Content Regulation

A federal court in San Francisco announced on Friday that it is not planning to broadcast closing arguments in the trial over California's gay marriage ban, despite media reports to the contrary.

As of now, Judge Vaughn Walker has not asked that Perry v. Schwarzenegger be included in a pilot program that allows the broadcast of certain non-jury civil trials.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a federal court in New York did in fact have the authority to approve a 2005 settlement between publishers and freelance writers over the inclusion of their work in online databases, Reuters reported.

A federal court in San Francisco may broadcast the closing arguments in the trial over California's same-sex marriage ban even though the Supreme Court quashed the court's plan to videotape the entire proceedings, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

CBS returned to a Philadelphia appeals court on Tuesday to fight $550,000 in penalties for a 2004 Super Bowl broadcast that showed performer Janet Jackson's breast for nearly a half second, The New York Times reported.

A federal magistrate said this week that a former Florida high school student who was suspended for criticizing her teacher on Facebook can proceed with a lawsuit against the principal who suspended her, CNN reported.

The magistrate's decision to deny the principal's motion to dismiss the suit could set an important legal precedent for cases involving free speech on social networking sites.

The FCC and Fox argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York (2nd Cir.) this week over the constitutionality of the FCC’s enforcement of its indecency policies, Broadcasting and Cable reported.

The magazine quoted some observers saying that the judges were skeptical of the commission's position, and that “all three judges were clearly ready to find that the FCC's policies are unconstitutional.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the federal trial over California's same-sex marriage ban would not be aired outside of the San Francisco courthouse.

The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked a federal judge's plan to film the trial over whether banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and broadcast it online, The Washington Post reported.

A federal judge in San Francisco has decided the first trial challenging California's same-sex marriage ban will be filmed over the protests of gay-marriage objectors, San Francisco's ABC7 reports.

At a hearing on Wednesday morning, Judge Vaughn Walker said cameras in the courtroom would record the proceedings and the footage will be uploaded to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube through a contract with the federal government.