Monday, April 30, 2012

Canadian Free Speech Advocates Eye Criminal Libel Case

The flag of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other free speech proponents are poised to see whether a New Brunswick court will follow the lead of courts in other provinces, including Newfoundland, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, by finding Criminal Code Section 301 concerning defamatory libel an unconstitutional infringement on free expression.

According to an article by Postmedia News (www.Canada.com), for allegedly referring to a police officer on his blog as a "sexual pervert," 52-year-old gadfly Charles LeBlanc faces a maximum two years in the slammer if charged and convicted. Only a dozen  Section 301 claims have been investigated since 1988, 80 percent of which resulted in no charges being brought, Postmedia News noted.

A century-old, little used law, Section 301 defines defamatory libel as published statements "likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it is published."  New Brunswick prosecutors have yet to decide whether to proceed against LeBlanc.

LeBlanc was arrested by Fredericton police in January after he complained in his blog about purportedly being touched inappropriately by a police officer during an encounter, which are relatively commonplace for the activist LeBlanc, whose infractions run the gamut from riding a bike without a helmet to causing a disturbance outside a police station.

None of the other provinces overturning Section 301 is binding on New Brunswick, but advocates of free expression and individual rights are hopeful that New Brunswick will follow suit.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

TV Guide Buyer Looking for Variety?

Variety (magazine)
Variety (magazine) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The New York Post reported today that Los Angeles-based private equity investor Open Gate Capital LLC, which paid $1 to purchase a distressed TV Guide in 2008 (see "TUOL" post 6/3/10), may now have Variety, the entertainment industry bible owned by Dutch media conglomerate Reed Elsevier, in its sights.

Reed Elsevier in March offered the troubled Hollywood trade paper for sale. A year ago, Detroit Internet media mogul Jay Penske was rumored to be in line to acquire Variety (see "TUOL" post 4/29/11). The Post story reports Variety's price tag could range from $10 million to $30 million.

Open Gate Capital apparently has pulled out of the running to acquire the TV Guide cable channel from the Lionsgate movie studio and co-owner One Equity Partners. The Post article suggests Discovery Communications may have an interest in buying the TV Guide Channel.

Check your listings for updates on this story.
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UPDATE: bin Laden Death Photos FOIA-Exempt

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02:  A newspaper vendor dis...
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
In a 29-page Memorandum of Decision in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense et al. (Docket No. 11-890-JEB), U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge James Boasberg yesterday granted the government's summary judgment motion barring the public release of video and images of the shooting and burial of Osama bin Laden.

The plaintiff sued the government last May 2, the day after President Obama announced the killing of the al-Qaeda leader, for the release of images associated with his death under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 552] (see "TUOL" post 1/30/12). As reported by Legal Times (www.Legaltimes.typepad.com), the CIA withheld 52 documents in response to the FOIA request, arguing release of the volatile classified bin Laden records posed a national security risk.

Judge Boasberg ruled "the CIA's explanation of the threat to our national security that the release of these records could cause passes muster." Judicial Watch has filed a notice of appeal to the United States District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Paper Sued for Libel Over Faux Letter to the Editor

This is a map of Vermilion County, Illinois, U...
 Vermilion County, Illinois (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Paxton Record was "pranked" by a fake letter to the editor, and now, it, and its owner, The News-Gazette, Inc. of central Illinois, face a decidedly unfunny defamation suit, the News-Gazette reports.

The Rev. Michael McMahon, headmaster of the Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy Catholic boarding school, sued for libel and emotional distress in Vermilion County Circuit Court, seeking $50,000 damages for each of four counts brought against the media defendants.  A letter to the editor published by the Record on April 6, 2011, supported gay rights and purportedly was authored by the president of the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Association of Vermilion County ("GLBAVC"), who is identified in the letter as Michael McMahon and whose given address and phone number match the Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy.

The Paxton Record acknowledged it had been had with a prominent correction and apology in the issue following publication of the faux letter.  The complaint alleges the defendants made no effort to confirm the validity of the letter by contacting McMahon before running it and claims the plaintiff's ability to function as a headmaster at a Catholic institution and carry out his duties as a priest were impaired by his association with a gay rights advocacy group.

Ordinarily, proving damages and harm to his reputation might be considerable hurdles for the plaintiff, but Illinois' defamation law allows that certain statements are defamatory per se (on their face) and do not require the plaintiff to prove damages. Should be an interesting case, because, although the Catholic Church has hardly been in the vanguard of the gay rights movement, the idea of being portrayed as sympathetic to the notion of tolerance for others doesn't seem such a terrible thing, and if the community that knows Rev. McMahon knows he did not author the letter and is not the president of GLBAVC, how is his reputation harmed? Rev. Jerry Falwell's defamation claim against Hustler magazine in the '80s failed because no one believed true the content of a parody ad suggesting Falwell had been intimate with his mother, among other things.




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McClatchy 'McClobbered' By 1Q Earnings Results

The McClatchy Company
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sacramento, Calif.-based media conglomerate, The McClatchy Company, suffered a 5.1 percent drop in advertising revenues for the First Quarter of 2012, compared to First Quarter 2011 figures, the McClatchy-owned Sacramento Bee reports.

McClatchy, whose holdings include The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Charlotte Observer, The Anchorage Daily News and The Miami Herald, lost $2.1 million in the First Quarter. A year ago, McClatchy lost $2 million during the same period, so the company is nothing if not consistent.

Advertising sales plunged 6.8 percent in the First Quarter, worse than the 5.7 percent drop experienced in the Fourth Quarter of 2011. A ray of hope in the grim results was a 2.7 percent increase in digital ad sales, the hope of the newspaper industry.

McClatchy's CEO Gary Pruitt next month will bring his non-Midas touch to the Associated Press where he will take the helm as CEO.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Judge Tosses Failed U.S. Senate Candidate's Libel Suit

Flag of Miami-Dade County, Florida
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Jeffrey Greene v. Times Publishing Co. et al. (Case No. 10-47749-CA 32), Judge Valeria Manno-Schurr of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County  dismissed defamation claims against The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times brought by billionaire real estate mogul Jeffrey Greene, who blamed his Democratic U.S. Senate primary loss to Kendrick Meek on the dailies' coverage of him (see "TUOL" post 9/7/10).

Greene is expected to appeal the decision concerning three articles and what he alleged in his voluminous complaint were 22 purportedly libelous statements that harmed his business and campaign effort. Judge Manno-Schurr ruled a Times editorial was entirely opinion and not susceptible to a defamatory meaning. Likewise, she held that an article detailing alleged drug use and bad boy behavior on Greene's yacht by former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and cohorts, who was best man at Greene's wedding, could not defame the plaintiff because it neither suggested he participated in nor even witnessed  the allegedly nefarious goings-on.

A third article involving a condo deal in which Greene participated with a California businessman who subsequently was indicted for mortgage fraud unrelated to his association with Greene was not defamatory either, according to the court, because the plaintiff failed to show any misstatements by the media defendants rose to the level of actual malice. (Tip of the hat to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, www.rcfp.org, for following up on this case.)




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Alleged Neglectful Mom Remark Sparks Libel Suit

Kanawha River; downtown Charleston, West Virgi...
Kanawha River; downtown Charleston, West Virginia;  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Fayette County (W.Va.) woman has filed libel and emotional distress claims against The Charleston Gazette parent Daily Gazette Co., alleging she was defamed by comments included in the daily's profile of a mortician suggesting she was culpable in the deaths of her four children who perished in a house fire.

The complaint in Bohanna v. Daily Gazette Company (Case No. 12-C-670), filed in Kanawha Circuit Court, includes counts alleging defamation and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Though not identified by name in the purportedly offending comments, plaintiff Linda Bohanna alleges she was defamed by statements that appeared in the Gazette's April 18, 2011, article entitled I Want Family to Mean Something attributed to funeral home director Junora Walton.

As reported by the Gazette and Courthouse News Service, in the article, Walton recounted  having to deal with  four children killed in the blaze one month after she became a mortician. "Their mother had left them alone in the house with a space heater while she went out with friends to a club," Walton is quoted as saying. The article contrasts the funeral director's response to the unnamed mother to the community's hostility, quoting Walton as saying: "Did I want to smack her around?...You bet I did...But I didn't...I told her, 'I'm not supposed to judge you.' And I was there for her. Compassionate."

The plaintiff alleges the article refers to her and her children who died in the September 1984, fire. Her complaint claims the defendant daily should have known Walton's statement was false, having covered the tragic event. The complaint seeks punitive damages and medical expenses against the defendant.

According to the Gazette article, the daily, in its online archives, subsequently included the following Note: "Correction. An earlier version of this story included a recollection by Junora Walton-of a fire that killed four children in 1984. According to a news clipping from the time, the recollection was misstated. The children's mother was home at the time of the fire, the past story states, and received burns in the blaze."


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Monday, April 23, 2012

Author's Heart Throbs Over Romance Publisher's Alleged Infringement

Bob Casey Federal Courthouse
Bob Casey Federal Courthouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Toronto-based Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd., which boasts publishing more than 110 romantic potboilers monthly in 31 languages sold worldwide, faces a copyright infringement suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas from an author who claims the company produced a novel in 2011 that infringed on her work written two years earlier.

In her 8-page complaint, Rucker v. Harlequin Enterpises Ltd. (Case No. 4:2012-cv-01135), Kelly Rucker alleges more than 40 instances in which Harlequin's The Proud Wife purportedly infringes on her tome, How to Love a Billionaire. Although Courthouse News Service reports the complaint does not specify any purportedly plagiarized passages, Rucker claims the defendant had access to her work through her submission of the manuscript to competitions sponsored by the Romantic Writers of America.

The complaint alleges The Proud Wife has been financially successful for Harlequin and garnered positive reviews. Rucker is seeking all the profits from the Harlequin novel, along with damages for copyright infringement. Expect to see lots of heaving bosoms, burning stares and masculine tumescence in the courtroom.
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Friday, April 20, 2012

Bay Guardian Being 'Examined' By Prospective Buyer?

Newspaper 'San Francisco Examiner' showing hea...Newspaper 'San Francisco Examiner' showing headlines of Japanese relocation, San Francisco, California, United States, 26 Feb 1942 Source United States National Archives Identification Code ARC 195535 U.S. Government photo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Renowned left-leaning San Francisco weekly Bay Guardian may soon be acquired by the San Francisco Examiner, according to a post on Eastbayexpress.com.

The 46-year-old Bay Guardian, a hotbed of progressive politics, has been looking for suitors for awhile. The Examiner, a daily once owned by the decidedly unprogressive Hearst media empire, was itself acquired in 2011 by the San Francisco Newspaper Company, LLC
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

WashPo Writer Resigns After Editor's Note Apologizes for Uncredited News Source

The Washington Post building in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Washington Post Blogpost writer Elizabeth Flock has left the paper, following an Editor's Note that appeared over one of her stories that apologized for her item's "inappropriate, extensive use of an original report by Discovery News and also failed to credit that news organization as the primary source for the blog post."

As reported by Poynter.org, the apology comes four months after another Editor's Note and a column by the Post ombudsman were authored in response to another post she did about Mitt Romney. The WaPo writer told Poynter her resignation was voluntary and a personal decision. Still, two Editor Notes in a relatively short time likely led some Post executives to decide to get the Flock out of there.
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Foreign Investors' Voting Rights Suspended by News Corp. in FCA Compliance

Logo of the Fox Broadcasting CompanyLogo of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Foreign shareholders of Class B Common Stock in News Corp. have temporarily had their voting rights suspended to enable the media conglomerate to comply with the Federal Communications Act (FCA) regulation that limits to 25 percent the ownership and voting authority of non-American investors in broadcast stations.

As reported by the New York Times and Wall St. Journal among others, News Corp.'s foreign investors owned roughly 36 percent of the company's Class B shares, necessitating the move. Foreign shareholders still receive dividends and distributions, despite the loss of voting privileges.

News Corp. CEO and chair Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen, but his family, which holds nearly 40 percent of News Corp.'s voting shares, will not vote a portion of its shares. Among the media giant's holdings are 27 television stations nationwide and Fox Broadcasting.

The News Corp. board of directors okayed an immediate suspension of half of foreign investors' voting rights. The vigilant, but ever-playful "TUOL" staff can't help but wonder  if the Murdoch media empire learned of the FCA breach by hacking into FCC commissioners' telephone conversations.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Gannett Quarterly Profits Off a Quarter

The front view of the USA Today/Gannett Buildi... (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Restructuring costs and plunging newspaper advertising revenue are to blame for the 25 percent decrease in First Quarter profits for McLean, Va.-based media conglomerate Gannett Co. compared to a year ago.

According to an Associated Press report, Gannett, whose stable includes USA Today among its 82 newspapers, along with 23 television stations, saw a 2.6 percent decline in First Quarter revenues compared to the same period in 2011. Digital ad revenues, however, jumped 6.8 percent.
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Monday, April 16, 2012

9th Circ. Okays Public Television Accepting Political Ads

Seal of the United States Court of Appeals for...In a 49-page decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 to overturn a federal law banning public television stations from accepting public issue and political advertising.

In Minority Television Project, Inc. v. FCC (Case No. 09-17311), the appeals court reversed the trial court, holding that the federal law restriction was unconstitutional. The FCC fined San-Francisco based KMTP-TV $10,000 for airing paid promotional messages from for-profit companies in violation of 47 U.S.C. sec. 399(b). The statute bars public broadcasters from being compensated for messages for (1) for-profit cos., (2) that express personal views and (3) political messages supporting candidates.

The Ninth Circuit upheld the proscription regarding for-profit companies (and therefore, the $10k fine), but found the law's remaining provisions violative of the First Amendment.
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Will Outcome of Pitcher's Perjury Trial Be 'Clemens-y'?

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 13:  Rusty Hardin, atto...Rusty Hardin, attorney for Roger Clemens. Getty Images via @daylife"Let's play two!" Hall of Fame Chicago Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks enthusiastically used to exclaim.

The notion must have come to the mind of United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Reggie Walton as he began presiding today over the government's second attempt to obtain a perjury conviction against Cy Young Award-winner "Rocket" Roger Clemens.

Jury selection is underway, the Associated Press reported, in the case against Clemens, who is accused of giving false testimony to a Congressional committee looking into steroid use in Major League Baseball. The list of potential witnesses is a Who's Who of prominent baseball figures, ranging from Commissioner Bud Selig and Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons, to tainted home run king Barry Bonds and many of Clemens' former Yankee teammates, including Jorge Posada and Paul O'Neill.

Judge Walton declared a mistrial in July 2011, on the second day of testimony after prosecutors presented evidence to the jury that the court already had ruled inadmissible. A four-week to six-week trial is expected, which is about as long as the average Yankees-Red Sox game.
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Friday, April 13, 2012

Adults Love Local News

Knight Foundation Logo (Photo credit: Knight Foundation)A phone survey of more than 2,200 adults last January found 72 percent of the adults polled relied on local newspapers to satisfy their craving for local information.

The study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, backed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has a 2 percent margin of error, gauged how respondents obtained information about 16 topics, ranging from crime news and school information to weather reports.

The results, reported on www.PewInternet.org, found 32 percent of adults conceding the absence of their local paper would have a major impact on their lives, a number that jumped to 35 percent among adult respondents age 40 and older. The survey was conducted both on cell phones and landlines.
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Magazines Running Out of Ammo

The Sporting News photo of Jay HughesThe Sporting News photo of Jay Hughes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Advertising pages in the consumer magazine sector plunged 8.2 percent in the First Quarter of 2012, compared to First Quarter results last year, according to Publishers' Information Bureau (PIB) statistics cited in Folio (www.Foliomag.com).


Sporting News (a "TUOL" staff fave during their formative years) suffered an 80.1 percent drop-off in ad pages. Overall, the "women's magazine" category performed badly in the First Quarter, PIB numbers reflect, as titles such as O! The Oprah Magazine, Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes & Gardens all endured fewer ad pages. Marie Claire was a shining exception, boasting a 10 percent increase in ad pages.

The numbers weren't much better for news magazine not named Bloomberg, as The Economist slipped 4.8 percent in ad pages over the first three months of 2012, while Time's ad pages sank 21 percent. Automotive and food products were advertising categories that severely cut back on magazine advertising, as only toiletries & cosmetics and apparel & accessories stepped up a periodical presence during the First Quarter of 2012.
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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Solons Pass Law Shielding Job Applicants' Social Media Passwords

Chamber of House of Delegates, Maryland State ...Chamber of House of Delegates, Maryland State Legislature. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Maryland, which enacted the nation's first shield law to protect journalists in 1896, is now also the first state to protect job applicants' social media passwords from prospective employers' perusal.

The (Maryland) Gazette.net Web site and the Raycom News Network reported that the Maryland legislature nearly unanimously passed the measure that Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to sign. The bill, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and opposed by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, bars employers from demanding applicants provide passwords to their personal Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts.

Other states, including Michigan, Illinois and California, are considering similar legislation to preserve the privacy right of individuals.
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Journo Tweet Triggers Mistrial in Kansas Murder Case

The Topeka Capital JournalThe Topeka Capital Journal (Photo credit: Marion Doss)A Topeka (Kan.) Capital Journal reporter's courtroom Tweet about a murder case prompted the judge to declare a mistrial, the daily reported.

One day after the case against 20-year-old Austin Tabor, accused in the 2010 shooting death of 20-year-old Matthew Mitchell, began, the court declared a mistrial because an online image posted by the Capital Journal journalist live-Tweeting the proceedings depicted one or more jurors hearing the case. Rules created by the Kansas Supreme Court bar the photographing of individual jurors.

The presiding judge agreed before the proceedings began to the use of camera phones, but forbade photographing jurors. The Capital Journal apologized for the inadvertent image and said it would use the miscue as a "training opportunity" for staff members.  Prosecutors expect to try Tabor sometime this summer, according to the Capital Journal article.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Soap Opera Weekly Magazine Shuts Down...Unless It Was All Just a Dream

Original main titleOriginal main title (Photo credit: Wikipedia)With once-thriving daytime dramas down to four stalwart soap opera hangers-on, including General Hospital and Days of Our Lives, it's not surprising news that American Media Inc. has discontinued Soap Opera Weekly ("SOW").

According to an article in Ad Week citing Audit Bureau of Circulations numbers, SOW circulation plunged 50 percent over the past four years to 107, 817. Competitor Soap Opera Digest ("SOD") continues to keep readers abreast of all the torrid affairs, long-lost twins and other hijinks among their favorite  "soaps" characters, but also saw  circulation decline by 40 percent last year to 292,219.

Sounds as if this segment of the publishing industry is undergoing a not-so Secret Storm and can use a Guiding Light to show it the way to profitability.
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Twitter Tags Spammers With Federal Court Suit

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBaseSan Francisco-based monster microblogger Twitter last Thursday sued five Websites it claims are using software to bombard tweeter with advertising and virus-plagued links.

Twitter named TweetBuddy, TweetAdder, TweetAttacks, justinlover.info's James Lucero and tropion.com's Garland E. Harris as defendants who allegedly devise tools to carpet-bomb Twitter account holders with spam, according to a Reuters article.  
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Monday, April 9, 2012

Wouk This Way

Aharon Meskin, Herman Wouk and Misha Asherov, ...Aharon Meskin, Herman Wouk and Misha Asherov. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Mediabistro.com reports that a new book by 96-year-old best-selling author Herman Wouk is expected to be published this fall by Simon & Schuster.

The Lawgiver, which tracks communications between characters concerning a proposed movie about the Biblical leader Moses, is the latest literary effort by the author of The Caine Mutiny. The Winds of War and Marjorie Morningstar are among Herman Works' Wouks, er, Wouk's works.

Hope Wouk's agent got a hefty advance for its nonagenarian client.
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FCC Seeks Online Repository for Local TV Political Ad Data

Logo of the United States Federal Communicatio...Logo of the United States Federal Communications Commission, used on their website and some publications since the early 2000s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)At their April 27 meeting, FCC Commissioners are expected to push for regulations requiring local television stations to submit data to a central Website about political advertising that they air, the New York Times reports.

Stations already compile such information, which documents programming and cash outlay on political ads, but object to the FCC plan, which they argue would be financially onerous and of little use to the public. The agency and advocates of the plan, however, claim transparency regarding political ads will increase and members of the public will have easier access to such data if it is warehoused online at one site. The FCC contends stations would spend under $1,000 to upload the data and would ultimately realize a savings in storage and printing costs.
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Friday, April 6, 2012

Viacom Back in Business: Second Circuit Restores Suit Against YouTube

Seal of the United States Court of Appeals for...Seal of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In Viacom International, Inc. et al. v. YouTube, Inc. et al. (Case No. 10-3270-cv), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday reversed the trial court's dismissal of the plaintiffs' copyright infringement suit against YouTube.

The trial court in 2010 rejected the plaintiffs' claim that YouTube infringed on their copyrights by allowing users to upload unauthorized clips from Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, citing the Safe Harbor provision, Title II of The Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, which shields Internet Services Providers from liability provided they promptly block access to infringing material when they receive notice of the infringement from the copyright holder.

The appellate court, however, found "a reasonable jury could conclude that YouTube had knowledge or awareness" of the infringement regarding "a handful of specific clips." The Second Circuit ordered the lower court to determine whether YouTube turned a blind eye to the actions of its users.
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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Arizona Bill Has Free Speech Advocates on Edge

PHOENIX, AZ - NOVEMBER 2:  Arizona Governor Ja...Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)House Bill 2549, passed by the Arizona legislature and wending its way toward Gov. Jan Brewer's desk, seems certain to invite a First Amendment challenge from online advocates of free expression.

H.B. 2549, according to a report by ABC News, makes it a misdemeanor offense subject to a maximum six months' jail time for an individual who employs digital or electronic means to "terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend" another. Although more than two-thirds of the states have enacted cyberbullying statutes, the proposed H.B. 2549 apparently could have a chilling effect on speech because, for example, its vague wording doesn't define what might satisfy the "annoy" or "offend" burden of proof.

Social media users and blog commenters will have to be on their guard if the measure passes. For the Arizona legislature, which previously authored a draconian immigration law that seemingly makes "driving while looking Latino" a criminal offense, and was the last state legislature to acknowledge Martin Luther King's birthday as a holiday, it's just another day at the office.
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Convict Journos Entitled to Bylines Under New Bureau of Prisons Rule

Central office of the Federal Bureau of Prison...Central office of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Beginning May 3, avid readers of prisoner publications will know the names of the incarcerated scribes, Courthouse News Service reports.

The federal Bureau of Prisons adopted a rule it previously introduced in 2010 on an interim basis that will allow cons to have bylines on their stories. In 2007, a federal judge in Colorado held that the First Amendment rights of jailhouse journalists were being violated by rules proscribing bylines on prison paper stories.

"TUOL" wonders if convict columnists will have front- and side-view photos accompanying their work.
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