Citizen Media Law Project Blog
The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, a research center founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development, and the Center for Citizen Media, an initiative to enhance and expand grassroots media. The mission of the CMLP is to provide education, legal training, and resources for individuals and organizations involved in citizen media. We also provide research and advocacy on free speech, newsgathering, intellectual property, and other legal issues related to online speech. This blog provides the latest updates in the Citizen Media Law Project.
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Featured Articles
Supreme Court Rejects FOIA Restrictions
In a rare Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) decision, the Supreme Court recently held in Taylor v. Sturgell that an individual's failed FOIA request does not preclude similar requests from related individuals. In doing so, the court rejected the legal doctrine of "virtual...
The Role of Internet Intermediaries in Censoring Online Speech
Today I came across two excellent pieces touching on the role of intermediaries in censorship/regulation of online speech internationally: The first is Rebecca MacKinnon's detailed blog post on her research on censorship of Chinese blogs. She looked at Chinese blog-hosting services, including ...
Recent Articles
Preliminary Thoughts on GateHouse Media v. New York Times Company
Like a storm coming over the horizon, the recent lawsuit filed by GateHouse Media against the New York Times Company, which operates Boston.com, has thrown the CMLP into disarray just as we were preparing to depart to warmer climes for the holidays. For those who haven't yet heard about this...
GateHouse v NY Times Co.: Not So Simple After All
One of the most intriguing current media legal cases pits GateHouse Media, which owns a pile of newspapers in New England (and elsewhere) against the New York Times Co., owner of the Boston Globe and Boston.com. I’ve been looking at this from both sides’ perspectives, and this is not as simple as i...
You Aren't as Free as You Think - Your Private Emails Can Land You in Jail
In the latest case involving the absurd and unconstitutional obscenity statutes, the Fourth Circuit has upheld a conviction of a man for mere private possession of allegedly obscene material. See United States v. Whorley, __F.3d__ (4th Cir. 2008). While the facts may not fit any conduct in which...
Huffington Post Criticized For Copying Content
Wired/Epicenter alerts us to the controversy swirling around the Huffington Post's new Chicago edition. Last week, Whet Moser of the Chicago Reader caught the Huffington Post using an entire Reader concert preview without permission. Later in the day, he discovered that the Huffington Post's ...
News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age
After a year of study, countless meetings, and at least two conferences, a team of researchers at the Berkman Center have released a series of papers exploring the potential and challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment (note: I played a small role in this work). If you are ...
Cybersquatter Makes Good
The Bush library team seems as incompetent as . . . well, as incompetent as you would imagine anyone involved with such a project would be. They procured the domain name www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com, then they forgot to renew the registration. It got picked up by a cybersquatter, Illuminati...
Patriot Act’s National Security Letter Gag Provisions Choke on First Amendment Grounds
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down one of the most constitutionally repugnant provisions of the PATRIOT Act -- the portions of the Act that place recipients of so-called "national security letters" (NSLs) under a permanent, unreviewed, lifetime gag order. See Doe v....
Blogger Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement for Leaking Songs from Guns N' Roses Album
Kevin Cogill, a blogger on Antiquiet, which provides "uncensored music reviews and interviews," pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement after he allegedly posted nine songs from the then unreleased Guns N' Roses...

