Week of November 6, 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...
Sam Bayard cheers as Marc Randazza chalks up another in the "win" column this week.
Glenn Beck's UDRP Complaint Gets The Smack Down [2]
CMLP staff reports on the oral argument in Fustolo v. Hollander.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Hears Oral Argument in Anti-SLAPP Case [3]
Jokes over....nothing to see here, folks. Helen Fu puzzles over the Chamber of Commerce's trademark claims against a parody site.
Chamber of Commerce to the Yes Men: We Are Not Amused [4]
Sam Bayard reports on whether the latest iteration of the federal shield bill will apply to bloggers.
Senate Puts Bloggers Back in the Federal Shield Bill [5]
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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...
Smith-Green Community School Corp. v. T.V. & M.K. (minors) [6]
Posted Nov. 4, 2009
Straub v. Hair Transplant Network [7]
Posted Nov. 4, 2009
Jones v. Above The Law [8]
Posted Nov. 4, 2009
New York v. Burgoyne [9]
Posted Nov. 2, 2009
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Other citizen media law news...
Texas Woman Sues Facebook for Privacy Violations
Fox News.com [10] - Thur. 11/5/09
Internet censorship liable to WTO challenge
Reuters [11] - Wed. 11/4/09
Ninth Circuit Adopts a National Standard for Internet Obscenity
Media and Communications Law Society [12] - Wed. 11/4/09
The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together
Michael Geist [13] - Tue. 11/3/09
Law Professor sues 'Above the Law' blog; time to go back to complaint-drafting school
Copyrights & Campaigns [14] - Mon. 11/2/09
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The full(er) Brief...
"First Amendment juggernaut Marc Randazza is having a very good week. On Wednesday, Professor Donald Marvin Jones a/k/a the 'Nutty Professor' voluntarily dismissed his invasion of privacy lawsuit against Randazza's client Above the Law. Today, word comes that WIPO Arbitration Panelist Frederick M. Abbot has denied Glenn Beck's UDRP complaint against another Randazza client, Isaac Eiland-Hall, the man behind glennbeckrapedandmurdereda younggirlin1990.com. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Glenn Beck's UDRP Complaint Gets The Smack Down [2]
"On Monday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) heard oral argument in Fustolo v. Hollander, No. SJC-10485. As you may recall, last month the Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLUM) and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association in submitting an amicus curiae brief urging the SJC to reverse a lower court's decision interpreting the state's anti-SLAPP legislation. . . . The brief was filed in support of Freda Hollander, a reporter for the Regional Review, a free local newspaper serving the North End community in Boston. The lawsuit involves allegations of defamation based on a series of articles in which Hollander reported on meetings of community groups that opposed development activities planned by the plaintiff, Steven Fustolo. . . . CMLP hopes that the Justices will . . . ultimately reject a categorical rule that would deny anti-SLAPP protection to the petitioning activity of paid staff acting on behalf of an organization-whether part of the news media or an advocacy group. A ruling is expected sometime in January 2010."
CMLP Staff, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Hears Oral Argument in Anti-SLAPP Case [3]
"What do Tommy Hilfiger, MasterCard, the World Wrestling Federation, and Tom 'Scopes monkey trial' Donohue, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have in common? Apparently, none of them has a sense of humor when it comes to their respective brands. On October 19, 2009, the Chamber was the target of a prank by the Yes Men, a self-described 'genderless, loose-knit association of some 300 imposters worldwide.' A fake press release announcing a change in the Chamber's position on the climate bill followed by a fake news conference at the National Press Club left the Chamber and various media outlets covering the event, including Reuters, CNBC, and Fox Business Network, scrambling to figure out what was going on. . . . The Chamber evidently felt that it should attract more attention to the issue by sending a DMCA takedown letter to the Yes Men's ISP and filed a complaint in federal District Court in Washington, DC. alleging federal trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution. . . ."
Helen Fu, Chamber of Commerce to the Yes Men: We Are Not Amused [4]On Friday,
"Senators Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) released a revised version of the proposed federal shield bill (S. 448), which expands the bill's coverage to bloggers and other amateur journalists publishing on the Internet. This version departs from a previous one, announced in September, which limited protection to "salaried employee[s]" and independent contractors for established news media organizations. . . . As Zachary Seward of Nieman Journalism Lab writes, with the revised version the Senate is "returning to its original definition of a journalist, focused on the craft instead of the business." We applaud this renewed focus on the function carried out by the individual in question, rather than occupational status. This approach better accounts for the economic realities and other challenges facing both journalists and journalism as an institution. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Senate Puts Bloggers Back in the Federal Shield Bill [5]
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