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We provide you with essential tools to advance First Amendment and media rights, and a supportive community in which to discuss emerging legal issues and the future of communication.
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We provide you with essential tools to advance First Amendment and media rights, and a supportive community in which to discuss emerging legal issues and the future of communication.
What Do We, as Clients, Want to See and Not See from Our Outside Counsel? By Stephanie S. Abrutyn Welcome to the inaugural column of a new series to be written by a rotating group of in-house counsel – intermittently, of course, because none of the authors can predict their own schedules, except to say…
By Lucian T. Pera The ethics nerd. Every law office has, or should have, at least one. You know, the guy or gal that other lawyers frantically descend on when they need to sue a company they represented last year, or when they really want to contact that former CFO of an opposing party. Yes,…
By Judy Endejan First Amendment junkies must read the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Minority Television Project, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, No. 3:06-cv-02699, issued on December 2, 2013. An en banc panel reversed a panel decision that had upheld the ban on commercial advertisements but struck down the ban on political ads and issue ads…
Defamation, Privacy and Public Figures By Conor McCarthy and Caoilfhionn Gallagher Print Zeitungsverlag GmbH v. Austria is a somewhat surprising decision by the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Court, applying principles derived, in part, from its case law on privacy, rejected a newspaper’s challenge to a defamation judgment against it in respect…
By David Hooper Open Justice: Naming Acquitted Defendants Who Might Be At Risk from Terrorists The recent decision given on 17 December 2013 in the Court of Appeal by the Lord Chief Justice in R v Marines A, B, C, D and E and Guardian and other Media 2013 EWCA 2367 raised an interesting question…
By Sigmund D. Schutz The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram recently took on and defeated the Maine Office of the Attorney General’s longstanding policy of keeping 911 calls confidential in ongoing criminal investigations. In MaineToday Media, Inc. v. State of Maine, 2013 ME 100 (Nov. 14, 2013), a unanimous Maine Supreme Judicial Court…
Court Rejects Procedural Bars to Media Intervention By Gayle C. Sproul Videotaped excerpts of depositions, once marked confidential, are no longer covered by a protective order when the corresponding transcripts of those depositions have been filed and unsealed. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited v. S.A.C. Capital Management, L.L.C., No. MRS-L-2032-06 (N.J. Super. Nov. 15, 2013). The…
Court Declines to Address Whether D.C. SLAPP Law Applies in Federal Court In a ringing endorsement of the protection of political satire and parody from defamation claims, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a complaint against Esquire magazine over a blog post making fun of the publisher and author of a “birther”…
Judge Kozinski Urged Colleagues to Revisit and Reject Precedent By Thomas R. Burke and Ambika K. Doran Six months after Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski opined in dicta that his Circuit made a “mistake” in allowing the California anti-SLAPP statute to be raised in federal court, the Circuit declined to take up his suggestion…
Index and Snippets a “Transformative Use” By Judy Endejan On November 14, Judge Denny Chin ruled that Google’s digitization of more than twenty million books was a fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Authors Guild, Inc., and Betty Miles, Joseph Goulden, and Jim Bouton v. Google Inc., No. 05 Civ. 8136 (S.D.N.Y.)….
By Itai Maytal After a seven-day trial on damages, a federal jury found that Agence France-Presse and Getty Images willfully infringed upon eight “twitpics” posted by photographer Daniel Morel that he took of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and awarded him $1.22 million. Morel v. AFP and Getty Images, No. 10 Civ. 2730 (S.D.N.Y. jury verdict…
Court Puts Burden on Newsgatherers to Invoke Statute By Bruce S. Rosen In a rare ruling interpreting the New Jersey’s version of the federal Privacy Protection Act (PPA) – designed to hold law enforcement accountable for illegal newsroom searches – a New Jersey Appellate Court has required persons who claim protection under the law “to…
By Herschel P. Fink While much attention recently focused on Fox News reporter Jana Winter’s New York Court of Appeals victory in her effort to protect her anonymous source for a story involving the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting, retired Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter chalked up another win in his 10 year long fight…
Subpoena to Jana Winter Rejected By Dori Ann Hanswirth and Patsy Wilson New York-based journalists received good news last week when the State’s highest court reversed a lower court order requiring FoxNews.com investigative reporter Jana Winter to appear for testimony in Colorado because of the substantial likelihood that she would be compelled to identify confidential…
Download Publication REPORTERS PRIVILEGE New York High Court: Don’t Send Journalists to Testify In States with Weak Shield Laws Subpoena to Jana Winter Rejected Holmes v. Winter E.D. Mich.: Judge Again Gives Boost to Detroit Reporter’s 10 Year Fight to Protect Source Reporter Can Claim Fifth Amendment Privilege Convertino v. U.S. Dept. Justice N.J. Super.:…