Consumerist: Lawsuits: Law Firm ‘Jones Day’ Usurps Monster Cable For Stupidest Trademark Lawsuit Ever. Jones Day is a law firm that doesn’t want anyone else to use standard, everyday formatting for links in news stories about its staff, and it succeeded in forcing a small start-up to cave in to its demands. This is so […]
Posts under ‘Legal’
Obama Starts to Follow Through on Transparency
Washington Post: New Obama Orders on Transparency, FOIA Requests. In a move that pleased good government groups and some journalists, President Obama issued new orders today designed to improve the federal government’s openness and transparency. The first memo instructs all agencies and departments to “adopt a presumption in favor” of Freedom of Information Act requests, […]
The Unspoken Peril for "Citizen Journalists" Surprise! You Owe the IRS Some Gift Tax!
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.” […]
Citizen Media at the Obama Inauguration: What You Can (and Can't Do)
The Citizen Media Law Project has a terrific explainer up today — “Documenting the 2009 Presidential Inauguration” — for people who are planning to be in Washington for the Obama inauguration. It explains: During the Inauguration, heightened security measures will be in place across Washington, D.C., particularly in the areas where official events are taking […]
GateHouse v NY Times Co.: Not So Simple After All
UPDATED One of the most intriguing current media legal cases pits GateHouse Media, which owns a pile of newspapers in New England (and elsewhere) against the New York Times Co., owner of the Boston Globe and Boston.com. (UPDATE: A Judge has denied, for now, an injunction.) I’ve been looking at this from both sides’ perspectives, […]
Opening the Government, Starting with the Transition
I’m a signer of a letter on a new site called “An Open Transition,” where a group of folks led by Larry Lessig: celebrates the incoming administration’s decision to put a Creative Commons license on its Change.Gov transition website, thereby allowing anyone to share, remix and otherwise reuse and copy the material there; and asks […]
Malaysia Government Gets Hammered for Jailing Blogger
CNET: Blogger jailing backfires on Malaysian government | Politics and Law. If the Malaysian government had hoped that the recent detention of controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin would quell the country’s vociferous blogger community, it may need to look elsewhere.
Blogger Libel Insurance
Citizen Media Law Project: New Insurance Program for Bloggers Offered by the Media Bloggers Association. The new insurance, which is currently available only to members of the Media Bloggers Association (MBA), provides coverage for defamation, invasion of privacy, and copyright infringement claims. Premiums start at $450 per year for $100,000/$300,000 in coverage ($100,000 per claim […]
Copyright Challenge in New Push for Open Government Data
Carl Malamud, a hero in providing access to information, has posted online the the 38-volume California Code of Regulations, over which the state claims copyright ownership. The Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat reports the story.
Wikileaks Domain to be Restored as Judge Realizes His Error
Citizen Media Law Project: Judge in Wikileaks Case Reverses Course, Wikileaks.org is Back Online.