Week of June 13, 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...
Matt Sanchez evaluates the copyright issues in the off and on posting of reviews for Metallica's upcoming album.
Metallica's Management Suppresses Reviews, Metallica Puts Them Back Up [2]
David Ardia attends a Knight News Challenge awardee conference for new voices and new media.
The Future of Civic Media at MIT [3]
Sam Bayard raises more questions on copyright law and the recording of live performances.
More on Prince, Bootlegging, and Copyright Protection for Live Performances [4]
Tuna Chatterjee looks at former justice O'Connor's World of Lawcraft.
Sandra Day O'Connor's Foray into Online Gaming [5]
Sam Bayard discusses a recent case protecting parody from encroachment by zealous trademark owners.
Appeals Court Rejects Trademark Claims Against Parody Website [6]
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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
Metallica v. The Quietus [7]
Posted June 13, 2008
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences v. Oscarwatch.com [8]
Posted June 11th, 2008
Intel v. Hamidi [9]
Posted June 11th, 2008
Difrawi v. Garga-Richardson [10]
Posted June 11th, 2008
LA Times v. Free Republic [11]
Posted June 10th, 2008
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Other citizen media law news...
The New York Times [12] - Thurs. 6/12/08
Reporter Is Subpoenaed To Testify On Sources
The Washington Post [13] - Thurs. 6/12/08
High school paper dropped over flag-burning photo
The Boston Globe [14] - Wed. 6/11/08
Libel suit dismissed under Indiana's anti-SLAPP statute
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press [15] - Tue. 6/10/08
Talk to the Newsroom: The Use of Anonymous Sources
The New York Times [16] - Mon. 6/9/08
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The full(er) Brief...
Matt Sanchez, Metallica's Management Suppresses Reviews, Metallica Puts Them Back Up [2]
"I'll be at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the next two days at a conference for the winners of the Knight News Challenge. CMLP was a lucky recipient of a Knight News Challenge award in 2007. The conference, which Knight plans to make an annual event, is being hosted by MIT's Center for Future Civic Media (which, incidentally, also won a News Challenge award last year). It has been a fascinating day and a half so far, with presentations by both MIT researchers and Knight award winners, such as Adrian Holovaty, who showed off EveryBlock, an impressive aggregator and filter of local news by location, and Lisa Williams, founder of Placeblogger. . . ."
David Ardia, The Future of Civic Media at MIT [3]
"All right copyright geeks, it's time to do some more hypothesizing on the Prince/Radiohead/YouTube flap I blogged about in my previous post, Prince, Radiohead, and the Bootlegging Provision of the Copyright Act. Readers posted great comments that merit some elaboration in this post. The idea here is not to provide any sure answers (because I don't have them), but to raise some questions for further discussion. If you are not a copyright lawyer, you'll have to excuse the technical bent; there's just no way to deal with these questions without getting a little esoteric. To recap, previously I discussed whether the mystery bootlegger who recorded and posted Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival might have violated the anti-bootlegging provision of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 1101 and whether sending a DMCA takedown notice was an appropriate legal response. The next day, Eric Goldman of the Technology & Marketing Law Blog, posted the following intriguing comment. . . ."
Sam Bayard, More on Prince, Bootlegging, and Copyright Protection for Live Performances [4]
"Last Wednesday, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave the keynote speech at the annual Games for Change convention at the Parsons The New School For Design in New York City. In her speech, O'Connor announced her project Our Courts, which she is developing with Arizona State University (ASU) and Georgetown University Law Center. For the project, O'Connor is collaborating with James Gee, a professor at ASU, to design an online game that teaches students civic lessons about the American judiciary. . . ."
Tuna Chatterjee, Sandra Day O'Connor's Foray into Online Gaming [5]
"In late May, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an opinion in Utah Lighthouse Ministry v. Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 2008 WL 22043807 (10th Cir. May 29, 2008). With this decision, the Tenth Circuit joins an expanding group of federal appeals courts holding that federal trademark law does not prohibit a noncommercial website's use of a trademark for purposes of commenting on or criticising the trademark owner. See, e.g., Bosley Medical Institute, Inc. v. Kremer, 403 F.3d 672 (9th Cir. 2005); Taubman v. Webfeats, 319 F.3d 770 (6th Cir. 2003); Falwell v. Lamparello, 420 F.3d 309 (4th Cir. 2005). The case is not your usual 'gripe site' case, but instead involves a more subtle parody of an ideological opponent's website. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Appeals Court Rejects Trademark Claims Against Parody Website [6]
