Internet regulation
Items: 29 (2 pages)
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 Michigan · July 2, 2009 · Internet regulation
Tweeting from the jury box soon to be banned in Michigan
Starting in September, Michigan jurors will no longer be allowed to send text messages, "tweet" or engage in other forms of electronic communication during trials.
The Michigan Supreme Court established the new rule Tuesday in an attempt to prevent distraction and outside information from influencing trial outcomes, according to the National Law Journal. The new rule requires that jurors be instructed ahead of time that electronic devices like Blackberrys and iPhones may not be used in the . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 12:34 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 U.S. · July 22, 2008 · Internet regulation
Lawsuits against bloggers increasing domestically and abroad
The domestic and international blogging communities are increasingly facing lawsuits and threats of legal action, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday.
Since 2004, there have been 159 civil and criminal court actions revolving around bloggers, according to the nonprofit Media Law Resource Center (MLRC). Bloggers in seven cases have been hit with a cumulative $18.5 million in damages, the Christian Science Monitor said; . . . [more]
— Virgie Townsend, 4:45 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK New York · June 30, 2008 · Internet regulation
Judge to order newspaper to identify online posters
The Journal News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley is expecting a judge to order it to identify three anonymous online posters who an ex-congressman and his wife believe slandered them on the newspaper's website.
Attorneys in the case say Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni will order LoHud.com to release information that identifies the posters -- "SAVE10543," "hadenough," and "aoxomoxoa" -- because of comments they made about former Rep. Richard . . . [more]
— Virgie Townsend, 6:02 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK 5th Cir. · May 22, 2008 · Internet regulation
Fifth Circuit holds MySpace not responsible for user misuse
The Fifth Circuit ruled on May 16 that neither MySpace nor its parent company, News Corporation, could be responsible for the sexual assault of an underage user who misrepresented her age to gain access to the Web site.
In 2005, 13-year-old “Julie Doe” lied, saying she was 18, when she signed up for a MySpace account. By lying, she waived her right to automatic privacy settings implemented by the social networking Web site to protect 14 to 15-year-old users, the . . . [more]
— Stacey Laskin, 6:29 pm · Comments: 0
COMMENTARY U.S. · May 6, 2008 · Internet regulation
Wikipedia case may test Section 230 again
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides protection from liability for Internet service providers for content posted by third parties, is more necessary than ever these days. It took a beating in a suit brought against Roommates.com recently, but then again, the content on that site was generated by third parties who were answering questions and filling in a template provided by the housing site itself.
It also didn't stop a bank from dragging a domain name registrar into court and making them block access to the wikileaks.org Web site under threat of liability for the postings on that leaks site, but then again, the registrar didn't seem to be aware that section 230 should have applied.
But now comes another case that could test the limits of the safe harbor. A . . . [more]
— Gregg Leslie, 5:16 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE 9th Cir. · April 7, 2008 · Internet regulation
Court says Web site not immune under Section 230
A federal court of appeals ruling limiting the scope of protection under the Communications Decency Act will not drastically affect online journalism, but the future could still be uncertain, according to lawyers who wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the media.
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) held that that the Web site Roommates.com is not immune under section 230 of the CDA, which immunizes Web publishers from liability arising from third-party content, because it created too much of its own problematic content, which could be considered discriminatory.
“Not only does Roommate ask these questions, Roommate makes answering the discriminatory questions a condition of doing business,” Kozinski wrote for the 8-3 majority. “This is no different from a real estate broker in real life saying, ‘Tell me whether you’re Jewish or you can find yourself another broker.’ ”
Although Roommates.com cannot be held liable for unlawful information created by its users, it can be charged for content that it provides or develops through . . . [more]
— Amy Harder, 11:27 am · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Hampshire · April 3, 2008 · Internet regulation
Judge: Web site can keep listing N.H. houses
Skynet Corp. can continue to maintain its Web site, in which homeowners in New Hampshire and elsewhere can list their houses for a fee, without a broker’s license.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge James Muirhead held March 31 that the site was covered under the media exception to a New Hampshire law, which requires any company that charges money or advertises real estate to have a license.
— Alanna Malone, 2:22 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE ILLINOIS · June 23, 2006 · Internet regulation
Court finds absolute privilege for fair report
June 23, 2006 · The legal privilege that allows journalists to report accurately on an official proceeding without fear of a defamation judgment protects the reporters against allegations that they knew of or recklessly disregarded the falsity of those reports, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a 5-1 opinion, the court ruled that certain statements made in a series of articles by a manufacturing trade publication were defamatory while others were protected for various reasons, including the fair report privilege. The court also concluded that the fair report privilege extends to reporting on judicial actions.
The court ultimately returned the case to a lower court for trial on two statements made by Start magazine that Solaia Technology and one of its attorneys, Raymond Niro, contended were defamatory. The court dismissed the remainder of the numerous allegedly defamatory statements as non-defamatory or privileged.
"The Illinois Supreme Court's ruling establishing an absolute privilege for fair and accurate reports of official proceedings provides important protection for the media in . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · February 8, 1999 · Internet regulation
Online protection act blocked by federal judge
PENNSYLVANIA--Citing First Amendment concerns, a federal judge in Philadelphia in early February granted a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a law intended to protect children from pornography on the Internet.
Civil liberties organizations and commercial websites, some featuring sexually explicit information, fear the law would infringe upon their First Amendment rights and diminish their ability to freely disseminate products and information on the Internet.
U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. granted those groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, a preliminary injunction forbidding U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the government from enforcing the Child Online Protection Act on the day the temporary restraining order was scheduled to expire.
The act would force commercial website operators to collect some form of age verification such as a credit card number or an adult access code before permitting access to material deemed "harmful to minors" by community standards. The penalty for an offense includes a $50,000 fine and six months in prison.
Reed articulated the difficulty in ruling against a law with such a . . . [more]
· Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · December 14, 1998 · Internet regulation
Library's Internet filtering program ruled unconstitutional
VIRGINIA--The Loudoun County Library cannot use commercial filters on library computers to prevent access to sexually explicit material on the Internet because the filtering system was not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest, federal District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria ruled in late November.
Brinkema found that the library's Internet filtering policy "offends the guarantee of free speech in the First Amendment." The judge, a former librarian herself, noted that by buying commercial software to filter Internet sites, the Library Board was abdicating its constitutional responsibilities to set clear standards itself.
Brinkema held that the library was a limited public forum and that the filtering policy therefore had to serve a compelling state interest and had to be narrowly drawn to achieve that end before it would be found constitutional. Brinkema found that "minimizing access to illegal pornography and avoidance of creation of a sexually hostile environment are compelling government interests," but found that the filtering policy was not necessary to achieve those interests.
The policy also was not narrowly . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · November 30, 1998 · Internet regulation
Judge stays enforcement of Internet decency law
PENNSYLVANIA--In mid-November, United States District Judge Lowell Reed in Philadelphia ordered the Justice Department to delay enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act. Reed issued a temporary restraining order until the court holds full hearings, which are scheduled for Dec. 8 and 9.
The Child Online Protection Act requires commercial web sites to collect a credit card number or some other adult access code as proof of age before allowing Internet users to view material considered harmful to minors. On October 22, 17 on-line publishers, retailers and other organizations filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the act.
(ACLU v. Reno)
· Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · October 19, 1998 · Internet regulation
Judge denies Internet publisher's right to a link on city web page
TENNESSEE--A federal district court judge in Nashville held in late September that an Internet publisher had no First Amendment right to have a link to his World-Wide Web site on an official city web site.
The City of Cookeville allowed entities to have links on its World-Wide Web page if they promoted "economic welfare, tourism, and industry" in the City. Geoffrey Davidian, publisher of an on-line newsletter called The Putnam Pit, claimed that he was improperly prevented from linking onto the web site. Davidian argued that the web page constituted a public forum, while the city claimed that its site should be characterized as a non-public forum. The Putnam Pit, which is published in Cookeville, offers commentary on the city's government.
The district court held that the city's web page was not a traditional public forum. "It is clear that unlike public streets and parks, web pages on the Internet have not by long tradition or government fiat been devoted to assembly and debate; nor has the City's web page immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public," the court ruled.
Moreover, the court found that the city had not created . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · October 5, 1998 · Internet regulation
House passes Child Online Protection Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.--In late September, The House Commerce Committee passed The Child Online Protection Act, a bill that would fine commercial sites for allowing minors access to "harmful material." The bill now goes before the entire House for approval.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), would penalize violators with up to a $50,000 fine or six months in jail for posting online material deemed "harmful to minors." The bill defines "harmful to minors" as any communication or image that depicts or describes "in a patently offensive way . . . an actual or simulated sexual act . . . that taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."
The bill targets only the World Wide Web, as opposed to e-mail or chat rooms. The measure requires commercial Web sites to verify the age of those who gain access to their content. Adults would be required to provide credit card numbers or provide some proof of age before viewing material considered "harmful to minors."
A companion bill was passed by the Senate in July 1998, as part of an appropriations bill. With these bills, Congress is attempting to pass the . . . [more]
· Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · July 27, 1998 · Internet regulation
State law restricting online communications enjoined
NEW MEXICO--A restrictive New Mexico law that criminalizes online communications involving nudity or sexual conduct did not go into effect on July 1 as scheduled after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law in late June.
Judge C. Leroy Hansen granted the injunction to the American Civil Liberties Union and 19 other plaintiffs who filed a complaint alleging that the law is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech and a violation of the Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The law, which was passed in mid-March, made it a crime to disseminate "material that is harmful to a minor" by computer, defining such material as that which "depicts actual or simulated nudity, sexual intercourse or any other sexual conduct." The law also prohibits luring children into participating in sexual conduct by means of a computer. That provision was not challenged in the complaint.
The ACLU asserted that the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it creates an effective ban on constitutionally protected speech by and to adults, as well as interfering with minors' rights to access protected material, and that the provision . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · May 4, 1998 · Internet regulation
Court won't dismiss suit over library's Internet restrictions
VIRGINIA--In mid-April, a federal judge in Alexandria declined to dismiss a lawsuit challenging on First Amendment grounds a Loudoun County Library Board policy requiring all computers in public libraries to be equipped with software that blocks access to Internet adult-themed websites, e-mail and "chat" rooms, and requiring minors to obtain written parental permission before using the Internet at all.
Federal District Judge Leonie Brinkema held that the policy was a content-based restriction on speech subject to strict judicial scrutiny, meaning that it had to be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest.
The board adopted the policy in October 1997 to block access to child pornography, "obscene material" and "material deemed harmful to juveniles under state law." To implement the policy, the board chose "X-Stop," a commercial software product intended to limit access to sites deemed to violate the policy.
An association of library patrons challenged the policy in federal court in Alexandria, arguing that it restricts access to protected speech. The board asked the court to dismiss the complaint, noting that library . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · April 6, 1998 · Internet regulation
Governor signs Internet 'indecency' act
NEW MEXICO--In early March, Gov. Gary Johnson signed into law a provision making it a crime to send "indecent" material to minors over the Internet.
Senate Bill 121, sponsored by Sen. Stuart Ingle (R-Chaves), makes it a misdemeanor to disseminate to a minor on-line material that is "offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors, is utterly without redeeming social importance for minors," and "lacks serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value."
In a press release, the national office of the ACLU contended that the legal language of the act is so broad that an image of Michelangelo's David and educational information about prisoner rape, safe sex practices and abortion could be censored.
Ann Beeson, an ACLU national staff attorney, said that the ACLU will challenge the law, following the arguments used in fighting the Communications Decency Act of 1997, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down.
Twenty-four other states have considered or passed Internet censorship legislation the last three years, the ACLU reported in a press release.
The ACLU has . . . [more]
· Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · February 23, 1998 · Internet regulation
Bill would require filtering of internet service in schools
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Schools and libraries will be forced to filter or block access to adult online material or forfeit federally- subsidized Internet service under a bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in early February.
Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) introduced a second bill designed to punish online providers of material considered "harmful to minors."
Both bills come in the wake of efforts by educators' and parents' groups, who seek new controls on Internet content after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act in June 1997.
Coats' bill would punish online distributors of "indecent" material with up to six months in jail and a $50,000 fine.
Free-speech advocates have strongly opposed both bills. In a letter to the members of the Commerce Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that online filtering or blocking in schools could restrict students' abilities to research such issues as reproductive health, AIDS and crime victim support. Moreover, the ACLU argued, existing laws provide adequate means in prosecuting the dissemination of constitutionally unprotected speech, like obscenity and child . . . [more]
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