Week of May 9, 2008 [1]

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...

CMLP staff highlight the recently launched copyright section of the legal guide.
Highlights from the Legal Guide: An Overview of Copyright [2]

David Ardia discusses a proposal for licensing fees to support quality journalism.
Copyright and the Demise of Newspapers [3]

Sam Bayard reflects on a troubling precedent for critical use of copyrighted materials.
Crazy Legal Battle Between Newspapers Settles, But Leaves Worrisome Fair Use Decision Intact [4]

David Ardia previews CMLP's talk at the Berkman Luncheon Series.
CMLP Talk Today at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society [5]

Sam Bayard comments on the woefully compromised Massachusetts Open Records Bill.
Proposed Reform of Massachusetts Open Meetings Law Disappoints [6]

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc. v. NBC 10 [7]
Posted May 9th, 2008

Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc. v. Leonard [8]
Posted May 9th, 2008

Phillips v. BoroughVENT.com [9]
Posted May 8th, 2008

Ampersand Publishing v. Santa Barbara Independent [10]
Posted May 7th, 2008

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Other citizen media law news...

Lawmakers Introducee New Net Neutrality Bill
New York Times [11] - Thurs. 5/8/08

Washingtonpost.com wants identities of readers who post comments
CNET News [12] - Wed. 5/7/08

S.C. judge lifts prior restraint on newspaper
First Amendment Center [13] - Wed. 5/7/08

Malaysian blogger charged with sedition
Chicago Tribune [14] - Tues. 5/6/08

Wikipedia case may test Section 230 again
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press [15] - Tues. 5/6/08

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The full(er) Brief...

"This is the ninth in a series of posts calling attention to topics we cover in the Citizen Media Legal Guide. In this post, we highlight the section on copyright, which provides an overview of this important area of law and offers practical advice to citizen media creators on how to use the copyrighted works of others and protect their own work from exploitation. Before we jump into the copyright overview, which is reprinted below, we would like to thank Allan Ryan, who is the Director of Intellectual Property at Harvard Business School Publishing. In addition to writing a large portion of the copyright overview, Allan provided invaluable feedback on the intellectual property sections of the guide and kept us focused on the unique needs of citizen media. . . ."

"Neil Netanel, a highly regarded legal scholar, has an interesting post on Balkinization entitled 'The Demise of Newspapers: Economics, Copyright, Free Speech.' Netanel, who has written extensively on copyright issues, posits that part of the reason for the decline in newspapers stems from Internet competitors that build on the content and value that newspapers create. He suggests that imposing a statutory license or levy on commercial Internet service providers and news aggregators might be a workable solution for ensuring that newspapers receive compensation for their investment in quality reporting. . . . As Netanel correctly notes, news organizations (be they old media or new media) that do original reporting suffer from the classic public good problem: while they invest in investigating, reporting, editing, and fact checking their work, their competitors can simply use the finished product without making a similar investment in original reporting. One remedy to this problem proposed by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism involves having news providers create a consortia to 'charge Internet providers and aggregators licensing fees for content. . . .'"
David Ardia, Copyright and the Demise of Newspapers [3]

"Many readers are probably familiar with the meltdown of the Santa Barbara News-Press, a local daily newspaper in Santa Barbara, California. Starting in 2006, reporters and editors of the newspaper clashed with now-infamous Wendy McCaw, controlling shareholder of Ampersand Publishing LLC, which owns the paper. Tensions swirled around McCaw's perceived intervention in editorial and reporting judgments, traditionally left to the paper's professional staff. The controversy resulted in a slew of resignations and firings, chronicled in the documentary film, Citizen McCaw. The brouhaha spurred a bizarre lawsuit over copyright infringement, which pitted the News-Press against another local paper, the Santa Barbara Independent. According to the Independent, the defendant in the lawsuit, the case recently settled. While this might come as a relief to the Independent, it leaves a questionable fair use decision on the books. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Crazy Legal Battle Between Newspapers Settles, But Leaves Worrisome Fair Use Decision Intact [4]

"We will be giving a talk today at the Berkman Center at 12:30pm about the Citizen Media Law Project. We'll discuss the project’s accomplishments over its first year, including the creation of a legal guide for citizen media creators, the development of a database of legal threats directed at online expression, and recent litigation efforts on behalf of Wikileaks.org and others. We will also provide a first look at the threats in our database, which include lawsuits, subpoenas, cease-and-desist letters, and other legal threats directed at bloggers, website operators, and others. As an added bonus, we'll highlight a few of the more interesting entries, including the recent lawsuit against iBrattleboro.com, a community journalism site in Brattleboro VT, and the copyright lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations. . . ."
David Ardia, CMLP Talk Today at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society [5]

"This weekend, the Boston Globe published a thoughtful op-ed by Robert Ambrogi on efforts to reform the Massachusetts open meetings law. Ambrogi points out that the current open meetings law does not provide for civil or criminal penalties against government officials who violate the law. The current law enables a court to impose a penalty on an entire board or commission when it violates the law, but taxpayers -- not the individual wrongdoers -- end up paying. . . . Let's hope that the advocacy of Ambrogi and the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association encourages our state legislators to correct this mistake and bring Massachusetts in line with the majority of other states, forty-two of which provide for individual civil or criminal penalties for open meetings violations. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Proposed Reform of Massachusetts Open Meetings Law Disappoints [6]