Week of October 3, 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...
Sam Bayard examines how California's election laws may limit citizens' ability to record their voting experiences.
Documenting Your Vote: California Election Laws [2]
Dan Gillmor reports on Skype's lack of candor regarding potential security vulnerabilities in its popular communications software.
Skype Cannot be Trusted, Period [3]
Sam Bayard applauds a recent legal challenge to Minnesota's voting law.
Big Media Challenges Constitutionality of Minnesota Polling Restriction [4]
David Ardia comments on the predictive value of trademark filings.
Trademark Filings as Economic Indicators? [5]
Sam Bayard highlights an important appeal that could define the scope of immunity under the Communications Decency Act.
Car Dealership Appeals ConsumerAffair's CDA 230 Win [6]
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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
Posted October 1, 2008
Purcell v. Ewing [8]
Posted September 30, 2008
Mayflower Transit v. Prince [9]
Posted September 30, 2008
ePerks.com v. Zablotskyy [10]
Posted September 28, 2008
Brabus Ventures v. Zablotskyy [11]
Posted September 28, 2008
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Other citizen media law news...
Conn. towns shutter Web sites in response to new records law
First Amendment Center [12] - Fri. 10/3/2008
California Governor Signs Off On New Protections for Free Speech
Electronic Frontier Foundation [13] - Thur. 10/2/2008
Congress OKs Greater Broadband Access
Washingtonpost.com [14] - Tue. 9/30/08
Intellectual property bill passes in the House
CNET News [15] - Tue. 9/30/08
Judge rejects Ky. bid to claim illegal Web casinos
Louisville Courier-Journal [16] - Sat. 9/27/08
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The full(er) Brief...
"As part of a new project spearheaded by YouTube and PBS called 'Video Your Vote,' the CMLP is doing research on the state laws regulating activities at polling places on Election Day. Our specific focus is on laws that impact voters' ability to document their own voting experiences through video and still photography, as well as their ability to carry out other newsgathering functions, such as interviewing other voters outside of polling places. In this post, I'll look at how California's election laws affect these activities. . . . If you want to contact California election officials directly to clarify how any or all of these provisions may impact your Election Day activities, please consult our Documenting Your Vote page for contact information. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Documenting Your Vote: California Election Laws [2]
"As Salon notes in 'Skype sells out to China,' the eBay-owned service has collaborated with a Chinese company to enable spying on the allegedly encrypted messages that Skype users send each other to and from, and within, China. This disgusting sellout should surprise no one. Skype and its corporate parent, eBay, have been evasive about whether the product is truly secure. There’s ample reason — including this admission attributed to an Austrian law-enforcement agency — to suspect that the company has created backdoors for police. . . . This is important to citizen-media people for several reasons. First, plenty of regimes make it downright dangerous to indulge in truly free speech. Skype has been a favored tool for many people who believed the built-in encryption somehow would protect them. . . ."
Dan Gillmor, Skype Cannot be Trusted, Period [3]
"ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and the Associated Press have joined forces to challenge a Minnesota statute that forbids non-voters to stand within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place on election day. In their complaint, the media companies allege that this restriction, as applied to their planned exit polling activities, violates the First Amendment. . . . The media organizations argue that the new 100 foot restriction will significantly impair their ability to engage in accurate exit polling because voters are more likely to get into a car and drive away before reaching the 100 foot mark, because it becomes harder to distinguish voters from non-voters as the distance increases, and because it becomes impossible to select polling subjects in a scientifically selected pattern at this distance (thus undermining their sampling methodology). . . ."
Sam Bayard, Big Media Challenges Constitutionality of Minnesota Polling Restriction [4]
"Now this is interesting. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports in an article entitled 'What trademarks say about economy,' that '[w]hen trademark filings are up, it's a good sign that the economy is humming along. But if they go up too fast, you may have a bubble on your hands. Or if they start to tail off after years of modest growth, there might be a recession in the offing.' 'We are seeing applications now in 2008 going down, but they are dropping less sharply and fiercely than they did in late 2001," during the last recession, said [Glenn] Gundersen [a trademark and copyright lawyer at Dechert L.L.P.]' . . . Maybe things aren't quite as bad on the economic front as events this past week would lead us to believe? . . ."
David Ardia, Trademark Filings as Economic Indicators? [5]
"New York-based Nemet Chevrolet filed a notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit last week, challenging a district court's dismissal of its amended complaint against ConsumerAffairs.com based on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230). The appeal presents some interesting questions about whether a website loses CDA 230 immunity by encouraging negative consumer commentary and using drop-down boxes to enable users to categorize their submissions. To my knowledge, this is the first federal appeal raising these issues since the Ninth Circuit's controversial decision in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1175 (9th Cir. 2008). . . . "
Sam Bayard, Car Dealership Appeals ConsumerAffair's CDA 230 Win [6]
