Log in to access all content
Not a member yet?
Join MLRC today!
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.
in this issue
10 Questions to a Media Lawyer: Dori Hanswirth
Dori Hanswirth is a partner at Arnold & Porter, where she co-leads the firm’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications industry group. 1. How’d you get into media law? What was your first job? My first job out of law school was as a Motions Clerk for the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A…
Letter to a Newer Media Lawyer: If a Farm Girl in the Midwest Can Have a Media Practice, So Can You!
By Robin Luce Herrmann Yep. I was raised a farm girl. Out of respect for my vegetarian and vegan friends, I will spare you the gory details of my chores and activities on my grandfather’s farm. (If you are morbidly curious, we can discuss wethers and barrows over drinks.) I practice law in the Midwest…
Hot Topics Roundtable: Music Copyright and the “Stairway to Heaven” Case
If You Listen Very Hard, the Tune Will Come to You at Last Music is an essential part of entertainment today – from the recording industry to movies, television and videogames. Some recent high-profile cases have raised important questions for media lawyers about originality and copyright in music. We asked three experts – David Aronoff,…
‘Nothing Compares 2’ a Warhol
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith By Wesley Lewis This July, a federal district court in New York granted the Andy Warhol Foundation’s motion for summary judgment in a copyright dispute between the non-profit foundation and music photographer Lynn Goldsmith. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, No….
Supreme Court: “There are a great many immoral and scandalous ideas in the world…and the Lanham Act covers them all.”
By Dori Hanswirth, Roberta L. Horton, Theresa M. House, Jesse Feitel and Michael E. Kientzle Erik Brunetti is a Los Angeles-based artist. In 1990, he created the streetwear brand Fuct with professional skateboarder Natas Kaupas, and for the last 29 years the label has been producing the sort of outré clothing its name suggests. The company’s website displays…
Australia: Media Responsible for Third-Party Facebook Postings
By Peter Bartlett and Dean Levitan The Supreme Court of New South Wales has reached a landmark decision in Dylan Voller’s defamation case against three media companies: Voller v Nationwide News; Voller v Fairfax Media Publications; Voller v Australian News Channel [2019] NSWSC 766. The Court decided that media companies are now considered the ‘publisher’…
TV Journalists Who Were Tear-Gassed in Ferguson May Proceed to Trial
By Danielle N. Twait Three former Al Jazeera America television journalists filed a federal civil rights action against St. Charles County, Missouri, and St. Charles Deputy Michael Anderson alleging they had been purposefully shot at and tear-gassed during their coverage of protests in Ferguson, Missouri on August 13, 2014, following the shooting death of teenager…
Let’s Get Metaphysical: Second Circuit Defines Public Fora in Digital Space
By Jeff Hermes In Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Trump, No. 18-1691 (2nd Cir. July 9, 2019) (Parker, Hall, Droney, JJ.), a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed a judgment of the Southern District of New York, holding that the 45th President of the United…
You Can’t Cry “Fake News!” in a Crowded Theater…and Get Away With It
By Reid K. Day While “Fake News!” continues to be a rallying cry for too many powerful political figures, The Kansas City Star recently won a favorable ruling under Kansas’ three-year-old anti-SLAPP statute when Kansas State Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning—and Denning’s aspiring politician/lawyer—attempted to bring claims of “Fake News” into a court of law….
Eleventh Circuit Reinstates Haitian Businessman’s Defamation Claims
Facebook Comments Not Pure Opinion By Sarah Brewerton-Palmer The Eleventh Circuit reinstated a Haitian businessman’s defamation case, holding that defendant’s Facebook post accusing plaintiff of illegal conduct could be actionable. Deeb v. Saati, No. 18-12577, 2019 WL 2537730 (11th Cir. June 20, 2019) (Rosenbaum, Branch, Fay JJ.) (unpublished). The court noted that while the bulk…
Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Cancer Researcher’s Libel Suit Against The New York Times
By Al-Amyn Sumar On July 17, 2019, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a libel suit brought against The New York Times Company (“The Times”) by Dr. Carlo Croce, a prominent cancer researcher at Ohio State University. Croce v. The New York Times Co. Importantly, the decision affirms the right of…
Second Circuit Vacates Blanket Sealing Order in Giuffre v. Maxwell Case
Urges Media to Exercise Restraint in Covering Potentially Defamatory Allegations By Sanford L. Bohrer and Christine N. Walz Earlier this month, the Second Circuit reaffirmed the presumption of access to judicial documents. In an appeal filed by the Miami Herald and its reporter Julie Brown (as well as Alan Dershowitz and Michael Cernovich), the Second…
Vermont Supreme Court Unseals Decision Quashing Subpoena Under State’s New Reporter’s Shield Law
By Chad R. Bowman The Vermont Supreme Court on July 19 reversed a lower court’s sealing decision and made public the first judicial decision applying the state’s new shield statute. The underlying subpoena decision arose out of newsroom subpoena issues in an “inquest”—a Vermont criminal procedure akin to a grand jury—and had remained under seal…
The San Francisco Police Department vs. Bryan Carmody
By Thomas R. Burke and Dan Laidman San Francisco police made national news on May 10 when officers burst into a journalist’s house using sledgehammers and kept him handcuffed for hours while they ransacked his home and office. It was a shocking attack on the free press that one might expect in a banana republic,…
London Conference Preview: Breyer, Assange and a Bloody Brilliant City
By George Freeman Our London Conference (Sept. 15-17) is happening in little more than a month – and it looks to be our best one ever. The bookends of the program will be spectacular: we will begin the proceedings Monday morning with a session starring Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court and end…
MediaLawLetter July 2019
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s Desk: London Conference Preview: Breyer, Assange and a Bloody Brilliant CityGeorge Freeman Letter to a Newer Media Lawyer: If a Farm Girl in the Midwest Can Have a Media Practice, So Can You!Robin Luce Herrmann 10 Questions to a Media LawyerDori Hanswirth REPORTERS PRIVILEGE Cal. Super.: The San…