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...

Marc Randazza gets seriously behind the federal anti-SLAPP bill.
Could a National Anti SLAPP Law be on the horizon?

Sam Bayard announces CMLP's most recent amicus filing.
CMLP and Cyberlaw Clinic Call On Illinois Supreme Court to Preserve Broad Purpose of Citizen Participation Act

Eric Robinson reports on two recent instances of technology colliding with the legal process.
Trial Judges Impose Penalties for Social Media in the Courtroom

Arthur Bright reads the tea leaves for the Italian verdict everyone loves to hate.
Will Italy's Conviction of Google Execs Stick?

Andrew Moshirnia explains what the popularity of online news means for the federal shield bill.
Why Are Bloggers Still Sitting At the Kids Table? The Popularity of Online News and the Federal Shield Law

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

UCLA v. Tom Wilde
Posted March 4, 2010 

Barrow County School District v. Payne
Posted March 4, 2010

Dunne v. Lara
Posted March 3, 2010

Career Agents Network, Inc. v. White
Posted March 3, 2010

Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital, Inc. v. Yelp! Inc.
Posted March 3, 2010

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Other citizen media law news...

First web copyright crackdown coming
Reflections of a Newsosaur - Thurs.03/04/10

Viacom: "Fair use works for us," unlikely to sue bloggers
Ars Technica - Thurs. 03/04/10

Tech firms that abet censors face threat
STLToday.com - Thurs. 03/04/10

7th Circuit Judges Testify in Trial Over Blogger's Web Threats
Law.com - Wed. 03/03/10

Bloggers Get Access
The New York Observer - Tues. 03/02/10

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The full(er) Brief...

"Congressman Steve Cohen, D-TN is our First Amendment Bad Ass of the week. Mr. Cohen introduced The Citizen Participation Act, a federal anti-slapp bill. . . .  It is about time. . . . I cannot stress how important a bill like this is. If you can, please write a letter to your Representative urging their support for HR 4364. Copy this post, if you like. You don't even need to attribute, if you don't want to. (I hereby release the copyright in this post to the public domain). Distribute the news far and wide. If you ever use your First Amendment rights, then this bill matters to you. And . . . to really make the other congressmen stand up and take notice, if you can afford to, send Congressman Cohen a campaign contribution with a note stating that you only sent it because of his sponsorship of this bill. I sent him a hundred bucks today. . . ."
Marc Randazza, Could a National Anti SLAPP Law be on the horizon?

"With the help of Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, CMLP and a coalition of media and advocacy organizations submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Illinois Supreme Court this week, urging the court to reject two lower courts’ narrow interpretations of the state’s Anti-SLAPP statute, known as the Citizen Participation Act.  The aim of the Citizen Participation Act (CPA), like most anti-SLAPP statutes, is to deter abusive litigation by allowing defendants to secure quick dismissals and recover attorneys' fees when faced with meritless lawsuits that threaten their ability to speak and petition the government. CMLP and amici Public Participation Project, Online News Association, and the Chicago Current got involved in the case—Wright Development Group LLC v. Walsh—to weigh in on an issue that, while seemingly procedural in nature, goes to the heart of the policy motivations behind the CPA. . . ."
Sam Bayard, CMLP and Cyberlaw Clinic Call On Illinois Supreme Court to Preserve Broad Purpose of Citizen Participation Act

"As state and federal courts continue to struggle with the use of social media in courtrooms and courthouses, recently state judges in Colorado and Ohio took action against courtroom observers who used social media technology in court. . . . An Ohio judge imposed the more serious penalty against two trial attendees who separately pointed a Flip camera and a cell phone towards to the jury during trial testimony in a murder case. . . . Block, who used a Flip phone to record about eight minutes of the proceedings, claimed that he was taking video of the defendant, his friend Dwayne Davenport, to remember him in case Davenport was sent to prison. Judge Russo sentenced Block to 60 days in prison. . . . Another recent incident arose during the Colorado murder case against Willie Clark, accused of killing Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. . . . A sheriff's deputy saw Forto send the text message and removed Forto from the courtroom and took his cell phone. . . . "
Eric Robinson, Trial Judges Impose Penalties for Social Media in the Courtroom

"I've no doubt that CMLP blog readers, fellow netizens that you are, are well aware of an Italian court's conviction last week of three Google executives for invasion of privacy of an Italian teenager. . . . [T]he problem with this argument (and indeed, Italy's law on the subject) is that I don't believe that EU law (which Italy is required to incorporate domestically) makes such a distinction.  Rather than fighting the legal battle over whether Google was 'hosting' under Article 14 of the Directive on E-Commerce, Council Directive 2000/31/EC, 2000 O.J. (L 178) 1 . . ., the Italian prosecutor seems to have been effectively arguing that Google was not an 'Information Society service' ('ISS') under Article 1 (2)(a) of Council Directive 98/48/EC, 1998 O.J. (L 217) 18.  Article 1 (2)(a) defines an ISS to be 'any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services.'  But there's no indication that this definition distinguishes between providers of content and providers of other services. . . ."
Arthur Bright, Will Italy's Conviction of Google Execs Stick?

"Well, it turns out this whole Internet thing is getting pretty popular. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, more Americans now get their news from the Internet than from old-fashioned newspapers. While this might just mean that consumers are reading mainstream media content online rather than in print, the Pew report also suggests that social media has its own significant role . . . . To be sure, it's not as if we've become a nation of citizen journalists.  The report summary makes clear that, unsurprisingly, for most Americans '[p]articipation comes more through sharing than through contributing news themselves.' Still, it strikes me that the Pew findings provide additional support for the argument that bloggers and other non-traditional and amateur journalists should get the same legal protections as the mainstream press, at least when they carry out clearly journalistic functions.  Where this issue most commonly comes up is in the area of state and federal shield laws. . . ."
Andrew Moshirnia, Why Are Bloggers Still Sitting At the Kids Table? The Popularity of Online News and the Federal Shield Law

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