MediaLawLetter March 2010
Download Publication NEWSGATHERING S.D.N.Y.: Financial Services Firms Win “Hot News” Misappropriation CaseDefendant Free Riding on Plaintiffs’ Financial RecommendationsBarclays Capital v. Theflyonthewall.com LIBEL & PRIVACY MLRC Bulletin Examines Media Trials and DamagesIncreasing media victory rate; decreasing punitive awards Mass. Sup. Ct.: Massachusetts Newspaper Wins Public Official Libel TrialSome Lessons from a Libel TrialRiley v. Enterprise Publ’g…
Ethics Corner: Putting The Genie Back
It’s one of the toughest ethics questions a lawyer can face: what to do when a client embroiled in a dispute with a former employer presents purloined (but helpful) documents? If the lawyer tells the employer, the client could get in serious trouble, and the case could be lost. But if the lawyer keeps silent…
Testing the Limits of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
Since the Ninth Circuit’s June 2009 decision in Satterfield v. Simon & Schuster, 569 F.3d 946 (9th Cir. 2009) (“Satterfield II”) — holding that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (“TCPA”), applied to unsolicited text messages advertising a new Stephen King book — plaintiffs have filed an increasing number of putative class…
MLRC Joins Media Amicus Brief to European Court in Max Mosley Privacy Case
MLRC has joined many of Europe’s leading newspaper publishers and anti-censorship groups to urge the European Court of Human Rights to reject the claim that journalists should be required by law to give at least 2 days notice of their intention to expose the misbehavior of a public figure so that their potential victim can…
Update: Permanent Injunction Entered Requiring Same-Day Access To Civil Court Filings
Capping off a resounding victory for timely access to court records in an era where many state and federal courts are increasingly asking the media to wait to review new records until they are posted online, the District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered an agreed permanent injunction and final judgment in favor…
Florida Courts Crawl Toward The Digital Age
On March 18, 2010, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion adopting a new court rule governing access to court records. In re Amendments to Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.420, No. 07-2050, 2010 WL 958075 (Fla. March 18, 2010). The rule impacts all categories of records – civil, criminal and appellate. The rule was first…
Second Circuit Holds that the Fed Must Disclose Borrowers and Loan Terms
The Second Circuit this month affirmed that FOIA requires the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to disclose the names and terms of loans to private financial institutions who borrowed money from the Fed under its emergency loan programs in response to the financial crisis. Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the…
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to Postal Service: “Lick That!”
When the United States government spends millions of dollars to commission a war memorial, one might assume it retains the right to put an image of a sculpture in that memorial on postage stamps honoring the war’s veterans. But things were not that simple in a recent decision resolving a long dispute between the United…
Supreme Court Reverses Second Circuit (And 200 Other Cases) And Holds Copyright Registration Mandatory But Not Jurisdictional
In 2000, in the wake of the Second Circuit’s reversal of district judge Sonia Sotomayor’s grant of summary judgment for the publishers and databases in litigation filed by freelance author Jonathan Tasini, various groups of freelance authors filed four class action lawsuits, hoping to capitalize on the Tasini holding. Five years later, the parties reached…
Three Significant Commercial Speech Decisions
The Supreme Court and two federal courts of appeals issued important decisions on commercial speech in March. Two relate to attorney advertising—and largely parallel existing law—and a third decides a unique case relating to the advertising of prostitution. Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. U.S. – No. 08-1119, 2010 WL 75761 (Mar. 8, 2010) In Milavetz,…
Senate Hears Testimony On Legislative Solutions To Libel Tourism
As college students set their sights on spring break destinations, libel tourists were also planning for trips abroad. However, the potential foreign defamation plaintiffs were not seeking out exotic locales or pristine beaches, but rather plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions where they could pursue claims against U.S. publishers, authors and journalists. But as libel tourists continued their pursuit…
Proposed Amendment to California’s Right of Publicity Statute Would Harm Media
Last year, California’s then-Assembly Speaker Karen Bass successfully carried legislation (Assembly Bill 524) that, for the first time, exposed media outlets to potentially crushing damage awards if they initially purchase audio, video or still photos they know to have been taken in violation of the state’s 10-year-old anti-paparazzi statute. See “Compounding the Felony: California’s Amended…
Section 230 Immunity Applies to Forwarded Email
“What happens,” a California appellate court recently asked, “when you receive a defamatory e-mail over the internet and simply hit the forward icon on your computer, sending it on to someone else?” The answer under California law, at least on the facts before the court, was that you cannot be liable for defamation – even…
Texas Federal Court Finds Imputation of Homosexuality Defamatory
A federal district court in Dallas, Texas last month refused to dismiss a libel complaint against a radio broadcasting company over on air statements by a morning show host allegedly referring to plaintiff as “gay.” Robinson v. Radio One, Inc., No. 09-CV-1203, 2010 WL 606683 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 19, 2010) (O’Connor, J.). The court found…
Court Grants Newspaper’s Anti-SLAPP Motion in Katrina Libel Case
A Federal district judge in Louisiana has dismissed a libel case against Pro Publica and The New York Times brought by a doctor who was on the staff of a New Orleans hospital where the deaths of several patients in the grim aftermath of Hurricane Katrina prompted an investigation into allegations of euthanasia. Armington v….
Magazine Wins Summary Judgment in Claim by Anti-Vaccine Advocate
Quoting a key figure in a controversy about science as saying that one of his adversaries in the debate “lies” does not give rise to a claim of defamation against the speaker or those who publish the remark, a federal court in Virginia has ruled. The decision by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton in…
Alabama Newspaper Wins Summary Judgment in Public Official Libel Case
Public Official Libel Plaintiff: “I don’t like that they printed about me this in the editorial: ‘It is often a rude profession, one with a reputation of calling out the incompetent buffoons and demagogues inhabiting public office.” Defense Attorney: “Isn’t that what editorials do?” Public Official Libel Plaintiff: “What is a buffoon anyway?” [Defense Attorney’s…
Massachusetts Newspaper Wins Public Official Libel Trial
In February 2010, after an eight-day trial, a Brockton, Massachusetts jury returned a defense verdict in favor of The Enterprise newspaper and two of its editors in a public official defamation case brought by a former school committee member. Riley v. Enterprise Publ’g Co., No. 05-00841-A (Mass. Super. Ct.) (Judge Jeffrey A. Locke). Background The…
New MLRC Bulletin Examines Media Trials and Damages Over Last 30 Years
After 30 years and over 600 trials, the MLRC’s latest Report on Trials and Damages has some good news: the media victories continue to rise –the percentage of media wins in the 2000s (52.1%) is much higher than the percentage in the 1980s (37.3%). Published earlier this month, MLRC Bulletin 2010:1 analyzes the media libel…
Financial Services Firms Win “Hot News” Misappropriation Case
Following a four-day bench trial in which the parties contested the “hot news” misappropriation doctrine, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York, in an 89-page opinion, found in favor of the plaintiffs – Barclays Capital.