Ethics Corner: Ethical Considerations of Technology and Lawyer Competence
By Jess Askew III We live and practice in times of rapid technological advances that change the way we communicate in business and social settings. Like the typewriter and telephone before them, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, iPhone, iPad, Google, Google Scholar, LEXIS, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, blogs, chat rooms, on-line forums, email, SMS, ESI, ECF, PDF, Hashtag,…
The Other Side of the Pond: Updates on UK Media Law
The Defamation Act, Leveson, Lance Armstrong and More By David Hooper A date still needs to be announced for the coming into effect of the Defamation Act 2013. The changes being introduced by the Act are summarised in my article The New Defamation Act 2013: What Difference Will it Really Make? However, one missing piece…
California School District Suspends Social Media Policy in Face of a Constitutional Challenge
By Dan Laidman and Thomas R. Burke Protests from students, parents, and First Amendment advocates prompted a California school district to suspend a controversial social media policy that gave administrators broad power to punish students for their online speech. Billed as an effort to curb bullying, the Lodi Unified School District’s policy restricted students from…
Ohio Juvenile Judge Held In Contempt
By Jack Greiner and Darren Ford A three-judge panel of the Ohio First District Court of Appeals recently found Hamilton County Juvenile Judge Tracie M. Hunter in contempt of court for violating the appellate court’s order requiring the Judge to allow representatives of The Cincinnati Enquirer to attend certain proceedings in her courtroom. State ex…
Ninth Circuit Affirms Refusal to Enjoin Ad-Skipping Service
By Ilana Rubel and Sebastian Kaplan Fox Broadcasting Company v. Dish Network LLC marks the latest effort by content providers to block ad-skipping technologies. While more modern methods were at issue, the Ninth Circuit’s July 24, 2013 ruling largely tracked the outcome of the case in which ad-skipping was first addressed, three decades ago, in…
Northern District of Mississippi Dismisses Favorite Son Faulkner’s “Midnight in Paris” Infringement Suit
By Samuel Fifer and Gregory R. Naron “The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said.” – William Faulkner Following the success of Woody Allen’s 2011 film “Midnight in Paris,” the holder of William Faulkner’s literary rights sued the film’s producer, Sony Pictures Classics,…
Second Circuit Rules in Favor of Appropriation Artist Richard Prince
Transformative Use Based on Broad Suite of Aesthetic Considerations By Christopher Robinson In April 2013, a year after hearing oral argument, the Second Circuit issued its much anticipated decision in Cariou v. Prince, 714 F.3d 694 (2nd Cir. 2013), a case involving fair use in the visual arts. As most observers expected, the appellate court…
The Supreme Court Should Rule on Content-Based Taxes
Can the Tax Collector Be an Art Critic? By Robert Corn-Revere Just as the Supreme Court has always understood that “the power to tax involves the power to destroy,” McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (Wheat.) 316, 431 (1819), it has long held the power to tax also includes the power to censor. Murdock v. Pennsylvania,…
Touchdown! Defendants Beat Back Coach Mike Leach’s Libel and Tortious Interference Claims
By Nathan Siegel, Thomas Curley and Rachel F. Strom On August 6, 2013, the 99th District Court of Lubbock, Texas granted the summary judgment motions of ESPN, public relations firm Spaeth Communications and former NFL player and ESPN college football analyst Craig James, and dismissed the defamation, tortious interference and conspiracy claims of former Texas…
Report That Prosecutor Gave “False Testimony” Not Actual Malice, Maryland Judge Rules
By Chuck Tobin and Drew Shenkman A rural newspaper reporter demonstrated “the opposite of actual malice” in reporting that the county’s chief deputy prosecutor had given “false testimony” during a murder case, a Maryland judge has ruled. Daggett v. Landmark Community Newspapers of Maryland, et al., No. 02-C12-169832, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Circuit Court (Memorandum…
Pennsylvania Appeals Court Affirms Jury Verdict in Defamation Case
By Michael Berry On August 7, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed a jury verdict in favor of The Pocono Record, a Dow Jones Local Media Group newspaper, and one of its reporters, Matt Birkbeck, in a case brought more than twelve years ago by a local real estate developer. Raintree Homes, Inc. v. Birkbeck, No….
N.Y. Appeals Court Grants Summary Judgment to Advertiser
Non-Profit’s Advertisement in New York Times Not Published with Actual Malice By Mark I. Bailen and James Romoser In 1964, a provocative full-page advertisement in The New York Times famously became the subject of the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which established the “actual malice” standard for public official…
Defamation Claims Brought by Canadian Art Expert Dismissed
Failure to Plead Actual Malice Adequately By Julia C. Atcherley The Southern District of New York has dismissed all remaining libel claims against Condé Nast and investigative journalist David Grann in a lawsuit brought by self-trained art authenticator Peter Paul Biro, finding that Biro failed—as a public figure—to plead facts plausibly demonstrating actual malice. Biro…
Federal Judge in Michigan Puts Creepy Mattress Case to Bed
By James E. Stewart and Leonard M. Niehoff Defending consumer protection reporting has involved us and many of you at one time or another with plaintiffs ranging from TV repair shops, transmission shops or mini face lift clinics. In Hussein Hazime et al. v. Fox TV Stations, Inc. d/b/a Fox 2 News and WJBK, No….
Photographer’s First Amendment Right Prevails Over Neighbors’ Privacy Interest
By Nancy E. Wolff In a victory for the First Amendment rights of artists, New York-based fine art photographer Arne Svenson successfully dismissed a New York right of privacy action seeking, inter alia, to prevent the display, promotion or sale of certain photographs from his much-publicized series “The Neighbors.” The decision in Foster v. Svenson,…
Seventh Circuit Addresses Actual Malice Pleading Standards
Applies Single Publication Rule to Internet By Steve Mandell, Steve Baron, and Elizabeth Morris The Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a Northern District of Illinois decision to dismiss a defamation and false light case by reaffirming the importance of pleading actual malice with sufficient detail. Notably, the Court also extended Illinois’s single-publication rule to the Internet…
Ninth Circuit Fumbles the Ball in Videogame Likeness Cases
By Kent R. Raygor, Valerie E. Alter Creating a new rule that gives videogames much more limited protection than other expressive works, the Ninth Circuit has ruled that realistically depicting college athletes in videogames showing them doing what they became famous for doing—in this case, playing football—is not sufficiently transformative to avoid liability for using…
Massachusetts Court Awards Newspaper Legal Costs Incurred in Filing Motion to Quash Subpoena to Reporter
By Michael J. Grygiel and Zachary C. Kleinsasser A Massachusetts federal court recently granted a newspaper’s motion to quash a deposition subpoena served on one of its reporters and, further, took the unusual but welcome step of awarding the newspaper its attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in submitting the motion to quash. In Durand v….
Divided First Department Says Strong Public Policy Favors Protecting Confidential Sources
But Will Not Save Fox News Reporter From Out of State Subpoena By Dori Ann Hanswirth and Theresa M. House Journalists across New York might take pause the next time they’re asked to report on a story that relies on confidential sources from other states, if a recent decision by a divided Appellate Division, First…
Fourth Circuit Reverses Order Allowing Reporter James Risen to Protect Source
Majority Rejects First Amendment and Common Law Privilege By James Lake and Kimberly Andreu Journalists around the country are waiting to see whether New York Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner James Risen will be forced to identify an unnamed source or will be held in contempt of court. Risen faces that difficult choice after…
MediaLawLetter August 2013
Download Publication REPORTERS PRIVILEGE Fourth Circuit Reverses Order Allowing Reporter James Risen to Protect SourceMajority Rejects First Amendment and Common Law PrivilegeUnited States v. Sterling (James Risen intervenor) NY App.: Divided First Department Says Strong Public Policy Favors Protecting Confidential SourcesBut Will Not Save Fox News Reporter From Out of State SubpoenaIn re Holmes v….