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Media & Entertainment Law

Media Law Prof Blog

Media law resources, information, and news for the academic community.

Post Frequency: 34.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:48:00

Bill Clinton Returning To US With Freed Journalists

Posted on August 04, 2009
Former President Bill Clinton is on his way home to the U.S. from North Korea, escorting home Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were pardoned earlier by North Korean President Kim Jong Il. Read more here.

Tenenbaum's Damage: $675,000

Posted on August 04, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Joel Tenenbaum has been ordered to pay $675,000 in damages for downloading thirty songs illegally. A federal grand jury handed out the verdict after federal judge Nancy Gertner found that Mr. Tenenbaum had...

Tenenbaum Admits To Downloading Tunes

Posted on July 31, 2009
After Joel Tenenbaum admitted on the stand to downloading and distributing copyrighted tunes, the judge in the case ruled that all that is left for the jury to decide is whether he willfully infringed those copyrights and what the damages...

Celebrate Daniel Defoe

Posted on July 31, 2009
On this day in 1703, the famed English satirist was condemned to the pillory for his pamphlet The Shortest Way With Dissenters, which neither the government nor the dissenters initially understood. When they did, they really got mad. The public,...

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Defamation Lawsuits in Britain

Posted on July 31, 2009
Roy Greenslade notes that defamation lawsuits in Britain have increased by a third compared to the same period last year. The overall increase - from 59 to 78 - was driven by a rise in libel cases launched by businesses,...

Online Safety & Free Speech

Posted on July 31, 2009
Berin Michael Szoka and Adam D. Theirer, Progress & Freedom Foundation, have published "Online Safety & Free Speech," as Progress & Freedom Foundation Progress on Point Paper No. 16.11. Here is the abstract. Online privacy, child safety, free speech and...

Disappearing 1984s

Posted on July 30, 2009
After it discovered that the publisher of its version of the ebooks 1984 and Animal Farm did not have the rights to either version, Amazon remotely deleted the ebooks from their customers' Kindles. The zapped consumers "lit up [the Internet]...

Of Kookaburras and Gum Drops and Men at Work

Posted on July 30, 2009
The Australian group Men at Work is facing a plagiarism accusation over a riff in its hit "Down Under." The popular song, says Larrikin Music, uses part of the tune "Kookaburra" (remember "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree/Merry, merry...

Equal Access For Online Journalism

Posted on July 30, 2009
Ryan Benjamin Witte, Columbia University Law School; Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, LLP; and Florida State University College of Law, has published "It's My News Too! Online Journalism and Discriminatory Access to the Congressional Press Gallery." Here is the abstract...

Dealing With Cyberbullying

Posted on July 30, 2009
Berin Michael Szoka and Adam D. Thierer, The Progress & Freedom Foundation, have published "Cyberbullying Legislation: Why Education is Preferable to Regulation," as 16 Progress & Freedom Foundation Progress on Point Paper No. 12 (June 2009). Here is the abstract...

Landlord Sues Former Tenant Over Tweet

Posted on July 29, 2009
Landlord Horizon Group Management is suing former tenant Amanda Bonnen over her tweet, "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it's okay." The company says Ms. Bonnen's tweet defamed it, injuring its reputation,...

New Staff At the FCC Media Bureau, Wireline Competition Bureau

Posted on July 29, 2009
From the FCC, announcement of new staff: Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced senior staff in the Media Bureau, Enforcement Bureau, and Wireline Competition Bureau including: Media Bureau Chief William Lake and Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett...

Is the Google Books Settlement Good For Readers? Authors?

Posted on July 29, 2009
Commentary on the Google books deal, from the New York Times.

Bans on Prisoner Ads Asking For Pen Pals Under Fire

Posted on July 29, 2009
Florida, like several other states, prohibits prisoners from creating and posting ads for penpals on the website www.writeaprisoner.com. The states say that such ads may contribute to fraud and abuse. But lawsuits filed by various groups including the ACLU are...

The Dual Nature of the ISP As Speaker and Conduit

Posted on July 29, 2009
Rob Frieden, Pennsylvania State University College of Communications, & Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law, has published "Invoking and Avoiding the First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status as Both Content Creators and Neutral Conduits...

Using IP Laws To Quash Freedom of Speech

Posted on July 29, 2009
Jill Barton, University of Missouri, Kansas City, has published "Backdoor Censorship: How Media Giants' Copyright Protection Policies Collide with the First Amendment." Here is the abstract. This thesis analyzes an alarming trend among large media companies to use copyright laws...

Racial and Religious Hate Speech Under the Singaporean Constitution

Posted on July 28, 2009
Zhong Zewei, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, has published "Racial and Religious Hate Speech in Singapore: Reclaiming the Victim's Perspective," in Singapore Law Review (2009). Here is the abstract. In this essay, I argue that the rationales offered...

Tenenbaum Trial Underway

Posted on July 28, 2009
Ben Sheffner has coverage of the Joel Tenenbaum (P2P copyright infringement) case here at Copyrights & Campaigns blog. The trial began yesterday. Judge Nancy Gertner ruled against allowing the biggest part of attorney (and Harvard Law Prof) Charles Nesson's proposed...

Criminalizing Speech After 2001

Posted on July 28, 2009
Shawne Marie Boyne, Indiana University School of Law, Indianapolis, has published "The Criminalization of Speech in an Age of Terror." Here is the abstract. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States and many European states have sought ways...

Palin Says Goodbye, Smacks Media

Posted on July 27, 2009
On her way out of the Governor's office, Sarah Palin had some advice for the media. "So how about in honor of the American soldier, you quit making up things. And don't underestimate the wisdom of the people. And one...

Magazine Uses Wrong Photo To Illustrate Story

Posted on July 27, 2009
The trade publication Nursery Management Today used a photograph of the wrong day care center to accompany an article about child abuse, and consequently may face a claim for damages. The magazine used a picture of the Little Ted's day...

Rules Concerning Media Access To English Family Courts Still Causing Confusion

Posted on July 27, 2009
Three months after new court rules allowing the press to observe family court proceeding have taken effect, some confusion still exists among court officials as to whether media can be admitted. The government plans to propose changes in the fall...

Nadya Suleman Signs TV Deal

Posted on July 26, 2009
According to the BBC, Nadya Suleman has landed a tv deal for her children--all fourteen of them. If a judge okays the deal, worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, it will include a little over a month's worth of...

Florida Governor: Praise For Anti-Semitic Film Is "Mistake"

Posted on July 25, 2009
Florida Governor Charlie Crist's office now says the Governor actually didn't mean it when he told John Ubele in a letter that he would share the DVD Mr. Uberle had sent with "the people of Florida". The DVD in question?...

Who Profits From the Google Book Settlement?

Posted on July 24, 2009
Pamela Samuelson, UC Berkeley School of Law, has published "Legally Speaking: The Dead Souls of the Google Booksearch Settlement," in volume 52 of Communications of the ACM (July 2009). Here is the abstract. This short article argues that the proposed...

Alabama Bans Wine Because of Label

Posted on July 24, 2009
The state of Alabama's Alcohol Beverage Control Board has notified grocery stores, bars and restaurants that they must immediately cease selling or serving the Cycles Gladiator wine, which is produced by the Hahn Family Winery in Soledad, California. Why, you...

ASA Turns Down Spicy Sausage Ads

Posted on July 23, 2009
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has told Mattesons and its ad agency Quiet Storm that its "saucy sausages" were a no go, at least when children are listening. The commercials, which feature a man asking women where they would "like...

Jury Returns Verdict For Tom Bower in Defamation Case

Posted on July 23, 2009
The jury in the Richard Desmond/Tom Bower defamation case has found in favor of writer Tom Bower. Mr. Bower said he was "delighted" with the majority verdict. The Guardian estimates the total legal bill at over one million pounds.

Town Fires City Manager Because of Marriage To Adult Film Actress

Posted on July 23, 2009
MSNBC.com reports that the Fort Myers Beach town council has fired Scott Janke as town manager, giving as its reason Mr. Janke's recent marriage to adult film actress Anabela Mota, who uses the name Jazella Moore for screen work. The...

Call For Stories

Posted on July 22, 2009
From Nancy Levit, Professor of Law, UMKC UMKC Law Review ?One-L Revisited? Law Stories Contest Introduction by Scott Turow With stories by: Ian Ayres Pamela Bridgewater Alafair Burke Stephen Carter Andrew McClurg Marc Poirier Deborah Post Lisa Pruitt Saira Rao...

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