Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer: David Keneipp
How’d you get into media law? What was your first job? I started as a corporate lawyer at a mid-sized firm in New York. (At least, it was considered mid-sized back then; I was the 39th lawyer in the door.) I had gone to law school with the intention of becoming an entertainment lawyer, but…
Fighting for Access in the Sunshine State
By Sandy Bohrer In Florida, like elsewhere, government agencies, with the cooperation of state legislatures, employ multiple strategies to defeat public records requests. The first line of defense when the press (or individuals) ask for documents that may prove embarrassing to the agency is to assert as many exemptions as possible. Some agencies, like Florida’s…
How Europe Is Tackling Fake News and What This Means for Online Platforms
Developments in UK, Germany, France, Italy and The Netherlands. By Bryony Hurst, Sonja van Harten, Andrea Giussani, Niels Lutzhoeft & Marion Barbier For hundreds of years here in Europe we have looked to and received our news from traditional press organisations, regulated, to a greater or lesser extent, by independent bodies who set standards with…
No Joke: Copyright Case Against Conan O’Brien Headed to Trial
In an unusual copyright case over the alleged theft of jokes, a Los Angeles federal district court ruled this month that a comedy writer’s suit against Conan O’Brien can go forward to trial. Kaseberg v. Conaco, LLC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72921 (S.D. Cal. May 9, 2017) (Sammartino, J.). Parsing in detail the form and…
Court Holds Filmmaker Waived Reporter’s Privilege By Later Joining Murder Conviction Exoneree’s Legal Team
By Steven P. Mandell A federal Magistrate in Chicago has issued an unprecedented decision involving waiver of the reporter’s privilege. Simon v. Northwestern University, No. 15-C-1433, Dkt # 287 (N.D. Ill.). The decision emanates from the ever-growing body of litigation involving the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism’s Innocence Project and its controversial former director,…
Vermont Enacts Shield Law
Protection for Journalists’ Sources Effective Immediately On May 17, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed into law S.96, an Act relating to a news media privilege, making Vermont the 41st state to enact statutory protection for reporters’ sources. The effort to enact the statute was led by the Vermont Press Association with assistance from newspapers and…
SCOTUS Determines New York Credit Card Surcharge Ban Regulates Speech
By Chris Daniel, Heena Merchant & Kelsey Sullivan On March 29, 2017, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that a New York law prohibiting merchants from imposing surcharges for credit card purchases was a matter of free speech subject to First Amendment scrutiny. The Court’s decision in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman, turned on…
Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2017
EU Regulation a Centerpiece of Conference On May 18-19, 2017, MLRC held its tenth annual Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference in Silicon Valley. The event was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, and co-presented with the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology for the fourth consecutive year. This year’s conference…
Maine Protects Anonymous Speech in Parody Newsletter
Plaintiff Estopped from Re-Litigating Issues Decided Against Her in California By Sigmund D. Schutz In what may be the first decision of its kind, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion on May 4, 2017 concluding that an order quashing a subpoena for information about anonymous speakers in one jurisdiction (California) barred further subpoenas…
Bad Ass Lawyer Better Call Saul for Next Defamation Lawsuit
By Robin Luce Herrmann and Joseph E. Richotte Todd Levitt is an attorney and a former adjunct professor at Central Michigan University (CMU), with university students as his primary clientele. Levitt was actively involved in marketing his law firm on various social media platforms, including Twitter. As a legal marketing strategy, Levitt maintained a Twitter…
Minnesota Anti-SLAAP Law Ruled Unconstitutional
Violates Right to Jury Trial In a divided opinion, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the state anti-SLAPP law, Minn. Stat. § 554.02 (2016), violates the right to a jury trial by requiring judges to resolve disputed issues of fact on anti-SLAPP motions. Leiendecker v. Asian Women United of Minnesota, (May 24, 2017). At issue was a…
License to Chill: Massachusetts High Court Weakens State’s Anti-SLAPP Law
By Jeffrey Pyle In a surprise ruling, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) has fundamentally changed the legal framework for determining whether a claim is a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” (SLAPP) and thus subject to dismissal under the state’s “anti-SLAPP law,” G.L. c. 231, § 59H. That statute, passed in 1991, provides that if…
MLRC London Conference
From the Executive Director’s Desk Guest Columnist Dave Heller George is on a well-deserved vacation enjoying the vistas of the Alaska coast and imparting media law wisdom to fellow passengers aboard the ms Amsterdam, when not dog sledding on glaciers! He’s graciously turned over his page in the newsletter to allow me to expound on…
MediaLawLetter May 2017
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s DeskMLRC London Conference Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer: David Keneipp LIBEL & PRIVACY Mass.: License to Chill: Massachusetts High Court Weakens State’s Anti-SLAPP LawCourt Fundamentally Changes Framework for Determining Whether a Claim is a SLAPPBlanchard v. Steward Carney Hospital, Inc. Minn.: Minnesota Anti-SLAAP Law Ruled Unconstitutional Violates…