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...

Andrew Moshirnia is flummoxed by an ACTA proposal to make intermediaries criminally liable for copyright infringement.
I Feel Like I'm Taking Crazy Pills: EU's Latest ACTA Proposal Outlaws the Internet

Sam Bayard tries to keep his promise to commemorate "Anti-SLAPP Month."
"Fred Ross" Files Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Patterson City Attorney

Justin Silverman urges courts to protect teenagers' rights to be totally catty.
Keeping Online Speech Outside the Schoolhouse Gate

Sam Bayard just likes saying "fake giraffe."
Fake Giraffe Update: Louisiana Court Sides With Satirical Website

Sam Bayard hopes that one journalist's travails will help change English libel law.
Science Journalist Simon Singh Drops Guardian Column to Fight Libel Suit Full-Time

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. v. Knock Off Wood
Posted March 15, 2010

Lee v. Young, Black, and Fabulous
Posted March 15, 2010

Global Wildlife Center v. Hammond Action News
Posted March 15, 2010 

Citizens United v. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Posted March 15, 2010

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Other citizen media law news...

Website's Instant Posts Of Wall Street Research Banned
New York Times - Thurs. 03/18/10

Viacom v. YouTube Summary Judgment Motions Highlights
Technology & Marketing Law Blog - Thur. 03/18/10

MySpace User Data For Sale
PCWorld - Wed. 03/17/10

Obama's first year transparency record receives mixed reviews
RCFP.org - Wed. 03/17/10

Reporting On Someone Claiming An Opponent 'Lies' In A Heated Debate Is Not Libel
Techdirt - Wed. 03/17/10

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The full(er) Brief...

"Sometimes a story is so insane that you can’t help but wonder if someone has slipped you some crazy pills.  See, for example, the Google prosecution in Italy. I honestly thought that story could not be topped. But lo and behold, it appears that the EU has proposed to add third-party CRIMINAL liability to the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA). This essentially outlaws the entire Internet. Insanity. . . .  This would sweep in not only torrent trackers but also search engines and aggregators. It seems pretty clear that this provision is the 'Kill PirateBay' part of ACTA and so supporters will say 'No one will use this to shut down search engines.' But let's not forget that this was the exact same argument used by the RIAA it helped cook up the DMCA and we all know how that turned out. . . . As with all my ACTA posts, I have to take a moment to add that any sort of meaningful debate on these vital issues is impossible so long as the US keeps its ACTA negotiations secret. I assume that the EU is playing some sort of cruel joke. But part of me hopes that this provision actually makes it into the agreement, because its presence would raise the stupidity quotient of ACTA to toxic levels. There is no way that the US congress or the EU Parliament would swallow these crazy poison pills."
Andrew Moshirnia, I Feel Like I'm Taking Crazy Pills: EU's Latest ACTA Proposal Outlaws the Internet

". . . Some readers may already know about the lawsuit involving 'Fred Ross' and the Patterson IrriTator website. For those who don't, George Logan, the City Attorney of Patterson, California filed a lawsuit in January against the pseudonymous 'Fred Ross' over comments posted to Patterson IrriTator, a forum site created by Fred Ross to discuss local politics, as well as to news articles on the (confusingly similarly named) Patterson Irrigator website, the online edition of a local newspaper. It is not entirely clear whether 'Fred Ross' is one individual or a group of individuals, but the name is inspired by Fred Ross, the community organizer who showed Cesar Chavez the activist ropes in the 1950s. Logan claims that Fred Ross defamed him by calling him a 'joke' and saying that he was 'in the pocket' of local developers. Logan alleges that these statements are understood to mean that he 'is the subject of general ridicule in the community' and that he 'has been paid off by developers in the City of Patterson to make legal rulings in their favor.' . . . At least part of Logan's case is surely bound for dismissal.  The statement that Logan is a 'joke' is plainly not a provably false factual assertion, and as such it is protected by the First Amendment. The same may be true of the claim that Logan is 'in the pocket' of local developers, though this statement is more susceptible to a factual reading.  But context is key, and the court could well be swayed by the politically charged character of the underlying debate. . . ."
Sam Bayard, "Fred Ross" Files Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Patterson City Attorney

"A freshman at Oak Grove High School in Missouri used Facebook last month to vent about another student: 'Wow, [expletive] alert,' wrote Megan Wisemore. 'You're a skank and I hate you with a [expletive] passion.' Though Wisemore intended only for her friends to see the message, the classmate she wrote about eventually read the posting as well. When Wisemore returned to school, that classmate attacked her in retaliation. Both students received suspensions; the classmate for fighting, Wisemore for her Facebook post. 'It was very colorful language I don't approve of, but I didn't like the fact the school stepped into my home,' said Christy Wisemore, Megan's mother. 'That's her constitutional right to write what she feels.'. . . Forty-one years after Tinker, courts are waffling between interfering and potentially interfering. If there isn't consistency in cases such as these, students like Wisemore could be without recourse. Further, all other students with a Facebook account will risk suspension any time they update their status. As Justice Fortas famously said in Tinker: Students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate. Yet at least some courts now seem willing to ask students to shed them before they even leave home. . . ."
Justin Silverman, Keeping Online Speech Outside the Schoolhouse Gate

"Nicholas Brilleaux, publisher of Hammond Action News, got a big victory yesterday when a Louisiana judge dissolved an order prohibiting him from posting a satirical news story about a fictional giraffe attack on his blog. On March 2, without a hearing, Judge Brenda Bedsole Ricks of the 21st Judicial District Court in Amite, Louisiana granted Global Wildlife Center a temporary restraining order requiring Brilleaux to remove the story from his site. Yesterday, District Judge Beth Wolfe held a hearing on Global Wildlife's request to convert the order into a preliminary injunction. Judge Wolfe not only refused the injunction and dissolved the TRO, but ordered Global Wildlife to pay Brilleaux $500 in attorneys' fees and court costs, according to newstimes.com. . . . It's worth noting that the March 2 temporary restraining order was constitutionally suspect not just because of the satirical nature of Brilleaux's speech.  Judge Ricks' previous order plainly was a prior restraint on speech, 'the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.' Nebraska Press Ass'n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 559 (1976). Even assuming the article were defamatory, the appropriate remedy would be money damages (or, maybe, an extremely narrowly tailored injunction) after a full trial on the merits, not a provisional order to take the post down made without the benefit of a hearing.  We're glad to see that Judge Wolfe got it right. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Fake Giraffe Update: Louisiana Court Sides With Satirical Website

"Science journalist Simon Singh announced on Friday that he is giving up his Guardian column to devote his time and energy to fighting the British Chiropractic Association's libel lawsuit against him and to campaigning for libel reform in the United Kingdom. Singh's case has garnered much attention and has become a rallying cry for those seeking to reform Britain's notorious libel laws.  The BCA sued Singh for libel in 2008 after he published an article in the Guardian calling some of its medical claims 'bogus.' . . . Singh's farewell column is especially interesting as window into the personal side of defending against a libel suit. He stresses that it's not just about the legal fees and costs, which might someday be partially recovered, but also about the sacrifice in time and lost opportunities, which can never be . . . As poorly as it has turned out for Singh, the case has at least generated sufficient outcry to get British parliamentarians interested in reform, including recently proposing measures to discourage libel tourism.  As our readers are no doubt aware, these reforms are (nearly) as important for U.S. publishers as they are for the English. Singh's column notes how the National Enquirer website no longer serves content to U.K. readers and how other major U.S. publishers are contemplating similar measures. And, as Professor Weiler's case illustrates, foreign laws can be a big problem for the little publisher too. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Science Journalist Simon Singh Drops Guardian Column to Fight Libel Suit Full-Time

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