Revisiting Foreign Libel Law's Pernicious Impact on First Amendment Speech

David Ardia
12:13 PM | bio | Comments: 0

Back in April, I blogged over at the Citizen Media Law Project about New York's Libel Terrorism Protection Act, which bars the enforcement of foreign defamation judgments unless a New York court has found that the foreign court proceeding provided at least as much protection for freedom of speech and press in that case as would be provided by both the United States and New York Constitutions. "Libel terrorism" (a term I am not a big fan of) describes the practice of libel plaintiffs who pursue claims against American publishers in foreign courts that offer few, if any, of... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, First Amendment, Libel

AP Takes on Drudge Retort Over Copyright Use

David Ardia
6:07 PM | bio | Comments: 10

Last week, the Associated Press ("AP") sent a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Rogers Cadenhead, the founder of Drudge Retort, a liberal alternative to (and parody of) the well-known Drudge Report, demanding that he remove six user-submitted blog entries and one user comment on the site that contained quotations from AP articles. Today, the New York Times reported that AP was reconsidering its request while it creates a set of guidelines for bloggers and websites that excerpt AP material. The Drudge Retort is a community site similar to Digg and Reddit, allowing its users to... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: ap, blogs, cmlp, copyright, fair use

Copyright and the Demise of Newspapers

David Ardia
4:02 PM | bio | Comments: 2

Neil Netanel, a highly regarded legal scholar, has an interesting post on Balkinization entitled "The Demise of Newspapers: Economics, Copyright, Free Speech." Netanel, who has written extensively on copyright issues, posits that part of the reason for the decline in newspapers stems from Internet competitors that build on the content and value that newspapers create. He suggests that imposing a statutory license or levy on commercial Internet service providers and news aggregators might be a workable solution for ensuring that newspapers receive compensation for their investment in quality reporting. While I think he gives too little credit to citizen... continued...

Topics: Financial, Legal Issues, Philosophy
Tagged: business models, cmlp, copyright, licensing

Judge Quashes Subpoena to Blogger Kathleen Seidel

David Ardia
12:53 PM | bio | Comments: 0

A federal magistrate judge in New Hampshire has quashed the subpoena issued to Kathleen Seidel. Seidel publishes the blog Neurodiversity, where she writes about autism issues. In February 2008, she wrote about a lawsuit against various vaccine manufacturers, Sykes v. Bayer, in which the plaintiffs Lisa and Seth Sykes seek to link exposure to mercury to their son's autism. (For more on her statements about the lawsuit, see my previous post: Blogger Kathleen Seidel Fights Subpoena Seeking Information About Vaccine Litigation.) On March 24, 2008, Clifford Shoemaker, an attorney for the Sykes, served Seidel with a subpoena in connection... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: bloggers, cmlp, legal threat, litigation, subpoena

Blogger Kathleen Seidel Fights Subpoena Seeking Information About Vaccine Litigation

David Ardia
5:39 PM | bio | Comments: 6

We've been following the subpoena issued to Kathleen Seidel in the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Threats Database, but thought it was time to throw our support behind Seidel and post about this egregious attempt to chill online speech. Seidel publishes the blog Neurodiversity, where she writes about autism issues. In February 2008, she wrote about a lawsuit against various vaccine manufacturers, Sykes v. Bayer, in which the plaintiffs, Lisa and Seth Sykes, seek to link exposure to mercury to their son's autism. Seidel's post mainly focused on developments in the lawsuit, but some of her language was critical... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: bloggers, cmlp, legal threat, litigation, subpoena

CMLP Legal Guide: Accessing Government Info

David Ardia
6:16 PM | bio | Comments: 0

Back in January, the Citizen Media Law Project began rolling out its Citizen Media Legal Guide. So far, we've published major sections of the guide covering Forming a Business and Getting Online, Dealing with Online Legal Risks, and Newsgathering and Privacy. This week we began rolling out the section on Access to Government Information, which highlights the extensive amount of information available through government sources and explains how both traditional and non-traditional journalists can use various public access laws to gather and make effective use of this information. To whet your appetite, I've pasted the first part of the... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, government information, legal guide, newsgathering

Court Dismisses Libel Lawsuit Against iBrattleboro

David Ardia
6:17 PM | bio | Comments: 0

In a case we've been following closely at the Citizen Media Law Project, a Vermont judge has dismissed the libel lawsuit filed against Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, co-founders and owners of iBrattleboro.com, a widely acclaimed community journalism site based in Brattleboro, Vermont, ruling that Grotke and LePage are immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("CDA 230"). The lawsuit, which was filed by Effie Mayhew on November 16, 2007, alleges that David Dunn, the former executive director of Rescue Inc., an emergency medical services organization where Mayhew works as a volunteer, libeled her in a... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cda 230, cmlp, ibrattleboro, libel

It's Sunshine Week!

David Ardia
9:01 AM | bio | Comments: 0

(Written by Tuna Chatterjee, CMLP Staff Attorney.) It's March and it's Sunshine Week. This year, from March 16 - 22, the American Society of Newspaper Editors is holding its annual initiative to raise public consciousness on the need for open government. The name "Sunshine Week" is derived from the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's admonition that "[s]unlight is the best disinfectant," describing his belief that an open government is more accountable to its people and thus less easily corrupted. As I write this post, various participants in the media community are similarly calling attention to the public's right to... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: access to information, cmlp, foia

CMLP Legal Guide: Newsgathering and Privacy

David Ardia
4:17 PM | bio | Comments: 0

This is the fourth in a series of posts I've written that call attention to some of the topics covered in the Citizen Media Legal Guide the Citizen Media Law Project began publishing in January. This past month we rolled out the sections on Newsgathering and Privacy, which address the legal and practical issues both professional and non-professional journalists may encounter as they gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect other information. In this post, I highlight the Gathering Private Information section of the legal guide, which outlines various privacy laws that set limits on the use of... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, intrusion, newsgathering, photography, privacy, video

Citizen Media Law Project Publishes Newsgathering Legal Guide

David Ardia
6:27 PM | bio | Comments: 6

Back in January, I announced the launch of the first two major sections of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide covering Forming a Business and Getting Online and Dealing with Online Legal Risks. This past month we began rolling out the section on Newsgathering and Privacy, which addresses the legal and practical issues you may encounter as you gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect other information. Here is a quick rundown of the sections we've just published: Entering the Property of Others discusses your rights to access public and private property and provides some guidance on... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: access, cmlp, newsgathering, privacy, wiretapping

Media Organizations Back Wikileaks in Court

David Ardia
2:46 PM | bio | Comments: 3

Yesterday, a coalition of organizations dedicated to preserving free speech rights on the Internet, including the Citizen Media Law Project, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Los Angeles Times, Hearst Corp., Gannett Co., Associated Press, and Society of Professional Journalists, filed a "friend of the court" brief in the Wikileaks case. If you haven't been following the case, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a stunningly broad injunction on February 15 that brought down Wikileaks.org, a site that is developing what it describes as an "uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis." True to its... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, prior restraints, whistleblowers, wikileaks

CMLP Legal Guide: Deciding Whether and How to be Anonymous

David Ardia
6:14 PM | bio | Comments: 0

In light of Dan Schultz's excellent post entitled Anonymous vs. Scientology: A Case Study of Digital Media, I've decided to focus my post this week on the legal and practical issues you should consider if you wish to engage in anonymous speech online. This is the third in a series of posts I've put up highlighting some of the topics covered in the Citizen Media Law Project's recently launched Citizen Media Legal Guide. In the first two posts I discussed choosing a business form for your online activities and the legal issues associated with selecting a platform for online speech.... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: anonymity, cmlp, legal guide, subpoenas

CMLP Legal Guide: Getting Your Content Out to the World

David Ardia
11:47 PM | bio | Comments: 3

This is the second in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the recently launched Citizen Media Law Project Legal Guide. The first topic I took up was choosing a business form. In this post I discuss the various issues, both legal and practical, that arise when you select a platform for your online activities.Getting Your Words and Other Content Out to the World So you've decided that you want to publish online. There is a wide range of platforms you can use to get your words, video, and other content out to... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: blog-hosts, cmlp, legal guide, terms of service, website-hosts

Highlights from the CMLP Legal Guide: Choosing a Business Form

David Ardia
11:06 AM | bio | Comments: 1

This is the first in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the recently launched Citizen Media Law Project Legal Guide. The first topic I'll take up is choosing a business form for your online publishing activities. There is increasing awareness that, especially if you publish content in collaboration with others, it may not be smart to simply leave the relationship "natural" or informal. But this realization raises other questions: What are your options? What are the benefits of legal formality? Will it be expensive to obtain these benefits? Will you have to... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, forming a business, legal guide, nonprofit

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Guide

David Ardia
11:41 AM | bio | Comments: 0

Last week we launched the first sections of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide. The guide is intended for use by citizen media creators with or without formal legal training, as well as others with an interest in these issues, and addresses the legal issues that you may encounter as you gather information and publish your work online. You can read the press release here. The Legal Guide, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, covers the 15 most populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia and will focus on the wide... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, insurance, legal guide, nonprofits

Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use

David Ardia
8:48 AM | bio | Comments: 0

As a lead up to next week's launch of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide, we are putting up longer, substantive blog posts on various subjects covered in the guide. This post, which discusses copyright and fair use in the context of citizen media, is the second in our series of legal primers. The first addressed the subject of immunity and liability for third-party content under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Because the primer is too long for me to republish here, I've included just a summary. If you are interested in reading more, the entire... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues, Participation
Tagged: citizen media, cmlp, copyright, fair use

Court Affirms that Single Publication Rule Applies Online

David Ardia
6:27 PM | bio | Comments: 0

(Cross-posted from the Citizen Media Law Project Blog) In a case of first impression in Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the "single publication rule," which states that the statute of limitations period for libel begins to run when a defamatory statement is first published, applies to publications on the Internet. Some background on the case: on July 29, 2003, the Dallas Morning News published -- in print and on its website -- an allegedly defamatory article by financial writer Scott Burns about an accelerated mortgage program offered by Nationwide Bi-Weekly Administration, a company... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, defamation, libel, statute of limitation

Court Issues Search Warrant to Unmask Anonymous Poster

David Ardia
7:03 PM | bio | Comments: 0

One of the issues we've been focusing on at the Citizen Media Law Project is whether traditional legal protections for journalists and journalism organizations are eroding as news organizations move online. A recent search warrant seeking information about the identity of a user of the Lawrence Journal-World's website, LJWorld.com, raises serious concerns about governmental overreaching and highlights the need for adequate legal protections for website user information. Last month, an investigator at Kansas University delivered a search warrant to the Lawrence Journal-World, a highly regarded newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas, demanding access to their computer servers in order to get information... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: anonymity, cmlp, LJWorld, search warrant, subpoena, user comments

Bush Signs FOIA Reform Bill Benefitting Bloggers

David Ardia
1:15 PM | bio | Comments: 1

In one of his last executive actions of the year, President Bush signed into law the "OPEN Government Act of 2007" on December 31, 2007. The Senate unanimously passed the reform bill earlier in December, and it passed the House of Representatives by voice vote on December 18. The Associated Press is reporting that Bush signed the bill without comment. As I explained in a post on the Citizen Media Law Project's blog two weeks ago, the legislation substantially reforms the Freedom of Information Act and expands the definition of who is a "representative of the news media" under FOIA.... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: bloggers, citizen journalism, cmlp, FOIA, newsgathering

Primer on Immunity for User Content

David Ardia
6:33 PM | bio | Comments: 0

As a lead up to the launch of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide in January, we are putting up longer, substantive blog posts on our project blog discussing various subjects covered in the legal guide. The first post in the series stems from a talk I gave at the Legal Risk Management in the Web 2.0 World conference in Washington, DC. As the token academic, I had the task of providing a general overview of the liability that publishers might face if they allow users to comment on or submit content to their sites. I adapted my... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: bloggers, CDA 230, cmlp, database, lawsuits, legal threats, online speech, third-party content

iBrattleboro Moves to Dismiss Libel Lawsuit

David Ardia
2:54 PM | bio | Comments: 1

Last week, I blogged here and on the Citizen Media Law Project Blog about a lawsuit filed by Effie Mayhew against Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, co-founders and owners of iBrattleboro.com, in which Mayhew claims that Grotke and LePage bear liability for a comment a user posted on the iBrattleboro site. You can read more about the lawsuit, and follow its progress, by accessing the entry, Mayhew v. Dunn, in our legal threats database.Today, Grotke and LePage filed their anticipated motion for jugdment on the pleadings, arguing that they are immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: citizen journalism, cmlp, ibrattleboro, legal threat, libel, litigation

Libel Lawsuit Filed Against iBrattleboro

David Ardia
1:05 AM | bio | Comments: 3

I just received notice that Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, co-founders and owners of iBrattleboro.com, a widely acclaimed citizen journalism site based in Brattleboro, Vermont, were sued on November 16 for libel based on a comment submitted by one of the site's users. The lawsuit, brought by Effie Mayhew, alleges that David Dunn, the former executive director of Rescue Inc., an emergency medical services organization where Mayhew works as a volunteer, libeled her in a comment on the site. According to the Brattleboro Reformer, which reported on the lawsuit yesterday: The suit pertains to a Sept. 30 comment posted to... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: citizen journalism, cmlp, ibrattleboro, legal threat, libel, litigation

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Threats Database

David Ardia
1:16 PM | bio | Comments: 0

At the Citizen Media Law Project we've finally finished building the interface for our Legal Threats Database, and I am excited to announce its public launch today. (If you would like to read our news release, you can find it here.) The database, which is funded by the Knight Foundation, catalogs the growing number of lawsuits, cease-and-desist letters, and other legal challenges faced by those engaging in online speech. We have already collected legal threats from 35 states and 9 countries, and the database is growing daily. These threats range from copyright infringement lawsuits filed against bloggers to cease and... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: bloggers, cmlp, database, lawsuits, legal threats, online speech

Importance of Knowing Local Laws: The Phoenix New Times Arrests

David Ardia
4:55 PM | bio | Comments: 2

There's been extensive coverage (here, here, here, and here) in the last week of the arrest and subsequent dismissal of charges against Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, the founders of the Phoenix New Times, a print and online newspaper. Lacey and Larkin were arrested for violating Arizona's grand jury secrecy statute, which makes it a criminal offense for anyone to disclose a "matter attending a grand jury proceeding," after they published details from a grand jury subpoena they received. In a post published on our site yesterday, the Citizen Media Law Project's assistant director Sam Bayard offered a careful... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, grand jury secrecy

U.S. House Passes Federal Shield Bill, Changes Who is Covered

David Ardia
4:16 PM | bio | Comments: 0

One of the things we are doing at the Citizen Media Law Project is keeping our eye on new legislation that might have an impact on non-traditional journalists. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed -- for the first time ever -- a federal shield bill by a vote of 398 to 21. This follows on the heels of the Senate Judiciary Committee's passage of a similar bill on October 4. The House version, however, makes a critical change in the language regarding who is entitled to the bill's qualified protections by excluding those who do not receive "substantial... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: cmlp, law, legal, shield law

Citizen Media Law Project: Where We've Been and Where We're Going

David Ardia
5:33 PM | bio | Comments: 0

We formally launched the Citizen Media Law Project's website in April 2007, so it's about time that I provided an update on what we have been up to and where we are headed in the next few months. First, however, a bit of background on my project. The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP), a joint venture between Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media, is creating a set of online legal resources for citizen journalists. This will include state and federal legal guides; advice on business formation; and a database of lawsuits,... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues
Tagged: citizen media, cmlp, law, legal