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Media & Entertainment Law

Media Law Prof Blog

Media law resources, information, and news for the academic community.

Post Frequency: 34.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:48:00

Sotomayor Opinions; Hearings Begin Today

Posted on July 13, 2009
Here's a link to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis of selected opinions of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's opinions, including some in the area of speech. Hearings on her nomination begin today.

Media Campaign From Sense About Science Aimed At Changing British Libel Laws

Posted on July 13, 2009
Science journalists and others in the media have begun a massive international campaign to pressure British MPs to modify the libel laws in the wake of the Simon Singh defamation ruling. Mr. Singh lost an important preliminary ruling over an...

New Jersey Judge Rules Blogger Cannot Claim Protection of Shield Law

Posted on July 10, 2009
In a case of first impression, a New Jersey judge has held that a blogger cannot claim the protection of New Jersey's shield law. Too Much Media Corp., a software company that produces a software product of interest to the...

Detained American Reporters Seeking Pardon

Posted on July 10, 2009
Lisa Ling, sister of journalist Laura Ling, who with colleague Euna Lee was convicted by North Korea of "hostile acts" and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp, says the two reporters are now asking for a pardon. The...

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Shepard Fairey Pleads Guilty, Will Pay To Have Graffiti Removed

Posted on July 10, 2009
Shepard Fairey, the "Obama" poster artist, has pled guilty to three charges of vandalism and been sentenced to probation by a Boston (Mass.) judge. Prosecutors agreed to drop other charges. He has agreed to pay to have graffiti removed from...

Defaming the Dead

Posted on July 10, 2009
FindLaw's John Dean discusses Rep. Peter King's comments about the late Michael Jackson before an American Legion post audience and comments on a cause of action for defaming the dead. Rep. King called the late singer "a pervert, a child...

LSU Press Will Stay Open

Posted on July 10, 2009
In spite of drastic budget cuts announced yesterday, the Louisiana State University Press will not close. It will lose some funding, however. LSU President Michael Martin said he would help the Press as much as possible but did not want...

District Court Enjoins Va. Attorney General From Enforcing Privacy Law Against Website Operator

Posted on July 09, 2009
The U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond Division) has enjoined the Virginia Attorney General from enforcing certain provisions of Virginia's Personal Information Privacy Act against a plaintiff for simply republishing publicly available documents which contained...

Sir Alan Sugar No Longer Part of Ad Campaign

Posted on July 09, 2009
"Enterprise tsar" Sir Alan Sugar will no longer be the image of Great Britain's National Savings & Investments, per government ethics rules. Sir Alan, who has been the subject of criticism for continuing to participate in the television show The...

Big Brother Behavior Prompts Complaints To Ofcom

Posted on July 09, 2009
The Guardian reports that Ofcom has received nearly 300 complaints about this season's Big Brother series. Included among the complaints was one episode in which participant Marcus Akin used threatening language toward another member of the Big Brother group, Sree...

More On the News of the World Phone Call Interception Story

Posted on July 09, 2009
The New York Times has picked up the Guardian News of the World "phone hacking" story here.

Kate Beckinsale Wins Damages, Apology, From Daily Express Over "Barbarella" Story

Posted on July 09, 2009
The Daily Express will pay actress Kate Beckinsale twenty thousand pounds in libel damages for publishing a story saying that she "had been dropped" from the remake of the film Barbarella. The newspaper's attorney said the Daily Express offered a...

Guardian Reports On News of the World Phone Hacking

Posted on July 09, 2009
A big story being reported by the Guardian about News of the World. According to its accounts, the News Group newspapers, which owns News of the World, has reportedly paid enormous sums, up to one million pounds, to keep certain...

Jesse James Hollywood Convicted; Case Inspired "Alphadog" Film

Posted on July 09, 2009
A jury has convicted Jesse James Hollywood, the real life drug dealer at the center of the crime that was the inspiration for the film Alphadog, of kidnapping and murder in the death of fifteen year old Nicholas Markowitz. Because...

Give College Content Away, Attract the Best and Brightest

Posted on July 08, 2009
In a new book, the editor of a prominent technology magazine argues that colleges should make some of their product free to all. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, says in Free: The Future of a Radical Price, that "free...

Judge Nixes Churchill Verdict, Refuses To Order Reinstatement

Posted on July 08, 2009
A Colorado judge has vacated the jury verdict in favor of former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, saying that the officials the professor had sued were "immune" from suit, and refused to order that the University restore Mr. Churchill...

Cyber Attackers Hit US, South Korean Government Sites

Posted on July 08, 2009
From MSNBC.com, a report on massive DoS (denial of service) attacks on websites of the Pentagon, the White House, the Department of Transportation, and other US sites, as well as some South Korean government sites. Some suspect North Korean hackers...

Libel Trial Opens Over Conrad Black Biography

Posted on July 07, 2009
Tom Bower, author of a biography of Conrad Black, and Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond are meeting in court this week. Mr. Desmond is unhappy about statements in Mr. Bower's book that he believes suggest he "interfered in editorial policy."...

Press Complaints Commission Finds Against Paper For Invasion of Privacy of School Shooting Survivors

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Press Complaints Commission has criticized the Scottish Sunday Express for what it considers an invasion of privacy 13 years later on survivors of the Dunblaine School shooting of 1996. The children who survived the shooting are now teenagers, and...

Iran Says It Has Released British/Greek Journalist; Still Holds Other Reporters

Posted on July 07, 2009
Iran has reportedly released a Washington Times reporter who holds dual British/Greek citizenship. Iason Athanasiadis-Fowden, also known as James Fowden, was released after two weeks detention, according to Greek officials. However, another journalist, who holds dual Iranian/Canadian citizenship, and works...

New ASA Chief Says Agency Likely To Receive Record Number of Complaints This Year

Posted on July 06, 2009
The new head of the Advertising Standards Authority says he expects another record year for complaints about ads. Guy Parker notes that over 26,000 complaints deluged the ASA last year, and he thinks 30,000 will come in this year. Read...

When Journalists Rewrite

Posted on July 06, 2009
Ben Goldacre criticizes media coverage of a graduate student's preliminary findings on male attitudes toward women and sex here.

British, Greeks, Trying To Gain Freedom For Washington Times Reporter

Posted on July 06, 2009
Days after reports that he was to be freed, a reporter for the Washington Times is still being detained in Iran, and both the British and Greek governments are working on gaining Iason Athanasiadis-Fowden's release. Read more here.

On Wikileaks

Posted on July 06, 2009
Oliver Luft discusses praise, criticism, and influence of Wikileaks on journalism here.

Palin Attorney Tells Media Not To Speculate About Resignation; Warns Of Lawsuit If "Defamatory Statements" Continue

Posted on July 05, 2009
Outgoing Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin's attorney Thomas Flein is telling the media that they should not link her resignation to speculations that she is under any kind of investigation for criminal wrongdoing, according to a report on CNN. In a...

Image and Message at the Washington Post

Posted on July 05, 2009
From the New York Times, a piece about the Washington Post's publisher's proposed "at-homes", which seemed intended to provide both access and intimacy without media accountability. A flyer sent out prematurely announced the idea, but Post publisher has distanced herself...

District Court Rules That Plaintiff Is "Vexatious Litigant"; Dismisses Case

Posted on July 02, 2009
The U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has held that a pre-filing injunction is appropriate in Whitehead v. Paramount Pictures, finding that the plaintiff is "a vexatious litigant." Courts have the constitutional obligation and the inherent...

Press Complaint Commission Ends Teenage Parent/Checkbook Journalism Investigation

Posted on July 02, 2009
The Press Complaints Commission has abandoned an investigation into possible checkbook journalism over stories published in the Sun, the People, and the Sunday Mail (Scotland) after an injunction severely restricting access to the families meant that the Commission could not...

Decency, Celebrity, and News

Posted on July 02, 2009
MSNBC.com's Courtney Hazlett highlights the new OK! magazine cover, with a photo of the late Michael Jackson on its cover. She questions the magazine's editorial decision to run the picture of Mr. Jackson "which shows him lying on a stretcher,...

Gay Sex Portrayals and Obscenity Doctrine

Posted on July 02, 2009
Barry McDonald, Pepperdine University School of Law, has published "If Obscenity Were to Discriminate," in volume 103 of Northwestern University Law Review (2009). Here is the abstract. This essay develops the author's criticisms of Professor Elizabeth Glazer's thoughtful essay, When...

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