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May 2015

MediaLawLetter April 2015

PUBLICATION:
in this issue

Patch Reporter Wins Appeal to Protect Confidential Source

By Joe Roselius and Ken Schmetterer The lifeless bodies of two young men, Eric Grover and Terrance Rankins, were found strangled in a house in Joliet Illinois, after they were lured into the house to be robbed for money to buy alcohol and cigarettes. The four perpetrators discussed dismembering the bodies to hide their crime…

Landmark UK Judgment on Privacy and Data Protection

Decision Illustrates Ascent of Data Privacy Rights By Anya Proops The question of how privacy rights should play out within the online world is one of the most interesting and difficult issues of our modern networked age. Less than a year ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a judgment in which…

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Executive’s Right to Be Forgotten Request Rejected by Dutch Court

Google Spain Not Meant to Suppress News Reporting By Joran Spauwen In the fall of 2014 an Amsterdam Court was offered a chance to shed light on the interpretation of the Google Spain (Costeja) decision of the European Court of Justice, which created a ‘right to be forgotten.’ The court then ruled that Google was…

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Court Unseals Arrest Warrant Affidavit in Brutal Spousal Murder Case

By Steven D. Zansberg Without resolving whether the public’s right of access to an arrest warrant affidavit is guaranteed by the First Amendment or merely under the common law, Colorado state trial court Judge James Boyd unsealed the arrest affidavit for Arturo Navarette-Portillo, who stands accused of the first-degree murder of his wife in Carbondale,…

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Social Media Accounts Can Be “Property” in Bankruptcy

By Marc Fuller Addressing an issue of first impression in Texas, a bankruptcy court in Houston held that social media accounts can be the property of a bankruptcy estate. See In re Ctli, Inc., No. 14-33564, 2015 WL 1588085 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 3, 2015). The former owner of the Debtor, a gun store and shooting…

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District of Connecticut Denies Section 230 Protection to Online Ad Network

By Jeff Hermes On March 5, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut ruled on the liability of LeadClick, the operator of an online advertising network, in a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The case, FTC v. LeanSpa LLC, involved a series of misleading advertisements created by LeadClick’s third-party affiliate…

Next Gen Committee: California’s Eraser Law: Erasing a Minor’s Past to Save His Future

By Eric Ball Hector recently graduated from U.C. Berkeley and is anxious about his upcoming job interview. He’s about to enter the adult world. But he’s also got a bigger problem. When he was 17, he was not as wise as he is now at the ripe ol’ age of 22. Back then, he posted…

Media Coalition to FAA, NTIA: Let News Drones Fly Now

Survey Shows Some Changes to Proposed Rules Needed By Charles D. Tobin and Mickey H. Osterreicher A news media coalition of nearly two dozen companies and professional associations has urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to enact regulations as soon as possible authorizing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gather news. The coalition,…

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Drone Journalist Can Sue Policeman Who Got Him Suspended

But Court Says No First Amendment Right to Hover Over Accident Scene By Charles D. Tobin A Connecticut federal judge has held that a TV journalist can sue a police officer for violating his civil rights by asking the station to suspend him for flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over an accident scene. Rivera…

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Wrestling with Preemption: The Eighth Circuit Declares Copyright the Winner

By Joseph E. Martineau and Sarah A. Milunski Increasingly, persons depicted in a copyrighted work, such as a movie, television show or sporting event, seek to claim they should be compensated when those who have lawfully acquired rights in that work display that work. Typically, they base their claims on common law theories that the…

Court Grants Summary Judgment to Voice Media Group Dismissing Larry Klayman Libel Suit

By Sanford L. Bohrer and Scott D. Ponce Voice Media Group obtained the entry of summary judgment against Larry Klayman in federal court in Ocala, Florida. Klayman v. City Pages, 2015 WL 1546173 (M.D. Fla. April 3, 2015). Klayman, representing himself, sued the defendants for defamation and defamation by implication arising from articles published in…

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Georgia Court Grants Motion For Summary Judgment In Hip Hop Reality Show Defamation Case

By S. Derek Bauer On April 9, 2015 Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia issued an Order granting summary judgment to broadcaster VH1, two production companies and reality television star Kimberly “K. Michelle” Pate in a defamation case arising from allegedly defamatory statements made on the hit VH1 reality…

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Update: Illinois Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Professor’s Libel and Privacy Claims

Professor Sued Over News Coverage of Student’s Sexual Harassment Lawsuit By Steven Mandell, Natalie Harris, Catherine Gibbons and Tina Salvato The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed dismissal of Northwestern University philosophy professor Peter Ludlow’s defamation and false light invasion of privacy complaint against the Chicago Sun-Times, Fox Television Stations, Inc., and Cumulus Broadcasting LLC over a…

Illinois Court Dismisses “Double Dipping Doctor” Defamation Dispute

By Damon E. Dunn and Seth A. Stern An Illinois appellate court affirmed dismissal with prejudice of a surgeon’s defamation case against a public watchdog and media outlets, upholding reports that, while on an unpaid leave, the doctor was paid over $100,000 by the public hospital which employed him as Chief of Orthopedic Surgery. The…

Libel in Fiction Claim Dismissed on Anti-SLAPP Motion

By Kelli L. Sager, Deborah A. Adler, and Dan Laidman In a victory for all authors of fiction, a screenwriter of the film “What Maisie Knew” has successfully defended a lawsuit that sought to hold him liable for defamation based on the portrayal of a character drawn from an 1897 Henry James novel. Blakley v….

Texas Legislature on Course to Adopt Third Party Allegation Rule as Law

Media Worked to Remedy Result of Neely v. Wilson Decision By Laura Lee Prather In 2013, the Texas Supreme Court handed down the Neely v. Wilson decision questioning 25 years of free speech precedent in Texas. Neely v. Wilson, 418 S.W.3d 52 (Tex. 2013), reh’g denied (Jan. 31, 2014). The case involved a broadcast station’s…

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Photographer’s First Amendment Right to Create and Sell Art Prevails Over Neighbors’ Privacy Interest

By Nancy Wolfe and Scott Sholder The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, solidifiying a victory for the First Amendment rights of artists, unanimously affirmed the dismissal of a right of privacy action against New York-based fine art photographer Arne Svenson in which the plaintiffs had sought, inter alia, to prevent the display,…

Non-Media Defendant Must Prove Truth in Private Figure Libel Case on Matter of Public Concern

By Jim Hemphill An intermediate appellate court in Texas has held that allegedly defamatory statements are presumed false, and must be proven true by the defendant, when the plaintiff is a private figure, the defendant is not a member of the media, and the speech is a matter of public concern – declining to extend…

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D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Libel Lawsuit By Son of Palestinian Authority President

Holds D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act Does Not Apply in Federal Court By Shaina Jones Ward The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a plaintiff’s libel case against Foreign Policy Magazine and author Dr. Jonathan Schanzer asserted by Yasser Abbas, son of Palestinian Authority President Maumoud Abbas. Abbas v. Foreign…

From the Executive Director’s Desk: Police Bodycams: Public or Private?

By George Freeman Times v. Sullivan; the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; Rodney King. And more recently, Ferguson, Mo; Staten Island, NY; North Charleston, SC – – and now Baltimore. These and countless other incidents gave rise to riots, demonstrations and public outcries in reaction to police overreactions and malfeasance.  Though most policemen are brave…

MediaLawLetter April 2015

 Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s DeskPolice Bodycams: Public or Private? LIBEL AND PRIVACY D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Libel Lawsuit By Son of Palestinian Authority PresidentHolds D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act Does Not Apply in Federal CourtAbbas v. Foreign Policy Group, LLC, et al. Tex. App.: Non-media Defendant Must Prove Truth in Private Figure Libel…