to forget how lucky we are to live in a country that has robust protections for speech.  In a post earlier this week, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist reminds us that our neighbor to the north is grappling with this same issue, but has come up with a very different answer.  In his post, Geist reports that an Ontario court has ordered the operators of the right-wing Canadian forum site, FreeDominion.ca, to turn over personally identifying information for eight anonymous posters to the site. . . . The Canadian court's framing of the inquiry as a question of privacy, without regard to the importance of anonymous speech or the intentions of the party seeking discovery, is markedly different from the approach of U.S. courts.  The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that the First Amendment protects the right to speak anonymously. . . ."
CMLP Staff, What We Often Take For Granted: Robust Protections for Speech

"Yesterday, CMLP and a number of media and advocacy organizations asked an Illinois appellate court for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in Maxon v. Ottawa Publishing.  The brief urges the Illinois Appellate Court for the Third District to protect the rights of anonymous Internet speakers by imposing important procedural safeguards before ordering disclosure of their identities.  Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic represented the amicus coalition with the help of local counsel Michael T. Reagan of Herbolsheimer Lannon Henson Duncan and Reagan PC.  Coalition members include Gannett Co., Inc., Hearst Corporation, the Illinois Press Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Public Citizen, and others. The case involves pseudonymous comments posted on mywebtimes.com, the website for The Times, a local newspaper in Ottawa, Illinois published by the Ottawa Publishing Company. . . .  In the brief, amici urge the Illinois appellate court to affirm the trial court's choice of a heightened standard and join the consensus among courts nationwide by holding that a party must undertake reasonable efforts to notify the anonymous speaker of the request for disclosure and demonstrate that its underlying claim has legal and factual merit before the court will order disclosure of an anonymous Internet speaker's identity. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Citizen Media Law Project and Berkman Cyberlaw Clinic Lead Amicus Effort to Protect Anonymous Online Speech in Illinois

"United States Senator Benjamin Cardin today introduced legislation that would allow newspapers to become nonprofit organizations in what he described as 'an effort to help the faltering [newspaper] industry survive.' The proposed Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow 'newspapers for general circulation' to operate as nonprofits under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, similar to public broadcasting.  Under the bill, newspaper nonprofits would not be allowed to make political endorsements, but would be allowed to report on all issues, including political campaigns. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt and contributions to support coverage or operations could be tax deductible. . . .  But why limit the legislation to 'newspapers' (i.e., news printed on paper with ink)?  Shouldn't news organizations that publish online be granted the same benefits?  After all, it's the journalism we want to save, not the printing presses, right?"
David Ardia, Senator Cardin Introduces Bill to Allow Newspapers to Operate as Nonprofits

"Making good on President Obama's early prioritizing of the Freedom of Information Act ('FOIA'), Attorney General Eric Holder officially instructed government agencies to favor release of documents to the public.  CBS News reports that Mr. Holder's memo announcing the new FOIA policy reverses the policies of President Bush's former attorney general, John Ashcroft, who had ordered a presumption in favor of withholding documents. . . . Under the new administration, Holder writes, 'an agency should not withhold information simply because it may do so legally. . . .  An agency should not withhold records merely because it can demonstrate, as a technical matter, that the records fall within the scope of a FOIA exemption.'  Further, 'whenever an agency determines that it cannot make full disclosure of a requested record, it must consider whether it can make a partial disclosure.'  Not censoring on technicalities?  Not allowing a single bit of confidential information result to prevent a document's release?  Sunshine indeed! . . ."
Arthur Bright, Attorney General Holder Puts Freedom Back In FOIA