The Citizen Media Law Project has launched the first iteration of its Legal Guide, which addresses the legal issues you may encounter as you gather information and publish your work. The guide is intended for use by citizen media creators with or without formal legal training, as well as others with an interest in these […]
Posts under ‘Legal’
Town of Manalapan, New Jersey, Versus Free Speech
Follow the links from Electronic Frontier Foundation page on the bizarre Manalapan v. Moskovitz lawsuit to see a local government running wild against free speech. The town is suing to get the identity of — and all kinds of other information about — a critical anonymous blogger. Anonymous speech should generally be taken less seriously […]
New Legal Threats Database for Citizen Media Creators
The Citizen Media Law Project has created a new Legal Threats Database: Our goal is to create an accurate and complete collection of legal threats directed at online speech. In order to accomplish this goal, we need your help. The database is here. For background, here’s a news release. Huge kudos to David Ardia, Sam […]
Free Speech and Public Records: Not Just for Journalists
I’m on the board of the California First Amendment Coalition, which is holding its annual “Free Speech and Open Government Assembly” this week in LA. This afternoon I”m moderating a panel with some prominent bloggers.
An Attack on Free Press
UPDATED Arizona Republic: Sheriff’s deputies arrest ‘New Times’ owners. The charges stem from a story published under their byline in the Thursday edition of New Times, in which they describe a subpoena the paper reportedly received from a grand jury convened by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Lacey has been released from jail after posting […]
Falling for the Big-Dollar Lawsuit Claim
AP: Dan Rather files $70M suit against CBS. Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and his former bosses Wednesday, claiming they made him a “scapegoat” for a discredited story about President Bush’s military service during the Vietnam War. When, oh when, will journalists stop falling for the bogus PR stunts lawyers and […]
Claiming Prices as 'Intellectual Property'
Harvard Crimson: Coop Discourages Notetaking in Bookstore: Coop President Jerry P. Murphy ’73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.” The apparent new policy could be a response to efforts by Crimsonreading.org—an online database that allows […]
More Paranoia About Photography in Public Places
Syracuse.com: SU student questions VA security actions. A Syracuse University graduate student taking photographs outside the VA Medical Center says she was questioned and ordered to delete several images by hospital security officers Thursday afternoon. Mariam Jukaku, 24, of Michigan, said the officers also photocopied her university ID and driver’s license and asked if she […]
Punishing Corporate Copyright Abusers
Chris Knight says, “Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright! Viacom is claiming that I have violated their copyright by posting on YouTube a segment from it’s VH1 show Web Junk 2.0… which VH1 produced – without permission – from a […]
Sleuthing the Many (Logo) Lives of the Cheney Video
Jon Garfunkel has done prodigious homework on how a variety of online video posters used (and abused) the attribution principle in “Internet Slash-Ups: Even the pros rip off C-SPAN.