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New Media Rights answers questions from the public and takes media inquiries regarding the law and technology. Please contact us if you have a question and we'll be glad to assist you. Our free legal and how-to resources, as well as our free public media studio and equipment, are supported by donations by individuals like you, so please consider donating today! Contact us with questions about your digital rights.

September Newsletter: Success stories, challenging AT&T, and Blogworld 2011

Submitted by New Media Rights on Thu, 09/08/2011 - 09:40

Our September newsletter brings news of success stories fighting DMCAⁱ abuse, a grant awarded by the California Consumer Protection Foundation, and our continuing efforts to stop the AT&T-Tmobile merger.

You can also catch us in person at Media Law in the Digital Age in October, a conference coproduced by Harvard Berkman Center's Digital Media Law Project and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University, as well as Blogworld 2011 in LA in November.

Watching the Watchers: Is Recording Airport Security Illegal?

Submitted by Shaun Spalding on Wed, 11/24/2010 - 17:16

By now, it seems like everyone on the Internet has weighed-in on the TSA body scanners and pat downs. It hasn't taken long for videos and audio recordings of inappropriate TSA procedures secretly taken in security lines to begin leaking onto the internet. A big unanswered question for travelers right now is, "Can get in trouble for recording how the TSA is treating (or mistreating) me?"

As recently as November 20th, a San Diego man was arrested when he who consented to a strip search but didn't submit to the subsequent pat down. When security found out he had recorded his encounter with TSA with his iPhoneⁱ, he was also charged with "illegally recording the San Diego Airport Authority" an alleged violation of of San Diego Airport Authority rule 7.14 (a). In addition to the charge, security confiscated his iPhone.

So the question seems more important than ever: can California travellers legally record how airport security treats them? (more after the jump)

Photo Credit: Notice of TSA Baggage Inspection by JohnRiv

New Media Rights files comments in FCC Future of Media proceeding

Submitted by New Media Rights on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 11:13

San Diego, California - On Friday May 7^th, 2010 New Media Rights submitted comments in the FCCⁱ's Future of Media proceeding.

New Media Rights' comments to the Commission draw directly on our experience providing one-to-one pro bono legal assistance as well as a free public media studio to creators of all types. Our work has given us the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of media makers, advocates and citizens. These comments are also intended to supplement a conversation held between New Media Rights, Free Press, Main Street Project, People's Production House, The Transmission Project and Mountain Area Information Network with the FCC's Steve Waldman on Thursday May 6^th, 2010.

Respecting the linking economy and information aggregators - part 1 of 3 online rights battles that need fighting this decade

Submitted by art neill on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 08:52

Intuitively, if you use the Internet even sparingly as a means of connecting you to the broader world, you'll recognize that much of the activity that takes place on the internet involves humans (and automated search engines and other services) filtering and aggregating basic facts and information. This is so fundamental to our daily Internet use it largely goes unnoticed. A link from search engine, a tweet, or a status update from a social media service are just a few examples. There is huge value in helping citizens sift through the wonderful oversaturation of information the Internet offers.

There are, however, real threats to our ability to find content and navigate in our vast information ocean. This very cornerstone of the Internet is threatened by fear, misunderstanding, and overreaching from some traditional content owners.

New Media Rights offers journalists and filmmakers in the San Diego area a unique opportunity with the NMR's community journalism project

Submitted by New Media Rights on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 13:18

Citizen being filmed

John Mattes, an award-winning journalist is going out in the field to investigate UCAN issues including deceptive company practices and is offering an opportunity for those who are interested to "shadow" him and learn about investigative journalism and craft online videos.

Veoh triumphs over Universal Music in lawsuit on social media liability, gives lesson in the DMCA safe harbor

Submitted by art neill on Tue, 09/15/2009 - 09:31

"Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon" by Matt Hamm, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.0. It is uncertain whether Veoh will be a major player in the future of online video. There is little doubt, however, that it has had a significant role in defining the boundaries of social media liability.

Veoh's victories against IoGroup and Universal Music have helped provide a model for social media and web 2.0 services in protecting themselves from liability.

Veoh's newest triumph is getting the district court to grant summary judgement that it is "entitled to the section 512(c) safe harbor."

The AP is going stop bloggers from pirating content (or quoting in fair use for legitimate reasons)

Submitted by art neill on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 14:00

The AP says it is taking aim at "wholesale theft" with new technology that is aimed at targeting reposting of "entire articles." The new technology is supposed to simply flag questionable articles for lawyers and paralegals to then review.

The question is will the new technology be so limited, or will the AP use the technology to follow the same path it took filing DMCA takedown notices falsely characterizing the law regarding the Drudge retort's postings as follows:

"...the use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be
a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few
sentences only ."

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