A new sortie in the battle over craigslist's "erotic services" section came today when South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster sent a letter to craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster threatening company management with "criminal investigation and pros

Earlier this week the Supreme Court handed down its eagerly awaited decision in FCC v. Fox.  In a 5-4 vote, the Court rejected Fox's argument that the Federal Communication Commission had violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by failing to give sufficient justification for its new policy banning "fleeting expletives" on broadcast radio and television.

In a nice cautionary tale for government agents who refuse to take public records requests seriously, Washington state political blogger Stefan Sharkansky won a $225,000 settlement last week from a county government that took two years to comply with his request for information.  The settlement ended Sharkansky's lawsuit against King County over officials' improper delay in producing documents related to the state's 2004 gubernatorial election.

As noted in the Documenting Your Vote section of CMLP's Legal Guide, several states have laws prohibiting voters from displaying their ballots to someone else.

Celebrities and popular artists, like other public figures, face a tough road if they want to sue someone for making fun of them.  Many know that fair use places a high legal burden on authors and artists who bring copyright claims against those who parody them or their work.  Lesser known -- but equally important -- is that parodies receive strong protection against trademark<

In February, a Texas jury awarded Orix Capital Markets, LLC $12.5 million in damages in a defamation case involving statements published on the cleverly named "gripe site" Predatorix.com.

A few recent intellectual property disputes have highlighted the fact that the decision to pursue legal action is both a legal and a moral choice.  While concepts such as "fair use" help to ensure protection of both intellectual property rights while promoting creative expression, they can't replace a simple concept we all learned in kindergarten:  "treat others the way you’d like them to treat you."

A judge in Knox County, Tennessee has refused to order news organizations to disable online comments on their stories related to a murder case or to police the comments by requiring posters to provide verifiable identifying information.  Defense attorneys representing four suspects in a 2007 fatal carjacking had filed a

Jurisdiction: 

• Tennessee

The Sun News reports that a South Carolina state court has awarded Scott Brandon $1.8 million in damages for defamation arising out of statements published on the Myrtle Beach Insider blog.

I'm excited to welcome Eric Robinson, a noted media and First Amendment lawyer, as a guest blogger. Eric is a Staff Attorney at the Media Law Resource Center, a nonprofit information clearinghouse which monitors and promotes First Amendment rights in libel, privacy, and related fields of law.