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in this issue
Ethics Corner: Media Lawyers Under the Spotlight
By Peter Bartlett I volunteered to prepare an article on media ethics following the publication of the Leveson Report and two reports in Australia (The Finkelstein Report and the Convergence Review) into the culture, practices, ethics and the regulation of the media. Much has been published about the ethical issues that led to the setting…
¡ Bienvenidos a Miami ! – MLRC Holds First Latin American-Hispanic Media Law Conference
En Español By Chuck Tobin, Adolfo Jimenez and Lynn Carrillo There is no such country as “Latin America”. The system of laws, and the consistency of their enforcement, differs vastly from place to place in the region. Venture there only with help of a knowledgeable local lawyer. And rest assured: American journalists and programmers have…
Judge Quashes Subpoena Seeking Unused Footage from Ken Burns Documentary
By John Siegal and Peter Shapiro On February 19, Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York quashed a subpoena seeking outtakes from the documentary film The Central Park Five served by the City of New York on the filmmakers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and…
TOPICS : Reporters Privilege
Hobbit Poaching Is Not Allowed: TRO Granted To Prevent Release Of “Age Of Hobbits”
By Judith A. Endejan “What is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us.” – “The Hobbit,” J.R.R. Tolkien In Warner Brothers Entertainment, et. al v. The Global Asylum, Inc. (No. 12-9547PSG) Judge Philip Gutierrez of the U.S. District…
TOPICS : Trademark
Photographic Memory: Docudrama’s Recreation of Photograph Not a Copyright Infringement
By Lincoln D. Bandlow There is no question that copyright protection applies to photographs. Indeed, although in many instances a photographer is simply capturing spontaneous events as they unfold, the photographer is still contributing original copyrightable expression by doing such things as choosing the precise time to take the photograph, the lighting to use, the…
TOPICS : Copyright
The True Meaning of ‘Service’ – Media Entities Struggle With Court Interpretation of Twitter’s Terms of Service and What Services Getty Provides
By Toby Butterfield and Anna Kadyshevich Judge Alison J. Nathan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently issued a potentially very significant decision concerning when use of content made available via social media sites like Twitter constitutes copyright infringement, and when websites may constitute an “online service provider”…
Seventh Circuit Addresses Trademark Confusion Arising From Movie Title
Court Avoids Relying on Rogers Test; Focuses on Absence of Actual Confusion By Steve Mandell, Steve Baron, and Elizabeth Morris The Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a Northern District of Illinois decision to dismiss a trademark case involving a claim that a movie title infringed upon the name of a musical group. The Court skirted Second…
TOPICS : Trademark
Video Content Sharer Sails into Safe Harbor as Ninth Circuit Rejects Copyright Holder Claims
By Judith A. Endejan Music copyright holders were seriously thwacked by the Ninth Circuit in an Order and Opinion released on March 14, 2013 in UMG Recordings, Inc., et al. v. Shelter Capital Partners LLC. (No. 09-55902). The court rejected strained interpretations of the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), 17…
TOPICS : DMCA
Commercial Distribution of News Content on the Web by Media Monitoring Service Not a Fair Use
Court: “The world is indebted to the press…” By Collin J. Peng-Sue and Alison B. Schary On March 20, 2013, the Honorable Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a sweeping decision in favor of The Associated Press (“AP”), finding Meltwater News, an online media monitoring…
TOPICS : Copyright
The Other Side of the Pond: Developments in UK and European Media Law
The Defamation Bill and Leveson, Contempt of Court and Archives, Liability of ISPs and More By David Hooper The attempts to change the law of libel in the United Kingdom have now reached the stage of the third and final reading in the House of Lords having taken place on 25 February 2013. The Bill now…
TOPICS : Defamation
French Court Orders Twitter to Disclose Identity of Users Who Posted Offensive Messages
By Jean-Frederic Gaultier and Clara Steinitz On January 24, 2013, the President of the High Court of Paris ordered the US social networking platform Twitter to disclose the identity of some of its users who had published anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic posts (“tweets”). Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, interim order, matters nr. 13/50262 and…
Across the Pond: The Vanishing Freedom of the Press in the United Kingdom
John Wilkes Make Way for Hugh Grant And Max Mosley By David Hooper These are early days in the struggle to regulate the press in the United Kingdom and it is too early to predict the precise form such regulation will take. However, the hard-won freedoms achieved by the likes of John Wilkes in the…
Canadian Supreme Court Upholds Hate Speech Law
By Brian MacLeod Rogers In Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, 2013 SCC 11, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld a provincial human rights code provision prohibiting “hate speech” against a protected group. The case arose from flyers against homosexuals – one was headed “Keep Homosexuality Out Of Saskatoon’s Public Schools!” – distributed by…
MediaLawLetter Associate Edition 2013 Issue 1
INTERNATIONAL LIBEL AND PRIVACY Canadian Supreme Court Upholds Hate Speech Law Court Unanimously Upholds Provincial Human Rights Code Prohibiting “Hate Speech” against a Protected GroupSaskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott UK: Across the Pond: The Vanishing Freedom Of The Press In The United KingdomJohn Wilkes Make Way for Hugh Grant and Max Mosley French Court…