10 Questions to a Media Lawyer: Jeff Portnoy
Jeff Portnoy is a partner at Cades Schutte in Honolulu. 1. How’d you get into media law? What was your first job? I had a journalism minor. I took a course at Duke Law School in the First Amendment and that led to the opportunity to become involved in media law. My first job is…
New Digital Advertising Regulations Require Operational Changes
By Gamelah Palagonia Digital advertising depends on sharing and using consumer behavioral data, which may include selling that data to downstream third parties. Section 1798.115(d) of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), prohibits businesses from selling consumers’ personal information that they do not receive directly from the consumer, unless the consumer has received “explicit notice”…
Court Dismisses Author’s Claim That TV Series Billions Copied Her Work
No Substantial Similarity Under Any Applicable Test By Jamie Raghu On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2018, professional performance coach and author of the book Market Mind Games, Denise Shull, filed an action against the creators of the hit premium television series Billions and the exhibitor of the series, SHOWTIME, alleging “that Defendants improperly appropriated…
California Federal Court Refuses to Recognize French Copyright Judgment
By Neil A.F. Popović On September 12, 2019, a United States District Court in San Jose granted summary judgment denying recognition of a €2 million ($2.2 million) French judgment against art editor Alan Wofsy and Wofsy’s company Alan Wofsy & Associates. De Fontbrune v. Wofsy. The dispute concerns photographs of the works of Pablo Picasso. …
D.C. Circuit Hands Blow to President Trump
Requires Accounting Firm to Comply with House Subpoena By Karolyn Perry In October, a divided federal appeals court panel decided that Mazars USA, LLP, an accounting firm used by President Trump, has to comply with a subpoena issued by a House of Representatives committee. Trump v. Mazars (D.C. Cir. Oct. 11, 2019). The House Committee…
Second Circuit Cuts Back on “Express Adoption” Doctrine in FOIA Case Over Torture Memos
By Alexandra Perloff-Giles In a decision from September, the Second Circuit substantially limited the “express adoption” doctrine, which had been an important vehicle for FOIA requesters seeking disclosure of legal memoranda from the government. The decision came in The New York Times Co. & Charlie Savage v. United States Department of Justice, which addressed whether…
GateHouse Media and Fayetteville Observer Win 2-Year Battle to Unseal Files in Abuse Case
By Jon Buchan On September 13, 2019, the two-year battle by GateHouse Media and The Fayetteville Observer to unseal a North Carolina state court civil file ended with the court-ordered unsealing of every document in the file, redacting only the identities of the three juvenile plaintiffs who had brought claims of sexual abuse against a…
Georgia Women Arrested for Criminal Defamation Wins Settlement Award
By Cynthia Counts and Brian Biglin Criminal defamation statutes have long been unconstitutional. Yet in some states, unconstitutional laws remain on the books with a mere footnote to indicate that the law cannot be applied. What happens, then, when law enforcement invokes such laws are to punish speech, such as a non-threatening post on Facebook?…
Maine Court Rules That Undercover Game Warden is a “Public Figure”
Must Allege Specific Facts to Plead “Actual Malice” By Benjamin S. Piper, Sigmund D. Schutz and Jonathan S. Piper A Maine Superior Court held that an undercover game warden qualified as a public figure, and dismissed his claims because he had not pled facts sufficient to make a claim of actual malice. Livezey v. MTM…
High School Varsity Coach Not a Public Official in Minnesota
By Christopher Proczko On September 4, 2019, the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down a decision in McGuire v. Bowlin, 932 N.W.2d 819 (Minn. 2019) reversing the lower courts’ decision that a public high school coach was a public official and thereby allowing his defamation suit against one student athlete’s parent to survive summary judgment. The…
NY Federal Court ‘SLAPPs’ Sheldon Adelson for Suing Political Group
By Jessica Meek and Margaret Christensen The Southern District of New York recently granted summary judgment on a claim for damages and attorney’s fees brought by the parties who successfully defended a defamation claim under the applicable anti-SLAPP statute. Specifically, in Adelson v. Harris, 973 F. Supp. 2d 467, 504 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), aff’d, 876 F.3d…
Jury Awards $450,000 to Sandy Hook Father in Defamation Case Against Conspiracy Theorist
By Daniela Abratt On October 16, 2019, a jury in Dane County, Wisconsin decided that a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist must pay a grieving father almost half a million dollars for his denial that the Sandy Hook massacre occurred. Pozner v. Fetzer, et al. James Fetzer was ordered to pay $450,000 after a jury found…
Jury Rejects Tortious Interference Claim Against Quad City Times
A Scott County, Iowa jury unanimously sided with the Quad City Times, and two of its journalists, in a lawsuit brought by the former city administrator of Davenport, Iowa, who had claimed articles written by the paper had wrongly interfered with his contract with the city. Malin v Quad City Times et al. (October 4,…
Illinois Supreme Court Upholds “Revenge Porn” Law Against First Amendment Challenge
Court Applies Intermediate Scrutiny By Erik Bierbauer and Michael Cort Last month, an Illinois Supreme Court majority applied intermediate scrutiny to uphold the constitutionality of the state’s “revenge porn” statute against a facial First Amendment challenge. People v. Austin, 2019 IL 123910, 2019 WL 5287962 (Oct. 18, 2019). By a vote of 5-2, the Court…
From the Executive Director’s Desk: The Judiciary and the Media Bar
Once Antagonists, Now Allies By George Freeman The Rule of Law in the U.S. is being threatened as never before. The President appears thirsting to create a constitutional crisis. He is either ignorant of the cornerstone of our constitutional democracy, the Separation of Powers, or chooses to willfully ignore it; he attempts to delegitimize the…
MediaLawLetter October 2019
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s Desk: The Judiciary and the Media BarOnce Antagonists, Now AlliesGeorge Freeman 10 Questions to a Media LawyerJeff Portnoy FIRST AMENDMENT Is Assange Entitled to Full First Amendment Protection?James Goodale LIBEL & PRIVACY Illinois Supreme Court Upholds “Revenge Porn” Law Against First Amendment ChallengeCourt Applies Intermediate ScrutinyErik Bierbauer and…