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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
News from the Citizen Media Law Project...
The Citizen Media Law Brief will be taking a two-week hiatus during the upcoming holidays. This will be the final issue in 2008, and the January 8 Brief will be the first issue of 2009.
Everyone at the Citizen Media Law Project sends you warm holiday greetings and hope for a peaceful and prosperous New Year!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The latest from the Citizen Media Law Project blog...
David Ardia announces the results of a year long research effort at the Berkman Center looking at the future of journalism.
News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age
Marc Randazza comments on the Bush library team's domain name debacle.
Cybersquatter Makes Good
Marc Randazza discusses the Second Circuit's ruling on the non-disclosure
provisions in national security letters.
Patriot Act’s National Security Letter Gag Provisions Choke on First Amendment Grounds
David Ardia reports on a rare criminal copyright case.
Blogger Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement for Leaking Songs from Guns N' Roses Album
Sam Bayard points out a project aimed at improving public access to federal court documents.
Carl Malamud Goes Green, Launches PACER Recycling Program
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
Posted Dec. 15, 2008
Posted Dec. 15, 2008
Posted Dec. 12, 2008
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Other citizen media law news...
RIAA drops lawsuits; ISPs to battle file-sharing
CNET - Fri. 12/19/08
Wikileaks Posts Secret Bomb-Stopper Report - Did It Go Too Far?
Wired/Danger Room - Thurs. 12/18/08
Montenegro bans Facebook access in government offices
Washington Post - Thurs. 12/18/08
Public Citizen launches FOIA litigation clinic for non-profits
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - Tues. 12/16/08
Hasbro drops lawsuit against firm behind Facebook game Scrabulous
guardian.co.uk - Tues. 12/16/08
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The full(er) Brief...
"After a year of study, countless meetings, and at least two conferences, a team of researchers at the Berkman Center have released a series of papers exploring the potential and challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment (note: I played a small role in this work). If you are sitting there thinking that this is a BIG topic rife with thorny questions about the future of journalism, you're right. Which is why the papers' authors conceived of the project as a conversation, facilitated by a series of papers that look at different facets of these issues. The series includes a fifty-page overview, News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age, followed by seven issue papers . . . . On balance, the papers present a cautiously optimistic picture. There is enormous potential to expand the reach of journalism and to bring it closer to the people who need it. The tools that enable new kinds of reporting, flexible ways to combine information, and networks that connect people to information and to each other are getting better. Tough challenges remain, but it's great to see such smart and dedicated people focused on these issues. . . ."
David Ardia, News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age
"The Bush library team seems as incompetent as . . . well, as
incompetent as you would imagine anyone involved with such a project
would be. They procured the domain name www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com,
then they forgot to renew the registration. It got picked up by a
cybersquatter, Illuminati Karate. . . . It worked out well indeed. The Bush team could have picked the
domain up for a $1,500 filing fee with WIPO. Even though the Bush team
was careless, that doesn't mean that Illuminati Karate had a superior
claim to the domain. . . . Alternatively, they could have filed a claim under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) and pounded Illuminati Karate for up to $100,000 in statutory damages and reimbursement of their attorneys fees. . . ."
Marc Randazza, Cybersquatter Makes Good
"The Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down one of the most constitutionally repugnant provisions of the PATRIOT Act -- the portions of the Act that place recipients of so-called 'national security letters' (NSLs) under a permanent, unreviewed, lifetime gag order. See Doe v. Mukasey, __ F.3d __ (2d. Cir. 2008). . . . The Second Circuit held that the gag orders were unconstitutional, but only to the extent that they were issued without proper judicial review. As the PATRIOT Act was written and passed, it allowed law enforcement to simply claim that there was a national security interest without specificity and without oversight. In other words 'we just wanna' was good enough. (And for the record, I consider every lawmaker who voted for it to be a traitor or a coward). The Second Circuit didn't go so far as to strike the entire NSL provision from the books, but it did require that anyone seeking an NSL and a gag order would need to confront that 'heavy presumption against its constitutional validity,' and explain to a court why it needed such a draconian device. . . ."
Marc Randazza, Patriot Act’s National Security Letter Gag Provisions Choke on First Amendment Grounds
"Kevin Cogill, a blogger on Antiquiet, which provides 'uncensored music reviews and interviews,' pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement after he allegedly posted nine songs from the then unreleased Guns N' Roses album 'Chinese Democracy.' Cogill was charged under 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(C), which implements the copyright amendments included in the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Cogill 'knowingly and willfully distributed a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, namely nine previously unreleased songs by the band Guns n' Roses, by making the songs available on a computer network accessible to members of the public.' Although the Copyright Act makes willful infringement of unpublished copyrighted material a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines, Cogill has pled guilty to only one misdemeanor count and isn't likely to face jail time based on the plea agreement he cut with prosecutors . . . ."
David Ardia, Blogger Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement for Leaking Songs from Guns N' Roses Album
"In addition to his many other noble and forward-thinking projects (here, here, here), information pioneer Carl Malamud has taken up the issue of public access to federal court documents. The federal judiciary makes most documents filed in federal court litigation available through its search platform known as Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). The catch is that the government charges 8 cents a page to read/print/download the documents, which can quickly add up when you're looking at a case of any complexity. To improve public access to these materials, Malamud is asking individuals who pay for PACER access to recycle their documents, which he classifies and publishes for free on his website. This is a great idea. Now we just need someone to come along and make the documents easily searchable and individually accessible. As always, we're grateful for Carl's pioneering work. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Carl Malamud Goes Green, Launches PACER Recycling Program
