Week of July 11, 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...

Jason Crow examines the free-speech implications of proposed paparazzi regulations in Malibu City, California.
Paparazzi Need Better Manners, Not More Laws [2]

Arthur Bright looks at a troubling bill recently passed by Iran's Parliament.
Iran Moves One Step Closer to Ratifying Death Penalty for Bloggers [3]

Matt Sanchez analyzes New York's open government reforms.
New York Legislature Passes Open Records and Open Meetings Reforms [4]

Jim Ernstmeyer compares competing visions of FOIA progress.
Watchdog Group Counters Attorney General's View of Improved FOIA Picture [5]

Sam Bayard weighs in on the Center for Social Media's new report.
Center for Social Media Launches Its Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video [6]

Wendy Seltzer analyzes the recent Viacom v. YouTube discovery order.
Privacy Falls into YouTube's Data Tar Pit [7]

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association v. SHARK [8]
Posted July 11th, 2008

Fremgen v. FullofBologna.com [9]
Posted July 11th, 2008

Georgia Community Support and Solutions v. Berryhill [10]
Posted July 11th, 2008

Batzel v. Smith [11]
Posted July 9th, 2008

Malik v. ScamFraudAlert.com [12]
Posted July 7th, 2008

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Other citizen media law news...

Cops Target Photographers
The Miami New Times [13] -Thurs. 7/10/08

Pelosi: New Bipartisan House Rules Won't Quash Free Speech Online
Wired/Threat Level [14] - Thurs. 7/10/08

Trial About Privacy in Which None Remains
The New York Times [15] - Wed. 7/9/08

Egypt: proposed law to "slaughter the media"
Abu Aardvark [16] - Wed. 7/9/08

NYC Police Deny Press Passes to Online Reporters
MediaShift Idea Lab [17] - Tues. 7/8/08

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The full(er) Brief...

"In Malibu City, an ocean-side enclave of Los Angeles, local government officials are considering regulations that aim to protect the privacy and safety interests of both celebrities hounded by the paparazzi and local residents, after local surfers went to fisticuffs with photographers trying to capture Matthew McConaughey surfing at Malibu's Little Dume Beach. . . .  At first blush, the proposed regulations seem like a well-reasoned response to a problem that has plagued the area for some time. . . .  However, the regulations pose some issues for advocates of free speech and freedom of the press. In an article at MSNBC.com, Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Virginia-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, expressed the legal difficulties that arise if the law tries to distinguish between a paparazzo and any other type of photographer . . . ."
Jason Crow, Paparazzi Need Better Manners, Not More Laws [2]

"Online free speech has never been well received by the Iranian government, but now Tehran is just one step away from making blogging on certain topics into a capital crime. Under a new bill approved by Iran's parliament, those convicted of 'establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy' will now be eligible to receive the death penalty. The International Freedom of Expression eXchange ('IFEX'), a free speech watchdog, writes that the bill passed on first reading by a vote of 180 to 29, with 10 abstentions. Under Iranian law, the Council of Guardians must now examine the bill to determine if it complies with Sharia and the Iranian constitution. If approved within ten days by a majority of the council, the bill will become law. . . ."
Arthur Bright, Iran Moves One Step Closer to Ratifying Death Penalty for Bloggers [3]

"The New York Legislature recently passed several open records and open meetings reforms, adding New York to the long list of states that have taken steps to revamp their open government laws this year. Among other changes, the bills would increase electronic access to government records, prevent agencies from denying voluminous records requests, and make it easier for citizens who successfully challenge an open meetings violation to win awards of legal costs and attorneys' fees. The bills await consideration by Governor David A. Paterson before becoming law. . . ."
Matt Sanchez, New York Legislature Passes Open Records and Open Meetings Reforms [4]

"A recent report by the U.S. Attorney General paints a mixed but generally positive picture of progress by the federal executive agencies in improving their responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests. Hard on its heels comes a study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government that points to scant progress by the agencies and instead suggests that they squandered a chance to reduce their backlog during a period of fewer requests. . . .  The CJOG report may be the necessary counterweight to an overly optimistic assessment by the Attorney General, but neither report establishes conclusively whether the government is getting better at complying with the Freedom of Information Act. In any case there doubtless is ample room for improvement."
Jim Ernstmeyer, Watchdog Group Counters Attorney General's View of Improved FOIA Picture [5]

"Today, the Center for Social Media at American University released its Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, a publication meant to help online video creators, service providers, and copyright holders to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. The Code (full-text pdf) provides a guide to 'current acceptable practices, drawing on the actual activities of creators' and backed by a panel of legal and media scholars, including Berkman fellow Lewis Hyde, Anthony Falzone from Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, Henry Jenkins from M.I.T., and Pamela Samuelson from U.C. Berkeley. Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi of American University coordinated the project. . . .  I'm sure that content owners will dispute some of the guidance in the Code, but upon an initial perusal it strikes me as an excellent treatment of a potentially tricky area. More importantly, as the Code explains it, the principles outlined are not legal arguments but evidence of current, commonly held understandings among online video creators and other creative communities, such as documentary filmmakers. The point of the exercise is to build common practices and understandings, not to argue abstractly about the law. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Center for Social Media Launches Its Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video [6]

"As a big lawsuit grinds forward, its parties engage in discovery, a wide-ranging search for information 'reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.' (FRCP Rule 26(b)) And so Viacom has calculated that scouring YouTube's data dumps would help provide evidence in Viacom's copyright lawsuit. According to a discovery order released Wednesday, Viacom asked for discovery of YouTube source code and of logs of YouTube video viewership; Google refused both. The dispute came before Judge Stanton, in the Southern District of New York, who ordered the video viewing records -- but not the source code -- disclosed. . . . The court erred both in its assessment of the personally identifying nature of these records, and the scope of the harm. It makes no sense to discuss whether an IP address is or is not 'personally identifying' without considering the context with which it is connected. It may not be a name, but is often one search step from it. Moreover, even 'anonymized' records often provide sufficiently deep profiles that they can be traced back to individuals, as researchers armed with the AOL and Netflix data releases showed. . . ."
Wendy Seltzer, Privacy Falls into YouTube's Data Tar Pit [7]