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Citizen Media Law Project

Legal training and resources to protect free online speech. Advocacy for citizen participation in online media.
By Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Center for Citizen Media

Post Frequency: 3.9/day

Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 10:11:43

Hustler Spread of Murder Victim: Arguably Tasteless, but Certainly First Amendment Protected

Posted on October 20, 2008
In June 2007, professional wrestling promotrix, Nancy Benoit and her son, Daniel, were the victims of a double murder-suicide committed by her husband, WWE wrestler, Chris Benoit.Approximately 20 years earlier, Ms. Benoit (then Nancy Daus) posed nude for photographer Mark Samansky...

German Courts Say Nein to Google Image Search

Posted on October 17, 2008
Google appears to be learning the hard way that there's "kein fairer Gebrauch" (no fair use) in Germany. The Internet search giant lost two German copyright decisions Monday, as the courts ruled that the thumbnail images that appear in Google Image Search violate German copyright law...

Documenting Your Vote: Virginia Election Laws

Posted on October 16, 2008
In the wake of the final presidential debate last night, polls suggest that Virginia is poised to be a key state come November 4. If you're a Virginia voter thinking about documenting the big day, Virginia election law may affect your ability to use video or still photography in and around your polling place, as well as your ability to interview other voters at the polls...

CMLP Joins with YouTube and PBS to Help Citizens Video Their Vote

Posted on October 15, 2008
As part of a new project spearheaded by YouTube and PBS called "Video Your Vote," the Citizen Media Law Project is researching the laws regulating recording activities at polling places. Our specific focus is on the laws that impact voters' ability to document their own voting experiences through video and still photography, as well as their ability to carry out other newsgathering functions, such as interviewing other voters outside of polling places...

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McCain's YouTube Takedowns Inspire Fair Use Fervor

Posted on October 15, 2008
There's nothing like a misfired copyright claim to make a presidential campaign see the value of fair use. After finding several of its campaign videos removed from YouTube for copyright claims, the McCain-Palin campaign has fired off an eloquent defense of fair use -- and another illustration of where the DMCA's counter-notification process falls short...

Celebrating Open Access Day

Posted on October 14, 2008
I am sitting in the Berkman Center's conference room listening to Stephen Schultze give an impassioned appeal to increase public access to government information, especially federal court records. You can listen to his talk through a live webcast feed...

Lessig on Remix Culture, Piracy, and Copyright Reform

Posted on October 13, 2008
Lawrence Lessig took time out from new projects to publish a thought-provoking essay in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. He examines how the "war" on copyright piracy has collaterally damaged remix culture and even undermined the rule of law...

Documenting Your Vote: Ohio Election Laws

Posted on October 10, 2008
Continuing our focus on swing states, I'll look today at the laws regulating polling place activities in Ohio. These laws may impact your ability to document your own voting experience through video and still photography, as well as your ability to carry out other newsgathering functions, such as interviewing other voters outside of polling places...

Will Your ISP Stand Up for Your Free Speech Rights?

Posted on October 09, 2008
There are a lot of things to consider when making the decision to launch a blog or website, including questions of cost, ease of use, and ownership of content. Understanding how these considerations impact your legal rights and potential liability can help you make an intelligent choice as to what platform to use and what precautions to take when you speak online (we've got a whole section on these concerns, and others, in our legal guide)...

Oregon Shield Law Protects Anonymous Commenter

Posted on October 08, 2008
Last week, an Oregon state judge ruled that Oregon's media shield law, found at Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 44.510 to 44.540, protected the identity of an anonymous commenter who posted allegedly defamatory statements on the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week websites...

Documenting Your Vote: Florida Election Laws

Posted on October 07, 2008
This post is another in our series looking at state election laws that regulate activities at polling places on Election Day. These laws, which we cover from a general standpoint in the Documenting Your Vote section of our legal guide, may impact your ability to document your own voting experience through video and still photography, as well as your ability to carry out other newsgathering functions, such as interviewing other voters outside of polling places...

Introducing Guest Blogger Marc Randazza

Posted on October 06, 2008
I'm excited to welcome Marc Randazza, a noted First Amendment lawyer, as a guest blogger. Regular readers of this blog will recognize Marc as the often irreverent author behind The Legal Satyricon, a blog focused on law, technology, and politics. For his ?day job,? Marc practices with the law firm of Weston, Garrou, Walters & Mooney, where he focuses on First Amendment, intellectual property, Internet, and gaming law...

Documenting Your Vote: California Election Laws

Posted on October 03, 2008
As part of a new project spearheaded by YouTube and PBS called "Video Your Vote," the CMLP is doing research on the state laws regulating activities at polling places on Election Day. Our specific focus is on laws that impact voters' ability to document their own voting experiences through video and still photography, as well as their ability to carry out other newsgathering functions, such as interviewing other voters outside of polling places...

Skype Cannot be Trusted, Period

Posted on October 02, 2008
As Salon notes in "Skype sells out to China," the eBay-owned service has collaborated with a Chinese company to enable spying on the allegedly encrypted messages that Skype users send each other to and from, and within, China. This disgusting sellout should surprise no one...

Big Media Challenges Constitutionality of Minnesota Polling Restriction

Posted on October 01, 2008
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and the Associated Press have joined forces to challenge a Minnesota statute that forbids non-voters to stand within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place on election day. In their complaint, the media companies allege that this restriction, as applied to their planned exit polling activities, violates the First Amendment...

Trademark Filings as Economic Indicators?

Posted on September 30, 2008
Now this is interesting. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports in an article entitled "What trademarks say about economy," that [w]hen trademark filings are up, it's a good sign that the economy is humming along. But if they go up too fast, you may have a bubble on your hands...

Car Dealership Appeals ConsumerAffair's CDA 230 Win

Posted on September 29, 2008
New York-based Nemet Chevrolet filed a notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit last week, challenging a district court's dismissal of its amended complaint against ConsumerAffairs.com based on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230). The appeal presents some interesting questions about whether a website loses CDA 230 immunity by encouraging negative consumer commentary and using drop-down boxes to enable users to categorize their submissions...

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Sues Cyber-Impersonators

Posted on September 26, 2008
Aerosmith singer and generally-uber-famous-person Steven Tyler filed a lawsuit Wednesday against anonymous bloggers who allegedly impersonated him and his girlfriend Erin Brady. Tyler's complaint includes claims for false light invasion of privacy, publication of private facts, and misappropriation of likeness (a...

YouTube Anti-Scientology Takedowns and Putbacks

Posted on September 25, 2008
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports on some good news, and bit of bad news, regarding the blizzard of DMCA takedown notices sent to YouTube on behalf of the Church of Scientology. Back in early September, the American Rights Counsel, Schaper Company, and Media House Enterprises, among others, sent hundreds of takedown notices to YouTube demanding the removal of videos critical of the Church of Scientology...

Marc Randazza: First Amendment Juggernaut

Posted on September 24, 2008
My good friend Marc Randazza has given me the green light on an exciting piece of news. On September 11, 2008, Florida Circuit Court Judge George Sprinkle entered a default judgment in favor of Randazza's client Larry Giles, operator of the Veranda Park News, an online newspaper offering observations and commentary on events and aesthetic issues in Giles's development community...

New Insurance Program for Bloggers Offered by the Media Bloggers Association

Posted on September 23, 2008
Here is a simple, but often ignored, truth: if you publish online, whether it's a news article, blog post, podcast, video, or even a user comment, you open yourself up to potential legal liability. It doesn't matter whether you are a professional journalist, hockey-mom, or an obscure blogger, if you post it, you'll need to be prepared for the legal consequences...

CMLP Joins Amicus Brief in Support of BlockShopper.com

Posted on September 22, 2008
Last Friday, the Citizen Media Law Project joined Public Citizen, EFF, and Public Knowledge in filing an amici curiae brief in support of BlockShopper.com's motion to dismiss Jones Day's bogus trademark claims against it. The brief argues that Jones Day has failed to state a cause of action for trademark infringement because exhibits to the complaint clearly dispel any likelihood of confusion, because the First Amendment protects Blockshopper's noncommercial speech, and because using Jones Day's name to describe the activities of its associates is a nominative fair use...

CMLP Teams Up With NewsU to Launch Online Media Law Course

Posted on September 19, 2008
We're pleased to announce that News University launched its Online Media Law course today. The course is specifically designed for individuals and journalists engaged in online publishing, and it covers three important areas of media law -- defamation, privacy, and copyright...

Virginia Supreme Court: State Anti-Spam Law is Unconstitutional

Posted on September 18, 2008
It looks like Jeremy Jaynes, the first person in the United States to be convicted of a felony for spamming, is going to get a free pass, thanks to a decision handed down by the Virginia Supreme Court last week striking down Virginia's anti-spam law, Va...

YouTube Changes Guidelines, Senator Lieberman Gets Partial Victory on Terrorist Videos

Posted on September 17, 2008
Taking full advantage of the seventh anniversary of 9/11, YouTube announced changes to its community guidelines last week, prohibiting the upload of videos inciting others to commit violent acts. The change comes several months after Senator Joe Lieberman pressured YouTube to remove videos not only inciting violence, but also content "that can be readily identified as produced by Al-Qaeda or another [Foreign Terrorist Organization]," through logos such as these: Senator Lieberman issued a press release praising the move and claiming it as a "direct response to the Senator?s complaints about violent Islamist videos that have been posted on the popular website...

Libel Tourism: A First Amendment Holiday

Posted on September 16, 2008
Over the past few months, I've blogged several times (see here and here) about the proposed federal Free Speech Protection Act of 2008, which would allow a federal court to enjoin the enforcement in the United States of a foreign libel judgment if the speech at issue would not constitute defamation under U...

Jones Day Gets Trademark Law Wrong, Squelches Legitimate Reporting

Posted on September 15, 2008
Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen published a fantastic post on Friday about big law firm Jones Day's lawsuit against BlockShopper.com, an online real estate news website covering Chicago, South Florida, Las Vegas, and St. Louis. The website reports on what's happening in the local real estate markets -- who's buying, who's selling, where, what price, etc...

Citizen Media Law Project Joins the Right to Write Fund In Protecting Creative Artists From Legal Threats

Posted on September 12, 2008
Earlier this week, we announced that the CMLP will work closely with the Right to Write Fund, a newly launched nonprofit which will act as an educational repository and clearinghouse for free speech and copyright fair use issues that writers, filmmakers, professors, recording artists, and publishers encounter when moving among the worlds of print, Internet, film, the fine arts, and new media...

Print-on-Demand Service BookSurge Deemed Not To Be a "Publisher"

Posted on September 11, 2008
Back in July, a federal court in Maine ruled that BookSurge, a print-on-demand service owned by Amazon.com, was not liable for defamatory statements contained in a book it "published" on behalf of one of its clients. Sandler v. Calcagni, 2008 WL 2761892 (D...

Boston City Council: What Are They Hiding?

Posted on September 10, 2008
Journalism professor Dan Kennedy has a great post today at Media Nation about the Boston City Council's review of an 80-page report that it commissioned urging the state legislature to exempt it from the Massachusetts open meetings laws. He takes issue with statements made by councilors complaining that the law is "confusing" and creates a "chilling effect...

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