Content Regulation

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a federal law that criminalizes lying about military medals violates the First Amendment.

In a 6-3 decision, the Court affirmed the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) in United States v. Alvarez that the federal Stolen Valor Act was unconstitutional because of the severe limitations it placed on the First Amendment.

In a narrowly decided opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out millions of dollars in fines the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed on broadcasters but did not address the First Amendment implications of the agency's indecency policy.

Requests from government agencies in the U.S. to remove Internet content and reveal more information about online users continues to rise, reflecting a similar trend around the world, according to Google's Transparency Report released Sunday.

The biannual report found that in the U.S. from July to December 2011, government agencies -- including local, state and federal government offices -- requested the removal of 6,192 items posted online and information from 12,243 Google user accounts.

News media executives and free press advocates expressed concern today at a House congressional committee regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposal to require journalists to use government-owned equipment when reporting newly released government job statistics.

A Maryland radio station and its parent company was fined $2,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for recording the beginning of a telephone conversation without getting prior permission, even though the recording was never broadcast.

A federal court last week rejected a copyright infringement lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P. for its unauthorized publication of a conference call between a corporation's senior executives and a group of securities analysts, finding that the business and financial news publisher was protected from liability by the fair use doctrine.

The U.S. Department of Labor issued stricter procedures last week for media organizations participating in the department-named "press lock-ups," which allows selected reporters a 30-minute window in a highly-controlled environment to preview economic data before the information is made public.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., (4th Cir.) ordered a lower court yesterday to reconsider several of Rosetta Stone’s claims against Google over the search engine's use of trademarks in its web advertising platform.