Blogs

Obama Moves Quickly to Increase Government Transparency

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Well, that was quick.  Just a day into his new administration, President Obama issued a pair of memos and an executive order all aimed at increasing government openness.  The Washington Post reports:

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Judge Gertner Postpones Webcast of Hearing in P2P File Sharing Case

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United States District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has postponed what would have been the first live webcast of a federal court hearing scheduled for tomorrow in order to give the plaintiffs in the case an opportunity to seek appellate review of her decision allowing video cameras into her Boston courtroom. 

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Kentucky Court of Appeals Rules in Gambling Domains Case

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The Kentucky Court of appeals has ruled that the Commonwealth can not seize 141 domain names due to their alleged affiliation with online gambling. The Commonwealth initially filed an in rem (against the item, not against a person) action against the domain names -- seeking to seize the domains as "gambling devices." However, the statute does not seem to fit around domain names. The statute was designed to permit the seizure of slot machines and the like.

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WhiteHouse.gov: Glimmerings of a New Transparency

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Jason Kottke notes the new robots.txt file at whitehouse.gov — down to a single “disallow” from more than 2,400 yesterday.

(Cross-posted from the Center for Citizen Media Blog.)

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New York Times Calls on Inauguration Attendees to Submit Their Photos

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In much the same spirit as its Polling Place Photo Project, the New York Times is calling on attendees of this week's inaugural events to submit their photos for publication:

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South Carolina Legislator Seeks to Criminalize Profanity in Public

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South Carolina state senator Robert Ford has proposed a bill that would make it a felony

for a person in a public forum or place of public accommodation wilfully and knowingly to publish orally or in writing, exhibit, or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.

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One Yelp Review Case Settles as a Second Gets Underway in California

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We may be seeing the start of a trend in California, as one lawsuit regarding a review posted on the website Yelp.com settled last week just as a second case got underway.

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Anonymous Gripe Site Wins Legal Battle With Ohio Homebuilder Powermark Homes

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Last month, an anonymous website dedicated to criticizing Ohio homebuilder Powermark Homes succeeded in maintaining its anonymity in the face of a lawsuit brought by the company and two of its principals, Mark and Lisa Powers, who had sued the anonymous operator of Powermark Homes Alert.  At the time of the suit, the homepage for the site included a picture of Mark and Lisa and the statements "The Truth Exposed" and "Do you really want to do business with this Ohio Home Builder?"

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Federal Judge in Boston Orders Groundbreaking Webcast of Hearing

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United States District Court Judge Nancy Gertner agreed today to allow video cameras into her Boston courtroom to provide live Internet coverage of a hearing next Thursday in the lawsuit against Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum, who allegedly downloaded seven songs illegally over a peer-to-peer network.

Background on the case from Judge Gertner's order:

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The Unspoken Peril for "Citizen Journalists" Surprise! You Owe the IRS Some Gift Tax!

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StinkyJournalism.org: The Unspoken Peril for "Citizen Journalists" Surprise! You Owe the IRS Some Gift Tax!

Is the “donation” of a citizen’s content (video, articles, commentaries, images) to for-profit media outlets that exceeds a fair market value of $12,000 in any single year subject to gift tax? Judging from the IRS guidelines, the answer is “yes.”

This is a surprise, and an unwelcome one.

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CMLP Publishes Guide to Covering the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

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Heading to Washington, D.C., to attend the Presidential Inauguration?  You're bringing your camera with you, right?  Well it shouldn't come as any surprise that heightened security measures across the Washington area will affect where you can go, what you can bring with you, and what you can do to document the inaugural events.  In an effort to help

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Subscribe to the Citizen Media Law Brief

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Looking to catch up on the latest legal happenings in the world of online and citizen media?   Or perhaps you just need something to fill your dreary Friday afternoons?  Now is the time to subscribe to the Citizen Media Law Project's weekly newsletter, the Citizen Media Law Brief. 

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Anonymity of 'Skanks in NYC' Blogger Could Hinge On Fact-Opinion Divide

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Since the story broke in the New York Daily News on Tuesday, there has been a deluge of articles and posts (for example here, here, here,

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Web Security Standard Compromised by Security Researchers Using Sony PlayStations

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The following post was submitted by one our loyal readers, Theo Karantsalis.

MIAMI -- The familiar closed padlock icon that indicates a Web site is secure has been picked.

A Web security standard compromised by security researchers exposed a weak link in the system that could give hackers access to PCs.

At risk: all E-commerce and online banking transactions.

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Fox Television Forces Shutdown of Progress Illinois' YouTube Channel

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Progress Illinois, which "provides online news and commentary on issues important to Illinois working families and the progressive movement at large," has had its YouTube channel terminated after receiving three notices of copyright infringement from Fox Television Stations, Inc. arising from the organization's use of news footage from WFLD-TV, the Fox affiliate in Chicago. 

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Authors: Government Censorship Better than Corporate

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LA Observed has a post about how KRON TV in San Francisco disinvited the authors of a new book from a talk-show appearance after discovering that the book, No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle, takes shots at the crappy state of local TV news. My initial reaction was incredulity. I mean, how clueless is that kind of move?

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