Week of May 15, 2009 [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...
Kimberley Isbell takes a look at the new IOC blogging regulations.
IOC: All Your Blog Are Belong to Us [2]
Sam Bayard has questions for Zero Hedge blogger.
Merrill Lynch to Financial Blogger: Don't Quote Our Bearish Reports [3]
David Ardia has a follow-up on the State AGs v. Craigslist grudge match.
Craigslist Dropping 'Erotic Services' Section, No Word On Whether State AGs Will Drop Their Bullhorns [4]
Sam Bayard celebrates the ability to freely distribute photos of Bo the First Dog.
White House Drops License Restrictions on Photos, Flickr Stream Now in Public Domain [5]
David Ardia highlights some news items that escaped the attention of CMLP's bloggers last week.
News Links [6]
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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
Merrill Lynch v. "Tyler Durden" [7]
Posted May 14th, 2009
Digital Broadband Networks v. Does [8]
Posted May 13th, 2009
Dolen v. Ryals (Lawsuit) [9]
Posted May 12th, 2009
Eppley v. Iacovelli [10]
Posted May 12th, 2009
Duran v. Andrew [11]
Posted May 12th, 2009
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Other citizen media law news...
'Libel tourism' bill passes state Senate
SFGate [12] - Fri. 05/15/09
Texas governor signs shield bill
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press [13] - Thurs. 05/14/09
"Financial Panic" and Online Censorship in Guatemala
OpenNet Initiative [14] - Thurs. 05/14/09
Online upstarts deliver news without the paper
Boston.com [15] - Thurs. 05/14/09
Ninth Circuit Mucks Up 47 USC 230 Jurisprudence . . . Again? -- Barnes v. Yahoo
Technology & Marketing Law Blog [16] - Wed. 05/13/09
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The full(er) Brief...
"The Sports Journalists' Association is reporting that the International Olympic Committee has issued guidelines for athlete bloggers at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. For those of you that have been following this space, many of the restrictions on athletes' speech will seem familiar from the IOC's previous guidelines, issued during the 2008 Games in Beijing. These include prohibitions on the posting of any sound or video (or 'still pictures . . . reproduced in a sequential manner, so as to simulate, in any way, moving images') recorded while on the Olympic grounds and the posting of any photos depicting 'any sporting action of the Games or the Opening, Closing or Medal Ceremonies,' as well as requirements that any material posted 'should at all times conform to the Olympic spirit and the fundamental principles of Olympism . . . and be dignified and in good taste.' New on the list: athletes will be prohibited from using the iconic Olympic rings on their sites. But, in a boon for local newspapers, the IOC has lifted the restriction on athletes posting on third-party websites, thus allowing local readers to follow the Olympic experiences of their hometown heroes. . . ."
Kimberley Isbell, IOC: All Your Blog Are Belong to Us [2]
"Felix Salmon of Reuters reports that the pseudonymous lead blogger behind the financial blog Zero Hedge received DMCA takedown notices for six posts that cited or excerpted from Merrill Lynch reports authored by Merrill's former chief economist, David Rosenberg. According to Salmon, Zero Hedge is 'an insider financial blog whose writers believe the worst of the meltdown is yet to come,' and the Rosenberg reports jive with this bearish view of the economy . . . Because the disputed posts are down (I had no luck on Internet Archive), it's hard to say for sure who has the better legal position. It sounds like Merrill Lynch is using copyright law to achieve a non-IP end -- to distance itself from the 'downer' views of its former chief economist. . . . And, more importantly, Tyler Durden's use of the Rosenberg reports was likely a fair use if he stuck to the ordinary protocols of quotation and commentary that you find on most conscientious blogs. On the other hand, Durden may have posted the reports in their entirety, or maybe he quoted substantially more than was necessary to comment on them or the underlying economic events to which they referred. From a quick perusal of Zero Hedge, however, this doesn't look like his style. If anyone has a copy of the disputed posts, please enlighten us in the comments. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Merrill Lynch to Financial Blogger: Don't Quote Our Bearish Reports [3]
"The Associated Press is reporting that Craigslist has decided to replace the 'erotic services' section of its site with a new adult category that will be reviewed by Craigslist staff (Craigslist just issued a statement confirming the change). The decision follows several months of pressure from officials in a number of states who have been trying to force the online classified site to drop its 'erotic services"' section, claiming that the ads facilitate prostitution. As we and others have noted. . ., Craigslist is entitled to broad immunity under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ('Section 230'), the federal statute that protects operators of websites and other interactive computer services from liability for publishing the statements of third parties. Section 230's protection is not limited to civil liability. And while it does not apply to federal criminal law, see 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(1), the most plausible reading of the statute's language is that it preempts state criminal actions inconsistent with it. But this hasn't stopped state officials from trying to bully the site's operators into removing sexually explicit postings (and photographs) from the site. . . ."
David Ardia, Craigslist Dropping 'Erotic Services' Section, No Word On Whether State AGs Will Drop Their Bullhorns [4]
"Wired/Epicenter reported yesterday that popular photo-sharing site Flickr, in collaboration with the Obama administration, has changed the licensing designation on photos in the Official White House Photostream to reflect that, as U.S. government works, they are in the public domain. The photos previously bore a Creative Commons Attribution license, but now are labeled 'United States Government Work,' with a link to § 105 of the Copyright Act, the provision relating to works created by the federal government. . . . When the White House photos first appeared on Flickr in April, Fred Benenson of Creative Commons and others pointed out that the government couldn't grant a CC license on content to which it didn't own the copyright and hypothesized that the administration likely chose a CC Attribution license as the least restrictive option available to it because Flickr 'doesn't allow their photographers to choose Public Domain as an option to release their work to the world. . . .'"
Sam Bayard, White House Drops License Restrictions on Photos, Flickr Stream Now in Public Domain [5]
"I sent this list out to the CMLP's team of intrepid bloggers to pique their interest, but with things being a bit slow around the office today, I figured I'd avoid the middleman. Things that caught my eye this past week: Who owns the facts? The AP and the 'hot news' controversy - We aren't likely to see this issue go away any time soon. For more on 'hot news' misappropriation, see this CMLP blog post. California Bill Intended To Reduce Libel Tourism and related Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld: California Acts to Stop Libel Tourism - Another topic we've covered in the past, but one that deserves to be kept on the front burner. We are still waiting for a federal law to address the practice of foreign plaintiffs who pick the jurisdiction with the most draconian libel laws in which to sue. . . ."
David Ardia, News Links [6]
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