The Wet T-Shirt Contest and the Secret Wedding: Using Copyright Law to Hide Your Past
By Lincoln D. Bandlow* From its inception, copyright protection has been seen as a tool to promote speech by providing creators and authors with an incentive to create new works through giving them a limited monopoly over their works. That is, unless authors know they can commercialize their works (and that they can stop others…
A Compendium of State Anti-SLAPP Statutes and Key Case Law
The list of U.S. jurisdictions with anti-SLAPP statutes continues to grow. In 2011, Texas and the District of Columbia enacted laws, bringing the total to 29. Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,…
Federal Courts’ Application of State Anti-SLAPP Laws
By Mark I. Bailen and Laurie A. Babinski Although numerous federal courts have applied the provisions of state “anti-SLAPP” statutes against claims for defamation and related torts for more than a decade, plaintiffs in three separate cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit are seeking to prevent application…
The Single Publication Rule and the Internet: Applying an Old Rule to New Publishing Platforms
By Dave Heller, Robert Hawley and Erika Kweon Under the single publication rule, the statute of limitations in defamation and related cases begins to run at the time of the initial mass publication.[1] Subsequent distribution of the same material in the same form does not toll the statute of limitations, unless there has been a…
Exploring the Forest of Hot News
By Victoria Smith Ekstrand* Spend too much time studying any one legal doctrine, and there’s always a risk of missing the forest for the trees. There’s also the risk of seeing only forest and only trees — and missing the larger story about who planted the trees, what kinds of trees thrive, and what wildlife…
Bulletin 2012 Issue 2: Applying the Rules to New Publishing Paradigms
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