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    Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
    Tablet and mobile phone showing news online

    Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.

    7th Cir.

    Website with links to infringing videos does not violate copyright laws, court rules

    Amanda Simmons | Content Regulation | News | August 3, 2012
    Amanda Simmons
    News
    August 3, 2012

    A social media website on which users have provided links to copyrighted videos from third-party servers has not itself violated copyright laws, a federal court ruled yesterday.

    Although the case involves copyright claims for adult entertainment videos originally made by Flava Works, a gay pornography production company, the court’s ruling could also affect online news publishers that embed or link to other kinds of copied content.

    Federal appeals court dismisses Chicago Tribune's open records suit against Univ. of Ill.

    You-Jin Han | Freedom of Information | News | May 24, 2012
    You-Jin Han
    News
    May 24, 2012

    A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th Cir.) today ordered the dismissal of an open records-related lawsuit filed by the Chicago Tribune against the University of Illinois, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

    State may grant exclusive web streaming rights

    Kristen Rasmussen | Newsgathering | Feature | August 25, 2011
    Kristen Rasmussen
    Feature
    August 25, 2011

    The athletic association that oversees public high school sports in Wisconsin is constitutionally entitled to sign exclusive contracts for online streaming of post-season tournaments, a federal appellate court ruled yesterday.

    Amicus brief in Chicago Tribune Company v. Univ. of Ill. Bd. of Trustees

    August 19, 2011
    application/pdf icon20110819-amicusbriefinchicagotribunecompanyvunivofillbdoftr.pdf

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to hold that the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act is not a valid basis to withhold records under the Illinois open records laws related to official university misconduct regarding a secret preferred admissions process for privileged applicants.

    University should not hide behind student privacy to withhold secret admissions records, Reporters Committee argues

    Press Release | August 19, 2011
    August 19, 2011

    Records related to a secret admission process at the University of Illinois that favored applicants with ties to large donors and the politically connected cannot be considered confidential student education records exempt from public release, according to a friend-of-the-court brief filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th Cir.) by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

    Reporters Committee, news groups challenge over-broad Ill. recording law

    Press Release | April 25, 2011
    April 25, 2011

    The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and six news industry associations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief challenging the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, arguing that it is so broad that it inhibits the basic right to gather information.

    Amicus brief in ACLU v. Alvarez

    April 22, 2011
    application/pdf icon20110422-amicusbriefinacluvalvarez.pdf

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to find the Illinois Eavesdropping Act's criminalization of recording of conversations to which parties have no reasonable expectation of privacy unconstitutional

    Judge reprimanded for allowing cameras in courtroom

    Rory Eastburg | Content Regulation | Feature | October 2, 2009
    Rory Eastburg
    Feature
    October 2, 2009

    An appellate judge criticized a federal district court judge on Monday for allowing video recording and still photography at a court hearing.

    Court upholds ban on death-row interviews

    Lucas Tanglen | Newsgathering | Feature | June 25, 2009
    Lucas Tanglen
    Feature
    June 25, 2009

    A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a regulation barring prisoners on death row in the federal system from meeting with reporters. In doing so, a majority of Seventh Circuit judges set a low bar for determining when an inmate's constitutional rights can be infringed upon, over the objections of several dissenting judges.

    TV reporter ordered to hand over tapes of war protests

    Samantha Fredrickson | Reporter's Privilege | Feature | May 8, 2009
    Samantha Fredrickson
    Feature
    May 8, 2009

    A reporter for a cable-access show in Chicago was ordered by a federal magistrate judge last week to hand over every video recording he made documenting anti-war protests from 2003 to 2005.