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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 Recent Entries: 2853
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U. S. District Court Dismisses Kevin Trudeau's Case Against New York State Consumer Protection Board
Posted on February 26, 2008The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York has granted summary judgment to employees of the New York State Consumer Protection Board, denying the relief sought by the plaintiff author and publisher of a "natural cures"...
Members Of Former Band Sue Over Royalties, Claiming Undue Influence
Posted on February 26, 2008Two members of the band Busted, which split up in 2005, have sued over what they claim is an unpaid 10 million pounds in royalties. Ki McPhail and Owen Doyle allege that they were forced out of the band and...
Seinfeld Asks Court To Dismiss Infringement Lawsuit
Posted on February 26, 2008Jerry Seinfeld has asked a U. S. District Court judge to dismiss Missy Chase Lapine's lawsuit against him and his wife Jessica. Ms. Lapine has sued the Seinfelds for copyright and trademark infringement and defamation. In addition, statements that Mr...
Nielsen and Privacy
Posted on February 26, 2008The tv ratings company, A. C. Nielsen, acknowledges that it is running into problems by trying to expand its attempts to track consumer habits beyond television viewing. It wants to trace consumer use of the web, for example; its targets...
The Economics of Wireless Net Neutrality
Posted on February 25, 2008Robert Hahn, AEI, Robert Litan, AEI, and Hal Singer, Criterion Economics, have published "The Economics of Wireless Net Neutrality," as AEI-Brookings Joint Center Working Paper No. RP07-10. Here is the abstract. Network neutrality issues have been vigorously debated worldwide over...
CBS Fights Subpoena For Video In Haditha Case
Posted on February 22, 2008CBS is asking a judge to quash a subpoena requesting outtakes that purportedly include a confession by Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich that he ordered men under his command to shoot Iraqi civilians at Haditha in November of 2005. The outtakes...
Actor Will Smith Wins Damages Over Defamatory Statement
Posted on February 22, 2008Actor Will Smith, the star of such films as "Hitch" and "I Am Legend", has won damages and an apology from World Entertainment News Network (WENN) over a statement published by WENN which alleged that Mr. Smith had said that...
Media Best Able to Keep Tabs on Former Public Servants Now In Private Employ, Says British Committee Head
Posted on February 22, 2008The chair of a British committee charged with examining the proper role of former ministers and civil servants has reported that that it should leave such scrutiny to the media. If the press then reports wrongdoing, then the government should...
Magarian on Media Regulation
Posted on February 22, 2008Gregory Magarian, Villanova University School of Law, has published "Substantive Media Regulation in Three Dimensions," in volume 76 of the George Washington Law Review. Here is the abstract. Changes in the political and regulatory climates are prompting calls to revive...
Martin Redish on Commercial Speech
Posted on February 22, 2008Martin Redish, Northwestern University School of Law, has published "Commercial Speech, First Amendment Intuitionism, and the Twilight Zone of Viewpoint Discrimination," in volume 41 of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review (forthcoming). Here is the abstract...
Northwestern Journalism Dean Issues Apology For Use of Anonymous Quote
Posted on February 21, 2008The Chronicle of Higher Education reports via its News Blog that the Dean of Northwestern's Journalism School has apologized for his use of an anonymous quotation in writing that he did for Northwestern's alumni magazine. Meanwhile, the University has begun...
DGA Oks Contract With AMPTP
Posted on February 21, 2008The Directors Guild of America members have approved a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers which will take effect July 1. Read more in a Hollywood Reporter story here.
Get Thee Behind Us, SpongeBob
Posted on February 21, 2008The PRC has banned SpongeBob, Mickey Mouse, and Pokemon, among other popular cartoon characters, to post 9 p.m. television viewing. The government hopes that these and other new regulations will draw audiences to the baby Chinese animation industry. Read more...
The Times on the Wikileaks Takedown
Posted on February 21, 2008Here's a New York Times article, published today, on the Wikileaks injunction.
The Wikileaks Injunction
Posted on February 21, 2008A website operator, wikilinks.org, says it will defy a U.S. court's order and continue its practice of allowing the posting of documents in the Julius Baer bank case, in which the bank is accused of illegal business dealings. Julius Baer...
Supreme Court To Judge Alex: Arbitrate This
Posted on February 20, 2008The Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 that the Federal Arbitration Act supersedes state law in cases in which parties argue to arbitrate disputes in a particular forum. The case involves tv's "Judge Alex" Ferrer and the attorney who represented him....
ASA Vanishes Ad For Magic Pendant
Posted on February 20, 2008The Advertising Standards Authority has found that an ad on MATV Punjabi which promised purchasers of a "Ganesh rudraksh pendant " that they would have good health and avoid bad luck is exploitative and breaches the advertising standards code. It...
Charges Against Leonardo Blair Dropped
Posted on February 19, 2008NPR reports that those charges against New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair have been dropped. Here's more.
Florida Court Quashes Subpoena in Reporter's Shield Case
Posted on February 19, 2008A Florida court has granted a reporter's motion to quash a subpoena, based on the state's shield law, since the state had not made a showing sufficient to overcome the qualified privilege. "According to Section 90.5015, Florida Statutes, a party...
Toshiba: We Concede
Posted on February 19, 2008...and it's official. Toshiba announced today that it is out of the HD-DVD business, following Wal-Mart's announcement that it was discontinuing sale of the HD-DVD players. Here's a Washington Post article on what consumers might expect, now that Blu-Ray dominates...
Judge May Hold Reporters In Contempt In Hatfill Lawsuit
Posted on February 19, 2008U. S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton, who is presiding over the Steven Hatfill lawsuit against DOJ, says he may hold two reporters in contempt over their failure to cooperate with Dr. Hatfill. The two are USA Today reporter...
Taking Another Look At Regulating Content-Based Speech
Posted on February 19, 2008Marvin Ammori, University of Nebraska College of Law, has published "Content-Based Laws Are Unproblematic?: The Case For Content-Based Promotion of Democratic Speech." Here is the abstract. Everyone seems to think the cornerstone of free speech doctrine is the distinction between...
Campus Shootings and Video Games
Posted on February 19, 2008What made NIU shooter Steven Kazmierczak snap, resulting in that tragic incident last week? MSNBC's Wilma Benedetti reports that attorney Jack Thompson thinks he has the answer--video games, even though she points out that we still have no real connection...
District Court Denies Preliminary Injunction For Use of Song In Video Game Lawsuit
Posted on February 18, 2008In Romantics v. Activision Publishing, the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan denied a request for a preliminary injunction "distributor of video game and related entities from advertising or distributing game containing new recording of song,...
Site Promoting Campus Gossip Upsets Students Across the Country
Posted on February 18, 2008In the tradition of Autoadmit.com comes JuicyCampus.com, a website which CNN (in a story from the AP) describes as "a simple conduit urging users to post gossip and promising them total anonymity", and available on more than fifty campuses around...
Inadvertent Filesharing
Posted on February 18, 2008Thomas D. Sydnor, Progress & Freedom Foundation, and Lee Hollaar, University of Utah, have published "Inadvertent Filesharing Revisited: Assessing LimeWire's Responses to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform," as Progress & Freedom Foundation Progress on Point Paper No...
A Paper on Net Neutrality and Consumer Access To Content
Posted on February 18, 2008Christopher Marsden, University of Cambridge, and University of Essex, School of Law, has published "Net Neutrality and Consumer Access to Content," in Script-Ed, volume 4, number 4. Here is the abstract. 'Net Neutrality' is a very heated and contested United...
Peggy Sue Gets Nasty
Posted on February 18, 2008Kathleen Turner, sued by Nicolas Cage over statements in her tell-all book Send Yourself Roses that he was arrested for driving under the influence and that as she remembers it, he once engaged in dognapping, now says that she's "truly...
NY Times Runs Obit For HD DVD
Posted on February 16, 2008The New York Times has an obituary in today's issue for the HD DVD format, now that WalMart has decided to stock the Blu-Ray format, the type that Sony delivers. Most Hollywood studios and other retailers have already gotten behind...
What's Wrong With Broadcast Journalism: One Commentator's View
Posted on February 15, 2008From this week's eSkeptic, Steve Salerno, the author of S.H.A.M.: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless (2005) critiques broadcast journalism in a piece called "Journalist-Bites-Reality!: How Broadcast Journalism Is Flawed in Such a Fundamental Way That Its Utility As...
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If a person defames me and threatens me to pay a bill that they made and it is posted to others besides myself, can I sue ?
The documentation of your actions in this case pretty much preclude any legal ac...
Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
Is it illegal to resell dvds/cds?
Nope, it is not illegal, assuming you are in the U.S.; there is a "first sa...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....

If a person defames me and threatens me to pay a bill that they made and it is posted to others besides myself, can I sue ?
The documentation of your actions in this case pretty much preclude any legal ac...
Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
Is it illegal to resell dvds/cds?
Nope, it is not illegal, assuming you are in the U.S.; there is a "first sa...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....








