Welcome to the Citizen Media Law Brief, a monthly 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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News from the Citizen Media Law Project...
The Citizen Media Law Project and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University are hosting a conference on September 25, 2010 entitled "Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?" in Atlanta, Georgia.
The program will bring together panels of legal practitioners, journalists, and academics to discuss the latest legal issues facing online media ventures. Topics will include: libel law, copyright law, newsgathering law, and advertising law, as well as the legal issues arising from news aggregation, managing online communities, and business law considerations for start-up online media organizations.
If you are a journalist, blogger, or a lawyer who works with media clients, the conference should be at the top of your schedule. This will be a fantastic opportunity to learn first-hand the latest legal developments and to get your questions answered by our panel of experts. Please visit http://csjconferences.org/medialaw/ to register.
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The latest from the Citizen Media Law Project blog...
Kimberley Isbell reports that old media thinks news aggregators are going to huff and puff and blow their house down.
Who's Afraid of the News Aggregators?
Eric Robinson discusses the latest FTC action that demonstrates why you can't believe everything you read on the Internet.
FTC Flexes Blogger Rules Again
Andrew Moshirnia notes that potential copyright infringers down under better run, better take cover.
Hey, When Did This Slope Get so Slippery? The Danger of Self-Surveillance in Three-Strikes Internet Laws
Marina Petrova looks at a case that seeks to define "non-commercial" for CC licenses.
Back in Court, GateHouse Gives Not Great News Based on Creative Commons License
Andrew Moshirnia casts a skeptical eye on the President's latest national security request.
The Giving ISP: White House Wants to Ensure Quick and Easy Warrantless FBI Snooping
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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
ONEOK, Inc. v. Twitter
Posted Aug. 20, 2010.
Meyers v Sailing Anarchy Inc., et al.
Posted Aug. 17, 2010.
Nevyas v. Morgan III (UDRP Action)
Posted Aug. 5, 2010.
GateHouse Media v. That's Great News
Posted Aug. 5, 2010
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Other media law news and commentary...
Paul Allen Sues Apple, Google, Others Over Patents
WSJ.com - Sat. 8/28/10
TheDirty.com named in libel suit
Politico.com - Thur. 8/26/10
Chicago Police Officer Under Investigation for Blog Post Criticizing Department
Blog Law Blog - Thur. 8/26/10
5 Easy Ways to Get Sued on Facebook
PlagiarismToday - Wed. 8/25/10
Phila. Bloggers Hit With Business Tax
MediaPost - Tue. 8/24/10
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The full(er) Brief...
"As anyone who has been following the debate regarding the ‘future of journalism' knows, there have been a lot of ink (and bytes) spilled arguing over the role news aggregators are playing in the 'decline' of traditional journalistic models. Rupert Murdoch has labeled the practice of news aggregation by entities like Google News ‘theft,' and a professor from the Wharton Business School recently called on lawmakers to amend the copyright laws to prevent aggregators from posting any portion of news stories for a full 24 hours after their initial publication. . . . But for all of the heated rhetoric blaming news aggregators for the decline of journalism, the fall of civilization and male pattern baldness, many are still left asking the question: are news aggregators violating current law? Today, CMLP releases a white paper entitled 'The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices' that attempts to answer that question . . . and to provide news aggregators with some 'best practices' for making use of third-party content. . . ."
Kimberley Isbell, Who's Afraid of the News Aggregators?
"The Federal Trade Commission has reached a second settlement with a marketer over apparent violations of the Commission's rules requiring disclosure of compensated endorsements, particularly on blogs and social media. . . . [T]he Commission has reached a settlement with Reverb Communications, a public relations firm, which the FTC alleged had employees and interns post positive reviews on Apple's iTunes store for games produced by Reverb clients. . . . While Reverb did not admit any wrongdoing, under the settlement the company agreed to remove within seven days any previously posted endorsements that misrepresent the authors as independent users or ordinary consumers, and that fail to disclose a connection between Reverb and the game developers. . . ."
Eric Robinson, FTC Flexes Blogger Rules Again
"One of our allies, New Zealand, is considering a three strikes Internet termination plan. Another ally, France, has already passed such a measure - HADOPI, but can't seem to enforce it (legally). While I've written about the lunacy that is HADOPI, I thought our friend s down under might be interested to learn of the hideous side effects of swallowing the Internet Execution program. I've already written about France's ill-considered HADOPI law, which mandates termination of accused pirates. Supporters of HADOPI have noted that there is at least a five-minute hearing before the line is snipped. In order to make these hearings more efficient, the French government has considered getting into the spyware business. . . . The government would make available surveillance tools that users would need to install in their machines. . . . So, in order to protect yourself from losing your Internet, you need to offer up some of your privacy? . . . Despite what three strikes proponents (read: friends of the Entertainment Industry) claim, the Internet is not some trifle. Internet access, or the lack thereof, implicates job training, education, access to government resources, and self-expression. . . ."
Andrew Moshirnia, Hey, When Did This Slope Get so Slippery? The Danger of Self-Surveillance in Three-Strikes Internet Laws
"GateHouse Media, Inc., a publisher of local newspapers is suing That's Great News, LLC (TGN) in Illinois federal district court, claiming breach of contract and copyright infringement. (See our threat database entry for more background information on the case.) In the complaint, GateHouse alleged that TGN was selling plaques emblazoned with unauthorized reprints of GateHouse newspaper articles in violation of their Creative Commons licenses. . . . This isn't the first time GateHouse has been in a squabble over its Creative Commons-licensed content. The current case has spurred some speculation on why a plaintiff would want to sue under a theory of copyright infringement as well as one for breach of contract. . . . Whether a copyright infringement claim against a licensee is available may depend on whether the violated license term is a condition or a covenant. If a licensee violated a condition of the license, she is acting outside the scope of the license. . . . [I]f the term violated by the licensee was a covenant, not a condition, the licensee would still retain her contractual right to use the copyrighted material. In that case, the licensor could only sue for breach of contract. When the license language is potentially ambiguous, a copyright holder would likely want to keep that option open, in case the court decides the violated term was merely a covenant. . . ."
Marina Petrova, Back in Court, GateHouse Gives Not Great News Based on Creative Commons License
"The FBI wants access to the Internet records of various individuals. And for this purpose, the government uses National Security Letters (NSL). NSLs allow the FBI to demand user information from ISP's AND to insist that the ISP keep this demand secret. All this is done without the pesky need for a warrant, provided that the FBI decides the information might be relevant to preventing or investigating terrorism. ISP's rarely raise a fuss, especially because spying pays well (see Yahoo!). . . . But a slight problem arose when the government demanded information that some ISPs believed they could not legally turn over without a court order. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA Pub. L. 99-508, Oct. 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 1848, 18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq.) restricts the types of information that can be gathered without a court order. Currently, the FBI may only (legally) seek: name, address, length of service, and toll billing records. . . . Now, the administration wants to make sure there is no confusion by amending the ECPA: the ISPs are to surrender ‘electronic communication transactional records.' The administration has offered no definitions for this novel phrase. Which is a bit odd, considering the whole claimed purpose of this amendment is to clarify just how much the ISPs must fork over without seeing a judge's signature. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, the added language is intended to ensure that all providers remain the Giving ISP. . . ."
Andrew Moshirnia, The Giving ISP: White House Wants to Ensure Quick and Easy Warrantless FBI Snooping
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