Week of December 4, 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...

Eric Robinson looks at an issue that could spark the next wave of Internet regulation.
ADA Online: Is a Website a "Place of Public Accommodation"? [2]

Kimberley Isbell asks some questions about a recent California anti-SLAPP decision.
SLAPP Me Baby, One More Time [3]

Sam Bayard thinks Judge Miller should get down with his bad self.
Arkansas Judge Tosses Defamation Lawsuit Against Dixie Chicks Over "West Memphis Three" Letter [4]

The CMLP Staff sends a message to our bloggers and readers: you are the wind beneath our wings.
CMLP's Blog Named Top 100 Blawg by ABA Journal [5]

Andrew Moshirnia deploys The Princess Bride references to illuminate the folly of Microsoft's Bing overtures.
One of the Classic Blunders: Microsoft’s De-Listing Campaign Makes No Sense [6]

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Zuleger v. Klocko [7]
Posted Dec. 4, 2009

Darnell v. Dobrott [8]
Posted Dec. 2, 2009

United States v. Indymedia.us [9]
Posted Dec. 2, 2009

United States v. Weaver [10]
Posted Dec. 2, 2009

Ness v. Rondberg [11]
Posted Nov. 25, 2009 

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Other citizen media law news...

Senate committee debates federal shield law amendments
FOI/FYI Blog [12] - Thurs. 12/03/09

Best of Twitter: FTC Workshop Discusses Future of Journalism
MediaShift [13] - Thurs. 12/03/09

Jack Straw reveals plan to reform UK's 'chilling' libel laws
The Guardian [14] - Wed. 12/02/09

Does the First Amendment Require the Freedom of Information Act?
Dorf on Law [15] - Wed. 12/02/09

Congress May Probe WikiLeaks Over 9/11 Pages
CBS News [16] - Tues. 12/01/09

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The full(er) Brief...

"A lawsuit filed in October claims that Sony's online games-ranging from Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies to Wheel of Fortune-do not provide tools to allow visually impaired users to successfully play the games, and thus violate both the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and California's civil rights law. Stern v. Sony Corp. of America, 09-cv-o7710 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 23, 2009). . . . But legally, does this lawsuit make a valid claim? It may. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 327, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq., prohibits state and local governments, and privately-owned 'places of public accommodation' from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. . . . [I]t appears that the statute was written primarily with physical locations in mind. Yet, in 1996 the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Civil Rights concluded that these provisions applied equally to Internet web sites. . . . But federal appeals courts have split on the question of whether the ADA's provisions apply beyond actual, physical locations. . . ."
Eric P. Robinson, ADA Online: Is a Website a "Place of Public Accommodation"? [2]

"California SLAPP jurisprudence is the gift that keeps on giving, especially for weary bloggers looking for something to write about. . . . Of particular interest is a case handed down Tuesday by the California Court of Appeal, Second District, in Guessous v. Chrome Hearts, LLC, No. B212074 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 1, 2009). The opinion tackles the question of 'whether the filing of a lawsuit in a foreign country is a protected activity under the United States or California Constitutions,' and thus falls within the protections of California's 'anti-SLAPP' statute, section 425.16 of the California Code of Civil Procedure. . . . While the result in Guessous doesn't strike me as incorrect, the Court's reasoning raises some interesting questions about the application of California's anti-SLAPP statute to speech on the global Internet. Specifically, given the Court's reliance on the legislative history of the anti-SLAPP statute (that it was intended to protect a citizen seeking to influence "their government"), would online speech by a foreign individual criticizing California officials fall outside the protections of California's anti-SLAPP statute (after all, California isn't their government)? . . ."
Kimberley Isbell, SLAPP Me Baby, One More Time [3]

"Yesterday, a federal district court in Arkansas dismissed Terry Hobbs' defamation lawsuit against Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines and her band mates over a letter published on the band's website and MySpace blog. . . . The case is especially interesting because Maines' letter was a plea for support of the 'West Memphis Three'-Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin-three teenagers who were convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys in the Robin Hood Hills area of Arkansas in 1993. . . . In its decision granting summary judgment, the court easily found that Hobbs was a limited purpose public figure because he voluntarily injected himself into the public controversy surrounding the guilt or innocence of the three teenagers. . . . If ever there were a limited purpose public figure, Hobbs is it. From there, New York Times v. Sullivan and its progeny governed the case. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Arkansas Judge Tosses Defamation Lawsuit Against Dixie Chicks Over "West Memphis Three" Letter [4]

"wOOt! Yesterday, we received notification that the editors of the ABA Journal, the American Bar Association's eponymous publication and website, had named the Citizen Media Law Project Blog as one of the '100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers.' . . . [A] heartfelt thanks to YOU, our readers, who read, tweet, share, and comment on our posts. . . ."
CMLP Staff, CMLP's Blog Named Top 100 Blawg by ABA Journal [5]

"Before the Thanksgiving holiday, Microsoft held talks with News Corp. in an attempt to convince the titan of information to de-list its content from Google. The idea being, if users can only find news on Microsoft's Bing, then that search engine will beef up its anemic market share (around 10% of search traffic). This idea is so stupid, it is like going up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Let me go out on a limb and say that this maneuver has a zero percent chance of succeeding. . . . There has been much press recently of News Corp.'s threats to 'parasitic' blogs, leeching off news. However, the proposed de-listing highlights exactly why we need a diffuse and redundant series of information providers: so that no one company can go dark, obscuring information for political or economic gain. . . ."
Andrew Moshirnia, One of the Classic Blunders: Microsoft’s De-Listing Campaign Makes No Sense [6]

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