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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

NPR Reporters Escape Car Bomb

Posted on December 01, 2008
NPR reports that four of its employees seem to have been targeted in an assassination attempt in Baghdad yesterday. Their car was destroyed but they were not hurt. Read more here.

Once More Unto the Breach: FCC Files Appeal in the "Jackson Incident"

Posted on November 30, 2008
The FCC has filed an appeal in the Super Bowl case. The Third Circuit ruled in favor of CBS on July 21, and Justice Souter extended the time to appeal until November 18.

On the Air Again (Sort Of)

Posted on November 30, 2008
A Cincinnati TV station has changed its call letters to those of that fictional station, WKRP. The low power station says the change creates more awareness for the station. Read more here. Catch WKRP in Cincinnati episodes here. DVDs of...

Google and Free Speech

Posted on November 30, 2008
Law professor Jeffrey Rosen turns reporter in this New York Times Magazine article on "Google Gatekeepers." In this feature piece, he explores how demands from various countries that YouTube take down what they consider to be offensive videos have forced...

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Here's a Smartphone--Now, Let Us Track Your Digital Movements

Posted on November 30, 2008
Technology journalist John Markoff offers this look at how some college students are trading privacy for high-tech goodies, and goes on to explore the legal and societal consequences of the way companies track our Internet movements.

Citizen Journalism and the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

Posted on November 30, 2008
From today's New York Times, a piece on how citizen journalists covered the tragedy of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Gunning for Dr. Pepper

Posted on November 28, 2008
Axl Rose doesn't seem to be a Pepper. He wants an apology, and big bucks to the band for the use of its name in the company's proposed giveaway of its popular pop, tied to release of the band's new...

Fallout From the MySpace Case

Posted on November 28, 2008
The New York Times' Brian Stelter reports on the Lori Drew verdict here, examining among other issues, the question of whether creating a false identity on the 'net is now a crime. Some commentators say setting up a false identity...

MySpace Trial Verdict Announced; Defendant Convicted on Lesser Counts

Posted on November 26, 2008
A jury has convicted Lori Drew on three misdemeanor charges and acquitted her of felony charges in the high profile "MySpace" hoax trial. The jury could not come to a decision on a conspiracy charge. Prosecutors did not say whether...

Coroner Rules BBC Producer "Unlawfully Killed"

Posted on November 26, 2008
A coroner's inquest has found that Kate Peyton, the BBC producer who went to Somalia to do some feature stories was "unlawfully killed." The coroner, Peter Dean, indicated he would follow up his ruling with a letter to the BBC.

Ex-TV Anchor Gets Fine, Community Service For Reading Former Co-Worker's Emails

Posted on November 26, 2008
A judge has sentenced Larry Mendte, the ex-Philadelphia TV anchor who snooped into his co-anchor's email, to 150 hours of community service and fined him $5000, for the infraction. He lost his job earlier this year. Read more here.

Advertising Regulator Tells British Newspaper Its "Aussie" Ad Went Too Far

Posted on November 26, 2008
The ASA has told the Sun Newspaper that its ad twitting Australia for failing to win more medals at the Olympics than Britain went too far. The agency informed the paper that using the word "bloody" in the ad, which...

ASA Rules Beer Ad "Disrespectful To Asian Culture"

Posted on November 26, 2008
The Advertising Standards Authority has found that a beer ad is "disrespectful to Asian culture," and "likely to cause serious or widespread offence." An ad, for Tiger Beer, appeared on poster and in the Metro and London Lite newspapers. A...

Fan Site Shuts Down Links To Fan-Edited Films

Posted on November 26, 2008
Via the IMDB.com blog Studio Briefing News comes this item: the website Fanedit.org has shut down in the face of a legal threat from the Motion Picture Association of America, which says that its fans' practice of re-editing or transforming...

NLRB Proceeds On "Fi-Core" Complaint Arising Out of WGA Strike

Posted on November 25, 2008
The National Labor Relations Board general director is transferring that fi-core case from Washington back to Los Angeles and ordering the regional director to issue a complaint. Remember that during the WGA strike earlier this year, some members of the...

Louisiana Appellate Court Finds Owner of Radio Station is Limited Purpose Public Figure For Purposes of Defamation Action

Posted on November 25, 2008
The Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit, has affirmed a lower court ruling granting a special motion to strike, and ruling that the owner-operator of a radio station is a limited purpose public figure for purposes of his defamation action...

An Examination of Spectrum Policy

Posted on November 25, 2008
Ellen P. Goodman, Rutgers University Law School, has published "Spectrum Policy and the Public Interest." Here is the abstract. This chapter for a book on the future of digital television examines how spectrum policy priorities came to shape today's television...

Broadband Competition and Market Penetration

Posted on November 25, 2008
Rob Frieden, Pennsylvania State University School of Law, has published "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics: Developing a Clearer Assessment of Market Penetration and Broadband Competition in the United States," as Penn State Legal Studies Research Paper 13-2008...

SAG Headed Toward Strike Vote After Talks Fail

Posted on November 24, 2008
The Screen Actors Guild leadership will ask for a strike vote from the membership after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers produced no movement over the weekend. The negotiations, under the leadership of a federal mediator,...

Getting Around Britain's Libel Laws

Posted on November 24, 2008
The New York Times' Noam Cohen follows up on Rod Nordland's Newsweek piece about what cannot be written about in Britain with this piece about the British libel laws and how they are being circumvented by publication to the Internet....

Politkovskaya Trial Gets More Complicated; Supreme Court Will Review Trial Judge's Actions In Closing Proceedings

Posted on November 24, 2008
Russia's Supreme Court has decided to review the actions of the judge presiding over the Politkovskaya murder trial after jurors involved indicated that they favored an open trial instead of the closed trial the judge has mandated. Many of the...

BBC Producer's 2005 Death in Somalia To Be Investigated

Posted on November 24, 2008
An inquest begins on the death of BBC producer Kate Peyton, who was assassinated upon her arrival in Mogadishu in 2005. She and a colleague were there to work on a story about the Somali peace process. A UN report...

To Be a Reporter In Russia

Posted on November 24, 2008
The Guardian's Luke Harding discusses the very real risks of being a member of the media in today's Russia.

Jackson Recording Contract Dispute Over

Posted on November 24, 2008
Michael Jackson and Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa have settled their dispute over that recording contract. Proceedings were set to begin today in a London courtroom. Read more here in a BBC story and here in a CNN...

Judge Rules Names Of Two Convicted in Death of "Baby P" Cannot Be Published

Posted on November 21, 2008
Newsweek's Rod Nordland writes about the contempt of court order that prevents the British press from publishes the names of two of those convicted in the death of "Baby P," a toddler who never made it to the age of...

Louisiana Appellate Court Rules Police Files Public Records Under Louisiana Public Records Act

Posted on November 21, 2008
A Louisiana appellate court has ruled that a trial court erred in not ordering disclosure of redacted police files under the Louisiana Public Records Act, since the public had a strong interest in the information contained in them and the...

PRC Government Allows Press to Report "Bad News"

Posted on November 21, 2008
Reuters reports that Beijing is allowing the Chinese press to report "bad news." The thought seems to be that this approach will mitigate some of the negative effects of stories that spread through new communications technologies, such as the Internet,...

Update On Cancelled TV

Posted on November 21, 2008
Media TV update for Friday: MSNBC.com's Linda Holmes suggests there's a dearth of understanding of medmal on Grey's Anatomy. "Hilariously, it was decided that, for performing unauthorized and unnecessary surgery on a patient they almost killed, the creepy interns would...

Jon Gaunt and Freedom of Speech

Posted on November 21, 2008
Meanwhile, the Guardian's Mark Lawson sticks up for freedom of speech--even shock jock Jon Gaunt's--after Mr. Gaunt is fired from TalkSport over his remarks about "health Nazis." He compares the reaction to Mr. Gaunt's remarks, and his firing, with what...

BBC Trust On Brand/Ross Calls To Andrew Sachs

Posted on November 21, 2008
The BBC Trust has spoken. Its head, Sir Michael Lyons, noted that the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross situation could have been "avoided" if the BBC had paid attention to its own guidelines, and the pair was likely to be troublesome. But...

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