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.
Steven Tyler, left, and Mick Fleetwood, right, testify about an anti-paparazzi bill. Tyler's lawyer, Dina LaPolt, center, drafted the bill.
The Hawaii anti-paparazzi bill pushed by rocker Steven Tyler has lost momentum in the state House of Representatives after flying through the Senate earlier this month.
The Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee approved an anti-paparazzi bill that would allow people who are photographed on their private property or while taking part in “personal or family activities” to sue the photographer for invasion of privacy.
A federal court of appeals threw out an almost $20 million jury award to the family of Nancy Benoit who claimed Hustler Magazine violated their daughter's right of publicity by publishing nude photographs of her after she was killed by her husband, the professional wrestler Chris Benoit in a double murder-suicide.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Society for Professional Journalists have filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Hustler magazine asking the Supreme Court to clarify that right-of-publicity claims should not apply to newsworthy photographs.
Hustler has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a federal court ruling that said the magazine used the image of a murdered professional wrestler for commercial -- not news -- purposes that violated her family's right-of-publicity interests.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an amendment to California's anti-paparazzi law that will make it easier to sue media organizations that publish improperly obtained photographs, the Associated Press reports.
As foreign athletes, sports fans and hordes of journalists look toward home with the closing of the Olympics this weekend, free-press advocates are assessing how reporters have fared in and around Beijing.
