Week of April 23, 2010 [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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News from the Citizen Media Law Project...

This week, CMLP published extensive updates to its legal guide [2] pages on the legal protections for anonymous and pseudonymous speech on the Internet. We overhauled the general page [3] on First Amendment protections to reflect significant changes in the law over the past few years, and updated the state pages [4] to include many new cases on the topic. As a result, we added new state pages for Maryland [5], Missouri [6], Montana [7], New Hampshire [8], Oregon [9], and Tennessee [10], and significantly revised the existing pages for Connecticut [11], the District of Columbia [12], Illinois [13], New Jersey [14], New York [15], and Pennsylvania [16].  

Click here [17] for more details. 

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The latest from the Citizen Media Law Project blog...

David Ardia recommends a new report analyzing the media landscape in Philadelphia.
J-Lab: Exploring a Networked Journalism Collaborative in Philadelphia [18]

Arthur Bright thinks Supreme Court Justices should know the difference between email and a pager.
A Plea for a Tech-Savvy Justice [19]

Andrew Moshirnia just wants an excuse to make Nazi-themed "meme" puns.
What Happens to a Meme Deferred? The Downfall of Hitler Finds Out [20]

Sam Bayard knew this was coming.
Breaking News: Dow Jones Files "Hot News" Case Against Briefing.com [21]

Sam Bayard free-rides on an awesome tale of beers, disguised iPhones, and checkbook journalism.
Lost and Found: California Law and the Next Generation iPhone [22]

Justin Silverman decries the Virginia police raid on The Breeze.
Student Journalists in Virginia Need Strict Enforcement of Privacy Protection Act [23]

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Recent threats added to the CMLP database...

Town of Southborough v. MySouthborough.com [24]
Posted Apr. 21, 2010

Collins v. Federated Publications, Inc. [25]
Posted Apr. 21, 2010

Roebuck v. Trib Total Media, Inc. [26]
Posted Apr. 20, 2010

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Other citizen media law news...

Lawsuits Fly Over Mean Online Reviews
The Wall Street Journal [27] - Fri. 04/23/10

N.J. court rules blogger is not protected under shield law in porn company defamation case
NJ.com [28] - Thurs. 04/22/10

Maryland Police Confiscate Biker's Computers After He Catches Questionable Activity on Helmet Cam
Techdirt [29] - Wed. 04/21/10

Photographer loses photo alteration case
Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log [30] - Wed. 04/21/10

Supreme Court overturns anti-animal cruelty law in First Amendment case
The Washington Post [31] - Wed. 04/21/10

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The full(er) Brief...

"Our friends at J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism just released a report analyzing the media landscape in Philadelphia. The William Penn Foundation commissioned J-Lab to conduct the study of Philadelphia's media landscape and the state of public affairs reporting and make recommendations for a possible media investment strategy. It is well worth a read. . . ."
David Ardia, J-Lab: Exploring a Networked Journalism Collaborative in Philadelphia [18]

"The United States Supreme Court is, when it comes to technology, almost completely ignorant. Not exactly a news flash, I know. . . . Judging from the expertise the Court displayed during oral arguments for City of Ontario v. Quon, the majority of the Court appears to be but mewling infants when it comes to technology. . . . [T]he technological ignorance of the Supreme Court is a concern, particularly as they try to resolve cases like Quon and a possible appeal of Comcast v. FCC, which involves the FCC's authority to enforce net neutrality. These are not cases that deal with arcane bits of science and technology that will only affect the odd company or citizen. Rather, they are cases that will touch every member of wired society, and while that society does not contain many judges, it does contain practically every U.S. citizen under the age of 30. It is unacceptable for the Supreme Court to saddle literally an entire generation with bad law because it can't grasp even the basic concepts of the technology that that generation uses on a daily basis. . . ."
Arthur Bright, A Plea for a Tech-Savvy Justice [19]

"If you have never seen Hitler complain about Brett Farve's pseudo-retirement, the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format wars, or the American election cycle, then this may be your last chance. The uber-popular Downfall subs, aka The Hitler Meme or Hitler Finds Out, in which users provide new subtitles to an amazing scene from the 2004 film Der Untergang (Downfall) of the Great Dictator melting down in his bunker, are in the process of being walled off. The German production company Constantin Film has blocked these parodies from YouTube 'on copyright grounds'. . . . First off, [t]his particular shut down appears to be the result of YouTube's 'Content ID Tool,' [not DMCA takedown notices]. . . . Second, the decision to drag their content from the hands of potential consumers is simply idiotic. Constantin could have tried to generate ad revenue from user-generated content, making money for nothing (and chicks for free). Or, it could have used the track figure to gather more information about the relative popularity/interest in Downfall and targeted those markets for future sales. Instead, Constantin has decided to go dark, and hope that consumers, who will no longer be constantly exposed to novel commercials for a 6-year-old product, will suddenly gain a greater interest in German Cinema. Who thought this was a good idea? . . . Finally, . . . just because the videos are being used as parodies does not automatically render them fair use. While it is true that courts generally look favorably on parody, they are much more likely to allow parodies which provide commentary on the originally copyrighted content. . . ."
Andrew Moshirnia, What Happens to a Meme Deferred? The Downfall of Hitler Finds Out [20]

"A Dow Jones press release on BusinessWire announces that the financial media giant filed a lawsuit today against Briefing.com, alleging that the subscription-based financial site misappropriated its headlines and articles. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, includes claims for copyright infringement, 'hot news' misappropriation, breach of contract, and DMCA violations based on removal of copyright management information. . . . Not surprisingly, [the] 'sweat of the brow' logic is reminiscent of the reasoning in Judge Cote's influential decision in Barclays v. FlyOnTheWall from late March. I knew there would be follow-on suits, but I didn't think they'd come so quickly. This one could be interesting to watch because now we're unequivocally dealing with misappropriation of news (not 'subjective judgments'), though we're still in the financial sector. . . ."
Sam Bayard, Breaking News: Dow Jones Files "Hot News" Case Against Briefing.com [21]

"Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few days, you've heard that a newfangled iPhone mysteriously turned up in a fancy beer bar in Redwood City, California, and photos of it ended up on Endgadget and Gizmodo.  Since yesterday, new details have come to light, and the prodigal "iPhone HD" is headed back to the mothership, thanks in part to decidedly low-tech California law on lost property. . . . California law regulates what you can do when you find lost property in the state. Section 2080 of the Civil Code provides that any person who finds and takes charge of a lost item acts as 'a depositary for the owner.' If the true owner is known, the finder must notify him/her/it within a reasonable time and 'make restitution without compensation, except a reasonable charge for saving and taking care of the property.' Id. § 2080.  If the true owner is not known and the item is worth more than $100, then the finder has a duty to turn it over to the local police department within a reasonable time. Id. § 2080.1.  The owner then has 90 days to claim the property.  Id. § 2080.2. If the true owner fails to do so and the property is worth more than $250, then the police publish a notice, and 7 days after that ownership of the property vests in the person who found it, with certain exceptions. Id. § 2080.3. With this framework in mind, and § 2080 in particular, Gizmodo had little choice but to return the device once Apple admitted that this thing was the real deal. Worked out rather nice for everyone, I would say."
Sam Bayard, Lost and Found: California Law and the Next Generation iPhone [22]

"James Madison University students celebrate each semester with a large block party in a popular neighborhood near campus. Normally, about 2,000 people show up for the 'Springfest.' But last week more than 8,000 arrived, turning the normally quiet Harrisonburg, Va., town into what the student newspaper there called a 'war zone.' Partygoers began throwing rocks, beer bottles and cans, injuring dozens of people and causing serious property damage. Two hundred police officers, many wearing riot gear, tried to quell the violence with tear gas, pepper spray and foam projectiles. 'When you are setting off tear gas and people still aren't leaving, you know it's bad,' said Lt. Kurt Boshart of the Harrisonburg Police Department. 'It was really bad.' Police arrested at least 17 people during the April 10 riot and they quickly began reviewing uploaded YouTube videos to identify more suspects. With the abundance of evidence online, searching through videos can be an effective way to start an investigation. But the Harrisonburg Police Department didn't stop there. Armed with a search warrant, they raided the newsroom of the university's student newspaper, The Breeze, seizing all photographs of the rioting. By doing so, they likely violated a federal law that exists specifically to protect journalists from overly intrusive searches and seizures. . . ."
Justin, Silverman, Student Journalists in Virginia Need Strict Enforcement of Privacy Protection Act [23]

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