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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

CMLP Launches New Legal Guide Section on Access to Government Information

Posted on April 02, 2008
Back in January, we began rolling out the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide. So far, we've published major sections of the guide covering Forming a Business and Getting Online, Dealing with Online Legal Risks, and Newsgathering and Privacy. This week we published the section on Access to Government Information, which highlights the extensive amount of information available through government sources and explains how both traditional and non-traditional journalists can use various public access laws to gather and make effective use of this information...

TechCrunch Sues Facebook for $25 Million!!

Posted on April 01, 2008
Breaking news -- TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is suing Facebook for unauthorized use of his name and likeness. In apparent disregard of the tech blogger's publicity rights, the social networking giant has been allowing advertisers to post ads on user profiles using Arrington's picture and name to endorse their products without permission...

Berkman@10 Conference: The Future of the Internet

Posted on March 31, 2008
Save the date! On May 15-16, 2008, the Berkman Center will cap off its 10th anniversary celebration with a conference on ?The Future of the Internet.? The Center has been in full celebratory mode for the 2007-08 academic year and has hosted many events including a distinguished speaker series and book releases by Berkman projects and people...

N.H. Court Holds Right of Publicity Claim Not Barred by Communications Decency Act

Posted on March 28, 2008
In what appears to be the first case of its kind, a federal court in New Hampshire has ruled that the immunity provisions in section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230) do not bar a state law claim for a violation of a person's "right of publicity...

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A Tale of Two Prisoners

Posted on March 27, 2008
This week, a judge ruled that Allan Parmelee, an inmate at the McNeil Island Corrections Center in Washington state, can continue to request public records under the state Public Records Act. According to the Associated Press, Parmelee has requested hundreds of public records about the state troopers, prosecutors, judges, prison guards, and others who incarcerated him for firebombing two cars...

Heading to L.A. for Media Re:public Forum

Posted on March 26, 2008
I'll be quiet for a few days because I'm off to Los Angeles for a forum organized by Media Re:public, a Berkman Center project that examines the current and potential impact of participatory news media. The forum, which kicks off Thursday night and goes all day on Friday, will feature talks, panel discussions, and small group breakout sessions on a wide variety of topics and issues relating to participatory media, including "Parsing the Political Blogosphere," "Supporting the Emerging Media Ecology," "Finding Viable Models," and (the catchiest) "It's 2013: Do You Know Where Your News Is?" It should be great -- see the agenda for a full list of topics, speakers, and panelists...

Highlights from the Legal Guide: Liability for the Use of Recording Devices

Posted on March 25, 2008
This is the seventh in a series of posts calling attention to topics we cover in the Citizen Media Legal Guide. In this post, we highlight the section on Recording Phone Calls, Conversations, Meetings and Hearings, which discusses federal and state laws relating to the use of recording equipment in specific private and semi-public settings...

Court Rejects Wal-Mart's Bid to Silence Criticism Through Trademark Law

Posted on March 24, 2008
Last Thursday, a federal court in Georgia handed down a big win for free speech when it ruled that Wal-Mart could not use trademark law to stop a critic from disseminating his virulently anti-Wal-Mart views over the Internet. From Public Citizen's press release: In rejecting the company?s claim of trademark infringement, the U...

New Jersey Prosecutors Set Sights on JuicyCampus

Posted on March 21, 2008
New Jersey prosecutors have subpoenaed the controversial gossip site JuicyCampus as part of an investigation into whether the site is violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. Reports (here, here, and here) indicate that prosecutors believe that the website may be running afoul of the law by suggesting in its Terms & Conditions that it does not allow the posting of offensive material but providing no enforcement of that rule or way for users to report objectionable content...

iBrattleboro Victorious, Court Dismisses Libel Lawsuit Under Section 230 of Communications Decency Act

Posted on March 20, 2008
A Vermont judge has dismissed the libel lawsuit filed against Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, co-founders and owners of iBrattleboro.com, a widely acclaimed community journalism site based in Brattleboro, Vermont, ruling that Grotke and LePage are immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("CDA 230")...

It's Sunshine Week!

Posted on March 19, 2008
It?s March and it?s Sunshine Week. This year, from March 16 - 22, the American Society of Newspaper Editors is holding its annual national initiative to raise public consciousness on the need for open government. The name ?Sunshine Week? is derived from the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis?s admonition that ?[s]unlight is the best disinfectant,? describing his belief that an open government is more accountable to its people and thus less easily corrupted...

Highlights from the Legal Guide: Protecting Sources and Source Material

Posted on March 18, 2008
This is the sixth in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the Citizen Media Legal Guide we began publishing in January. This past month, we rolled out the sections on Newsgathering and Privacy, which address the legal and practical issues you may encounter as you gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect other information...

Rowling v. RDR Books: Fair Use Is Like Gumbo

Posted on March 17, 2008
Derek Bambauer at Info/Law has an excellent post on the Harry Potter Lexicon lawsuit, Rowling v. RDR Books. Bambauer analyzes Rowling's copyright claim and RDR Book's fair use defense and concludes that the celebrity author will likely prevail. While reasonable minds differ on this point (see, e...

Oklahoma Curtails Online Access to Court Records

Posted on March 14, 2008
Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court adopted new rules governing public access to court records, cutting off all public access to court records via the Internet and limiting public access to other information that has been available in the past...

PreCYdent: Another Useful Resource for Free Online Judicial Decisions

Posted on March 13, 2008
Below is a video explaining how to use PreCYdent, a new resource for free online court opinions. The coverage of the database is quite impressive -- Supreme Court cases going back to 1759, federal appellate cases going back to 1950, and a good number of federal district court cases since 2004...

CMLP Joins Other Media Organizations to Oppose Contempt Order Against Journalist in Anthrax Case

Posted on March 12, 2008
Earlier this week, the Citizen Media Law Project joined 28 of the country's leading news organizations, press associations, and nonprofits dedicated to preserving free speech rights in filing a brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit opposing the contempt citation issued against Toni Locy, a former reporter for USA Today...

Kentucky Legislator Introduces Bill to Stop Anonymous Posting

Posted on March 11, 2008
Last week, Republican Tim Couch of Kentucky introduced a bill in the state legislature that would impose criminal fines on Kentucky-based website operators who fail to collect "a legal name, address, and electronic mail address" before allowing a user to post a comment...

Highlights from the Legal Guide: Gathering Private Information

Posted on March 10, 2008
This is the fifth in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the Citizen Media Legal Guide we began publishing in January. This past month we rolled out the sections on Newsgathering and Privacy, which address the legal and practical issues you may encounter as you gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect other information...

Air Force DMCA-Bombs YouTubed Ad

Posted on March 08, 2008
Over at Wired's Threat Level blog, Kevin Poulsen reports on a new DMCA overreach: the U.S. Air Force complained (via outside counsel) about his posting of their recruiting video. The post, Poulsen says, was initially made at the Air Force's invitation...

New Major League Baseball Restrictions on Press Credentials Hamstring Online Coverage

Posted on March 06, 2008
As an avid baseball fan, I should have been paying closer attention to the recent dispute over Major League Baseball's new restrictions on credentialing journalists who cover MLB games. A nice summary of the dispute on the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' Sidebar Blog awoke me from my slumber...

Banks in Wikileaks Case Back Down, Seek to Dismiss Case After Losing Fight Over Injunctions

Posted on March 05, 2008
As if the order by Judge White vacating the injunctions in the Wikileaks case weren't enough, the Banks that brought the case have now filed a notice of dismissal seeking to voluntarily dismiss the entire case. It's a short filing, so I've quoted it in its entirety below: PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Plaintiffs BANK JULIUS BAER & CO...

Anthony Ciolli, former AutoAdmit Defendant, Sues Everyone

Posted on March 05, 2008
Breaking news from Above the Law: Anthony Ciolli, former defendant in the controversial AutoAdmit case, has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania state court against the two plaintiffs in that case, their lawyers, ReputationDefender and one of its employees, and the shadowy "T14 Talent...

Lawyer Preemptively Threatens Sports Blogger with Lawsuit

Posted on March 05, 2008
The preemptive legal threat, while not as worrisome as preemptive war, is a pretty unsavory tactic. Don't know what I mean by "preemptive legal threat" ? Not to worry, here is an example. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reports that a lawyer for Denver Nuggets coach George Karl has threatened blogger Andrew Feinstein with legal action (well, sort of)...

Lifestyle Lift v. Real Self -- Using Trademark Law to Silence Critical Reviews?

Posted on March 04, 2008
Eric Goldman published an interesting post yesterday about a new case, Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc. v. Real Self, Inc., which is a trademark dispute involving RealSelf.com, an interactive website with forums that let consumers discuss their experiences with cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures and vote on whether a procedure was "worth it" or "not worth it...

Citizen Media Law Project Publishes Newsgathering Section of Legal Guide

Posted on March 03, 2008
Back in January, we announced the launch of the first two major sections of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide covering Forming a Business and Getting Online and Dealing with Online Legal Risks. This past month we began rolling out the section on Newsgathering and Privacy, which addresses the legal and practical issues you may encounter as you gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect other information...

Judge in Wikileaks Case Reverses Course, Wikileaks.org is Back Online

Posted on February 29, 2008
We've just received word that the judge in the Wikileaks case, Jeffrey White, has vacated the Permanent Injunction that ordered Wikileaks' domain name registrar, Dynadot, to disable the entire Wikileaks.org domain name and remove all DNS hosting records...

YouTube Removes ?Shred? Parody Videos; WIRED Puts Them Back Up

Posted on February 29, 2008
Earlier this month, some of the most creative and entertaining parody videos on the Web were pulled from YouTube over dubious copyright claims. The disputed works, known as the ?shred? videos, are a series of parodies in which Finnish media artist Santeri Ojala overdubs performances of legendary guitarists such as Steve Vai, Carlos Santana, and Eric Clapton...

"AK47" Files Motion to Quash in AutoAdmit Case

Posted on February 28, 2008
The AutoAdmit case (formerly Doe v. Ciolli) never fails to satisfy. If the whole situation were not absurd enough already, one of the pseudonymous posters going by the handle "AK47" has filed a motion to quash a subpoena issued by the plaintiffs to AT&T seeking information about his identity...

Coalition of Media Organizations Challenges Prior Restraints in Wikileaks Case

Posted on February 27, 2008
Yesterday, a coalition of organizations dedicated to preserving free speech rights on the Internet, including the Citizen Media Law Project, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Los Angeles Times, Gannett, Associated Press, and Society of Professional Journalists, filed a "friend of the court" brief in the Wikileaks case...

The Net Remembers, for Good and Bad

Posted on February 27, 2008
I have a column running on the Guardian?s website. It?s entitled ?Freedom of information? ? and is reprinted below: What does a Swiss bank that does business in the Cayman Islands have in common with a Hong Kong actor who jets around the globe? They are object lessons this month in a reality that anyone handling information needs to understand...

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