Keyword: Internet
Items: 50 (3 pages)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · July 2, 2010 · Privacy
White House unveils system to create online identities
The White House is moving forward with a plan that will invite people to create online identities in order to streamline the online transaction process, combat identify theft and reduce the amount of personal information available on the Internet.
Information access groups are watching developments to see if the new system will have any negative affects on public access to information, particularly government-held information that identifies individuals.
The Obama administration introduced the new "Indentity Ecosystem" as a component of its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace on June 25th. The effort is part of as part of President Obama’s Cyberspace Policy Review and the Department of Homeland Security assisted in developing the strategy.
“We want to create an environment, or an Identity Ecosystem as we refer to it in the Strategy, where individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with confidence, trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure that the transaction runs on,” . . . [more]
— Mara Zimmerman, 3:07 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Florida · May 6, 2010 · Prior restraints
First Amendment protects post on cop-rating website
A Florida federal judge has struck down the law that resulted in the arrest of an individual who published the contact information of a police officer in a website critique.
Robert Brayshaw brought the lawsuit after he was arrested in 2008 for posting a series of comments about a Tallahassee police officer on RateMyCop.com, a website that allows users to rate and comment on police officers. One of Brayshaw's comments included the home address, telephone number, and e-mail address of Tallahassee police officer Annette Garrett -- information that was all publicly available in other places.
Brayshaw was charged with violating a Florida statute that prohibited publishing the home address or telephone number of police officers with "the intent to intimidate, hinder, or interrupt any law enforcement officer in the legal performance of his or her duties." Although the charges were later dismissed, Brayshaw brought a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
Judge Richard Smoak ruled that Brayshaw's comment was protected speech and that the law was unconstitutional.
Smoak . . . [more]
— Mara Zimmerman, 2:48 pm · View reader comments (2)
QUICKLINK New Jersey · April 23, 2010 · Reporter's privilege
New Jersey appeals court concurs that blogger is not a journalist
A New Jersey appeals court on Thursday affirmed a lower court's ruling that said a libel defendant could not use the reporter's shield law because not all bloggers are journalists, and the defendant was not engaged in journalism.
The plaintiff, Too Much Media, sued Shellee Hale in New Jersey after she posted comments stating that the company, which works with websites in the adult entertainment industry, was profiting from a security breach in its program.
Like the . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 3:22 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · February 9, 2010 · Newsgathering
Report outlines impact of online media growth on press freedom
As newspaper circulations drop and nightly news broadcasts garner fewer viewers, more people are getting their news online -- a medium not as likely as traditional media to spend the money to sue for access to courts, public records and public meetings, according to a report released last week by CQ Researcher.
According to the "Press Freedom" report, as traditional news sources migrate online and are supplemented by independent journalists or grant-funded nonprofit investigative journalism organizations, finding the . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 4:27 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · December 3, 2009 · Freedom of information
Lawsuit demands info on government's use of social media sites
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing five different government agencies for refusing to disclose their policies on investigations using social networking websites.
The lawsuit was filed Monday after the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Treasury, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence failed to respond to FOIA requests that sought all records and guidelines outlining the collection of personal information from social . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 6:28 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New York · November 16, 2009 · Newsgathering
New York paper fights website commenter subpoena
A New York newspaper is engaged in a battle to quash a grand jury subpoena for the identities of some of its website commenters.
Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips last month served The (Chester) Chronicle with a subpoena seeking information about two anonymous posters. The prosecutor's subpoena came after a string of informal requests from Chester public officials including Mayor Philip Valastro and School Superintendent Helen Ann Livingston, as well as a police officer who . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 6:48 pm · View reader comments (13)
QUICKLINK Pennsylvania · November 10, 2009 · Newsgathering
Justice Department issued secret subpoena for news site's traffic
The Department of Justice earlier this year served and shortly thereafter withdrew a grand jury subpoena that sought information about all visitors to the journalism website Indymedia.us for one day, and also contained a gag order "not to disclose the existence of [the] request," CBSNews.com reports.
In the Jan. 23 subpoena the Justice Department demanded that the Philadelphia-based site’s server . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 3:17 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · October 7, 2009 · Internet regulation
New FTC guidelines may affect electronic journalists
The Federal Trade Commission approved on Monday final revisions to new guidelines that will require manufacturers and bloggers who work for them to disclose the exchange of free merchandise.
The guidelines are meant to apply to those who are paid to promote products, not those who are engaged in journalism, but drawing a line between the two is often difficult, and ultimately will have to be decided by courts if the FTC chooses to prosecute a blogger who is engaged in journalism.
The revisions, which are not a law but rather the FTC's interpretation of existing law in light of new technology, mark the first time the commission has updated its guidelines since 1980.
The revisions included sweeping changes that seek to make the relationship between bloggers and manufacturers more transparent. Bloggers who receive free merchandise must now disclose it on their blog; manufacturers who distribute free merchandise have the duty to inform bloggers they must disclose it.
Thought the commission's guidelines carefully distinguished between new media and traditional media, legal . . . [more]
— Brooke Ericson, 4:53 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Colorado · September 28, 2009 · Internet regulation
Web sites with anonymous comments denied university press passes
A recent story on a football game in the INDenver Times highlighted a Colorado University press policy that limits which Web sites are granted press passes to cover athetic games.
INDenver Times said it had turned off the online comments section on a story about Colorado University's win against the Wyoming Cowboys because the school will not give press passes to Web sites without a print or broadcast component unless they prohibit the posting of anonymous comments, the Denver Westword's news blog . . . [more]
— Brooke Ericson, 5:22 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK New York · September 11, 2009 · Libel
Ex-congressman's defamation suit thrown out under SLAPP law
A New York judge has dismissed a former congressman’s defamation suit against a person who criticized him anonymously on a newspaper website, The Journal News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley reported. The court dismissed the libel claim under an anti-SLAPP statute, which protects speakers from "strategic lawsuits against public participation."
Westchester County Judge Richard B. . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 1:08 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Texas · July 22, 2009 · Libel
Texas court says online journalist is part of the media
An online reporter qualifies as a journalist entitled to certain protections under state law, a Texas appellate court ruled last month.
The reporter, Joe Kaufman, sought a pre-trial appeal of a lower court's refusal to dismiss defamation charges against him. In Texas, members of the media have an automatic right to pre-trial appeals if the claim is rooted in the First Amendment. The plaintiffs -- a coalition of seven Islamic associations -- challenged whether Kaufman is a journalist because his work appeared on the Internet.
The defamation claim comes from an article Kaufman wrote for Front Page Magazine, an online publication of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The article was about Muslim Family Day at Six Flags Over Texas and highlighted links between one of the event's sponsors, the Islamic Circle of North America, and third-parties with connections to terrorism. The plaintiffs are other Islamic groups that were listed as sponsors on an promotional flier but were not named in the article. The Islamic Circle of North America did not sue.
The Texas . . . [more]
— Jonathan Jones, 6:12 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Illinois · May 19, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Illinois judge rules shield law does not cover anonymous comments
A judge in Illinois has rejected the Alton Telegraph's argument that the identities of anonymous commenters on a newspaper's Web site are protected by the state's shield law, The Associated Press reports.
In response to the Telegraph's motion to quash a subpoena seeking the names, addresses and Internet Protocol addresses of five commenters on a story about a murder . . . [more]
— Lucas Tanglen, 4:44 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE California · April 6, 2009 · Privacy
Letter from MySpace page not private, court rules
A California court ruled last week that a high school principal who sent a copy of a MySpace journal entry to a local newspaper is not liable for invading the Web author’s privacy.
University of California at Berkeley student Cynthia Moreno penned a journal entry on her MySpace page ranting against her hometown of Coalinga, Calif, according to the court opinion. The post was on her page for about a week before she removed it. When a local principal, Roger Campbell, saw the posting he sent it to the Coalinga Record to be published along with Moreno's full name.
The publication caused a stir in her neighborhood, the opinion says; Moreno's family received death threats.
Eventually, the family eventually moved away, and filed a lawsuit against the principal and the Coalinga Record. They sued for invasion of privacy and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The claims against the newspaper were quickly dismissed under the state’s SLAPP statute, which allows the media to move to dismiss lawsuits that target speech in an attempt to block . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 6:11 pm · View reader comments (2)
LEGAL BRIEFS & COMMENTS Illinois · March 27, 2009 · Libel
Media groups urge court to protect anonymous speech
Several news media organizations, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in an Illinois appellate court this week, urging the adoption of procedural safeguards to protect the identities of anonymous bloggers.
The brief was written by the Cyber Law Clinic at Harvard Law School with the assistance of the Citizen Media Law Project.
In the case, Maxon v. Ottawa Publishing Co., the plaintiffs sought the identities of anonymous bloggers who they claim defamed them on the Web site of a local newspaper, The Times. The trial court dismissed Donald and Janet Maxon's petition seeking the bloggers’ identities, . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 12:23 pm · View reader comments (4)
QUICKLINK Tennessee · March 17, 2009 · Libel
Tennessee court upholds anonymous speech online
A Tennessee state court refused to unmask an anonymous blogger last week, citing the recent Maryland high court decision that upheld a balancing test for identifying anonymous speakers on the Internet, the Citizen Media Law Project reports.
Swartz v. Doe involves a couple in Old Hickory, Tenn., who run a real estate business and a halfway house. An anonymous blogger started a Web site, StopSwartz. blogspot, to . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 2:52 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Maryland · February 27, 2009 · Libel
Victory for online speech in Maryland
Maryland’s highest court on Friday ruled that a newspaper company does not have to reveal the identities of three people who commented anonymously on a newspaper-owned community forum Web site.
In upholding the right to anonymous speech, the court also for the first time adopted a standard for lower courts to apply when dealing with anonymous defendants in defamation cases.
In Independent Newspapers v. Brodie, plaintiff Zebulon Brodie sued three John Doe defendants who posted anonymous comments on a Web site owned by Independent Newspapers. Brodie alleged that the statements, which described a Dunkin' Donuts shop he owned as one “of the most dirty and unsanitary-looking food-service places I have seen,” were defamatory, and he subpoenaed Independent Newspapers for the identities of the anonymous commenters.
The trial court in Maryland ordered the newspaper company to reveal the identities of the bloggers. Independent Newspapers appealed, and in an unusual procedural move, the highest . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 5:21 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Pennsylvania · February 23, 2009 · Privacy
Online comments company expected to name users
The York Daily Record/Sunday News reports that the company that owns its online readers' comment section is expected to turn over the personal information of anonymous individuals who commented on a Daily Record/Sunday News story about a Dec. 28 murder.
Prosecutor Timothy Barker told a judge at a hearing Friday that his office believes at least some of the authors of the 26 story comments might have been witnesses to the stabbing death of Andrew Wright, according to . . . [more]
— Ahnalese Rushmann, 5:39 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · February 9, 2009 · Internet regulation
Gossipy college Web site goes offline
A gossip Web site that took college campuses by storm has shut down.
As of Feb. 5, JuicyCampus is no longer up and running, according to The Associated Press. CEO Matt Ivester, who founded the site in 2007, said in a statement online that “in these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved."
JuicyCampus allowed college students across the nation to post comments about anything they wanted, no matter how tasteless or . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 5:36 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK International · February 4, 2009 · Privacy
Google executives face criminal prosecution in Italy
A group of Google lawyers and executives are facing criminal prosecution in Italy for not immediately removing from their Italian Web site a video depicting a group of teenagers teasing a boy with Downs syndrome.
David Drummond, a senior vice president; George De Los Reyes, former chief financial officer; Peter Fleischer, global privacy council; and Arvind Desikan, head of Google Video for Europe, are facing trial later this month on charges of violating Italian privacy laws, the International Herald Tribune . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 5:46 pm · View reader comments (3)
QUICKLINK Virginia · February 2, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Subpoena to blogger seeks everything, including Web site viewers
A Virginia-based blogger is fighting a subpoena that seeks the identities of everyone who viewed an online article he wrote about a defamation lawsuit, the Citizen Media Law Project reports.
The blogger, Waldo Jaquith, publishes cvillenews.com in Charlottesville, Va. In December, he . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 5:29 pm · View reader comments (1)
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