TVR 30500: Digital Media Law

This guide serve as a pathfinder for the following topics in Digital Media Law: libel, privacy, intellectual property, theories of free expression, regulatory differences between: broadcasting, print, and other media, sexual expression (obscenity, pornography), licensing and contracts, etc.

• LexisNexis Academic   Choose "US Legal" from the left menu to find cases, codes, and to search law reviews.
• Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC)    Find treatment of legal topics from the field of communications. Sample search: (online or internet or digital) AND law (SU subject terms)
• Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
  Indexes & abstracts research papers in the social sciences (legal, economics, management, marketing, political, etc.). Contains working / forthcoming papers (not yet available in print). Some are fulltext.

Links to specific searches by subject in EBSCO Databases such as: Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Communication and Mass Media Complete. (you can limit to academic journals only on in the menu to the left under "Source Types"):

• BLOGS--Law & legislation
• COPYRIGHT -- Digital media
• CYBERBULLYING
• DIGITAL media AND Law
• ELECTRONIC journals AND LICENSE agreements
• FREEDOM of speech AND DIGITAL media
• FREEDOM of speech AND INTERNET
• INTERNET content regulation
• INTERNET -- Law & legislation
• INTERNET pornography
• LIBEL & Slander AND INTERNET
• MUSIC & the Internet AND LICENSE agreements
• MUSIC & the Internet AND COPYRIGHT -- Music
• PRIVACY  AND  INTERNET -- Law & legislation
• INTELLECTUAL property   AND  INTERNET -- Law & legislation
• OBSCENITY (law) AND  INTERNET -- Law & legislation
• ONLINE journalism AND LAW
• PORNOGRAPHY -- Law & legislation AND INTERNET

Browse selected journals:

• Com/Ent (Hastings)
• CommLaw Conspectus
• Communications and the Law
  
• Federal Communications Law Journal
• Fordham intellectual property, media & entertainment law journal
• Information and Communications Technology Law
• International Journal of Communications Law and Policy
• Media law & policy
• News media & the law
• Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law

Cases:  Specialty reporters

• Media Law reporter
  Covers new cases for radio, television, and journalism. Updated weekly. Bound cases from v.1 1977-
• NARC Online Archives
  Case reports of the National Advertising Division (NAD), Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), and the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP).  NOTE: See the reference desk; A reference librarian will sign you in to access the fulltext of the cases.
• Digestible Law: Perkins Coie's Internet Case Digest
  By the law firm Perkins Coie, this site "digests" Internet case law. Use LexisNexis to search for the full case cited.

Cases: General

• LexisNexis Academic
  
  I.  Search by Citation
  Go to:  "Look up a Legal Case" on the LexisNexis main screen (Easy Search)
  Example: Type 129 F.3d 327 in the "by Citation" box.
  
  II.  Search by Party Name
  Go to:  "Look up a Legal Case" on the LexisNexis main screen (Easy Search)
  Example: Type Finkel v. Facebook in the "by Parties" box
  
  III. To search by topic, you can search on the core terms or syllabus sections:
  Go to: US Legal
  Click on: Federal & State Cases
  Search by fields:
  
  CORE-TERMS Core Terms identify key points of a case by closely tracking the court's language.
  Ex.  Type core-terms(privacy) in the "Search for:" box AND core-terms(online) in the second box.
  You can limit by data or jurisdiction.
  
  SYLLABUS.  The syllabus is a summary at the beginning of a court decisions that clarify major points of law.
  Ex. Type syllabus(online) in the "Search for:" box.  
  
  If there are too many results, try:
  Ex.2. Modify that to say you want the word "online" to appear at least 5 times by typing: syllabus(atleast5(online)). 
   
• Supreme Court (from Oyez).  "Landmark Cases" are also listed in LexisNexis > US Legal in the left menu.
  Cable Television Regulation
  Commercial Speech
  Copyright
  Freedom of Information Act
  Libel
  Obscenity

The Constitution
2002 edition from GPOaccess. 

Federal Code: USC
To find a citation by the "Popular Name" of a code, try this list from Cornell's Legal Information Institute:

• LexisNexis Academic
  Search by Citation
  Go to: US Legal
  Click on: Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations
  Example: Type  in 47 uscs sec.151 the "Search For:" box and then choose "Citation" from the drop-down menu
  Note: United States Code Service (USCS) is Lexis's version of the United States Code.
   
• FDsys (GPO's Federal Digital System) The Government Printing Office has the official version of the United States Code online.
   
• Various government agencies and websites may link to unofficial copies of the United States Code, for instance:
  
  U.S. Copyright Office
  Includes the Law: Digital Millenium Copyright Act (P.L. 105-304) (17 USC. sec. 512, 1201-1204 et. al.)  Here is the Copyright Office summary (pdf).
  Fair Use (17 USC sec.107 et. al.), First Sale (17 USC sec. 109)
  
  Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-104) (47 USC) & Communications Decency Act of 1996

Federal Regulations: Code of Federal Regulations: CFR
Update the CFR by searching the Federal Register.

• LexisNexis Academic
  Search by Citation
  Go to: US Legal
  Click on: Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations
  Under "Select Source(s)": check Annotated U.S. Code & check the box for CFR (and the Federal Register if you want updates to the CFR)
  Ex.: Type  in 47 CFR 11.11 in the "Search For:" box and then choose "Citation" from the drop-down menu
  Ex.2.:  Type in " Emergency Alert System" in the "Search For" box and then choose "Headings" from the drop-down menu.
  Note: Instead of searching the CFR, you can browse it; choose the Browse link next to title in the Select Sources box.
   
• Various government agencies and websites may link to unofficial copies of the CFR, for instance:
  
  U.S. Copyright Office  Title 37 covers the "Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights" section of the Code of Federal Regulations. 
• Current & superseded copies are available from the GPO Access site.
• Federal Communications Commission Title 47 contains Telecommunication regulations including those of the FCC
   

• Berkman Center for Internet & Society (Harvard)  Includes the Citizen Media Law Project
• Center for Social Media (CSM) (American University)  Publishes best practice documents
• Center for the Study of the Public Domain (Duke)
• Copyright and Fair Use (Stanford) Includes the Copyright Renewal Database
• Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (American University)
• lessig blog 2 (Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University) Prof. Lessig is on break from blogging at this time  -- he is a big name in copyright law
• Media Law Prof Blog (Christine A. Corcos, Louisiana State University)
• Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law (Rutgers University, Camden)  Researches information regulation
• Wendy's Blog (Wendy Seltzer, University of Colorado School of Law) Includes the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

Library organizations

• American Library Association / Electronic Resources Interest Group (forum)  Libraries typically have a position called the E-Resources Librarian that contracts with database and digital media vendors. 
• American Library Association / Video Round Table / Digital Media Discussion Group  Video librarians acquire and manage library videos.  A group called the Video Round Table discusses the transition to digital media of video. Issues include: ways to license, preserve, and follow copyright are discussed regarding streaming video acquisitions.
• Library of Congress / Digital Collections  The nation's library has numerous digital collections.
• National Archives / Digitization  The nation's archive has been digitizing its collections.

Getting Permission

• Copyright Clearance Center  Often used when Interlibrary loaning articles
• SWANK: Public Performance Licences for feature films

Major Vendors to Libraries

• Dow Jones Factiva   Company know for busienss information (Dow Jones) and news (Factiva).  Part of News Corpoation that owns the Wall Street Journal.
• EBSCO  Platform for indexes of numerous magazines, journals and newspapers.
• Reed Elsevier Platform that is especially strong in the sciences, particularly SciVerse. The family includes LexisNexis that has a strengths in law, business, and current news.
• GALE Platform that provides online reference works and indexes numerous magazines, journals and newspapers.
• Informaworld   Platform that indexes information in the social sciences and medicine.  Home to Taylor& Fancis and Routlege amongst others.
• Newsbank   Platform for current newspapers
• ProQuest  Platform that indexes magazines, journals and newspapers.  Also has historical newspapers and disseration collecitons.
• SAGE  Provides fulltext journal collections, books, reference books in a variety of research areas. 
• Thompson / Reuters  Company know for legal resources (Westlaw) and news (Reuters)

Note:  "Ultimate parents" of media companies an be found in the database Business and Company Resource Center as well as the Business module of LexisNexis Academic.

Digital Libraries  (books and some magazines)

• Google Books
  Search the full-text of millions of books and magazines -click the "Full view only" button to find full-text books or magazines.   Newer titles still under copyright can be searched, but the full-text is not viewable.  Use the "Find this book in a library" link to see if the IC Library has the title. Enter 14850 to see a list of local libraries that own the book.   If IC is listed, clicking on the link will take you to the record in the IC Library catalog, displaying its call number and availability.
• HathiTrust Digital Library
  A collaborative project of several research-level academic libraries across the United States, HathiTrust is a digital repository for scanned books and other digital materials similar to Google Books.  In some cases, books that are only available in snippet view through Google Books are available in full text at HathiTrust.

Scholarly Communication

• Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition  International group of libraries that analyzes and addresses issues in scholarly publications (the relation between publishers, authors and libraries) such as the high cost of journal subscriptions.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  Free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals on all subjects in many languages.
• Critical Commons : For Fair & Critical Participation in Media Culture
  This non-profit site supports teaching and research by hosting media clips that can be used for classroom instruction.  Faculty can add clips with commentary for class instruction by registering on the site as an advanced user.  Students who register as basic users can create links and post comments to videos.
• Dissertations and Theses (PQDT Open)
  Full text, open access dissertations and theses in all academic disciplines from ProQuest's UMI Dissertation Publishing. 
• Library Renewal
  Electronic content delivery for libraries (in development, summer 2011).
• SAGE Open
  Open access articles in the social and behavioral sciences and humanities from the publisher SAGE.

As I come across websites that may be of interest for this course, I'll log them here:

• Center for Copyright Information
• Digital Rights Corp collects $10 settlement offers on behalf of its cliencts from users who infringe copyrights. Their "Learn about Copyrights" page is useful, for instance, here is a page on, "How P2P is Misused."
• Piratebay.org/legal   Lists legal threats & communication to corporations & organizations such as Microsoft, Dreamworks & the MPAA
• Steal this Film  Go ahead in this case -- they want you to.
• Motion Picture Association of America:   Copyright Information
• Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
  Trade association that supports the music industry. Site includes links to anti-piracy initiatives and statistics. The Association has appeared often in campus news as they aggressively litigate against the illegal downloading of music.
• EUR-Lex Directive 2000/31/EC  Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market ('Directive on electronic commerce')

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See also:

• TVR 31200 Government & Media
• Guide to Public Domain Material (by Jenny Strickland)

LexisNexis maintains a wiki of help screens to their product. It includes a guide to Intellectual Property Law.

Specific pages of interest include:

• Federal Statutes
• Landmark cases
• Legal Citation Formats  (how to type a case so it searches correctly-- very important!)
• Legal Reference
  
• Legal Topics Search
• State Codes
• Supreme Court Briefs
• US Cases
• US Law Reviews

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• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• Benton Foundation
• Center for Democracy & Technology
• Center for Digital Democracy
• Creative Commons
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)   Includes Copyright Watch
• Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
  
• Family Online Safety Institute
• First Amendment Center
• freepress
• Hear Us Now: Consumer voice for communications choice
• International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
• Media Law Resource Center (MLRC)
• National Media Market / Resources (including a list of distributors with digital rights available)
• Project Censored
• Public Knowledge (PK)
• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
• Tech Policy Summit

Federal

• Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
• Federal Trade Commission: 
  OnGuard Online (keeping kids safe online campaign)
  Privacy Initiatives
• Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Coordination Center
• Open CRS: Congressional Research Report for the People
• US Copyright Office
• US House Judiciary
• US House: Energy &Commerce (includes Telecom hearings)
• US Senate: Commerce

State

• The National Conference of State Legislators compiles laws by state on key issue areas. Here is their page on Telecommunications and Information Privacy.  For example, here is a list of state Cyberstalking laws.
• The Council of State Governments has a table of "States with Cyberbullying Laws" available in PDF or XLS.

Connect to subjects in the library's catalog for books, e-books, and DVDs.

• Broadcasting--Law and legislation--United States.
• Computer crimes.
• Computer hackers.
• Computer networks--Law and legislation.
• Computer security.
• Copyright--Interactive multimedia--United States.
• Copyright--Electronic information resources.
• Copyright--Music--United States.
• Copyright and distance education--United States.
• Copyright and electronic data processing.
• Copyright licenses--United States.
• Cyberbullying.
• Data encryption (Computer science)--Law and legislation
• Data protection--Law and legislation.
• Digital media--Government policy--Congresses.
• Digital media--Law and legislation--United States.
• Digital media--United States.
• Electronic commerce--Law and legislation
• Electronic surveillance
• Fair use (Copyright)--United States.
• Hate speech--United States
• Intellectual property
• Internet--Censorship--United States
• Internet--Government policy--Congresses.
• Internet--Law and legislation--United States.
• Internet--Safety measures.
• Internet--Security measures.
• Internet in education--Law and legislation--United States.
• Internet pornography--Law and legislation.
• Mass media--Law and legislation--United States.
• Motion pictures--Internet marketing--Law and legislation
• Multimedia systems--Law and legislation--United States.
• Music and technology.
• Online identities--Law and legislation.
• Piracy (Copyright)
• Photojournalism--Moral and ethical aspects.
• Privacy, Right of.
• Solove, Daniel J. (privacy law expert - see media featuring his commentary )
• Sound recordings--Pirated editions.
• Telecommunication--Law and legislation--United States.
• Television--Law and legislation.
• Television programs--Internet marketing--Law and legislation
• Video rental services
• Virtual reality--Law and legislation.

Selected titles:

• Akdeniz, Y. (2008). Internet Child Pornography and the Law National and International Responses. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. (ebook)
• Bollier, D. (2008). Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own. New York: New Press.
• Brenner, S. W. (2010). Cybercrime: Criminal Threats from Cyberspace. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
• Creech, K. (2007). Electronic Media Law and Regulation (5th ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier Focal Press.  (ebook)
• Diffie, W. (2007). Privacy on the Line the Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption (Updated and expanded ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Digital Public Sphere: Challenges for Media Policy. (2010). Göteborg: Nordicom.
• Duranske, B. T. (2008). Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds. Chicago: American Bar Association.
• Gant, S. E. (2007). We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age (1st ed.). New York: Free Press.
• Hobbs, R., & National Council of Teachers of English. (2010). Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin.
• Kohn, A. (2010). Kohn on Music Licensing (4th ed.). Frederick, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Kokswijk, J. V. (2007). Digital Ego: Social and Legal Aspects of Virtual Identity (2nd ed.). Delft [The Netherlands]: Eburon.
• Lessig, L. (2004). Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: Penguin Press.
• Lessig, L. (2006). Code: Version 2.0 (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books.
• Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: Penguin Press.
• Lessig, L. (2001). The Future of Ideas the Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (1st ed.). New York: Random House. (ebook)
• Lessons from the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy, and Identity in a Networked Society. (2009). . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Lipschultz, J. H. (2008). Broadcast and Internet Indecency: Defining Free Speech. New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
• Nunziato, D. C. (2009). Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Law Books.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2009). Piracy of Digital Content. Paris: OECD.
• Packard, A. (2010). Digital Media Law. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Rimmer, M. (2007). Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution Hands Off My iPod. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. (ebrary)
• Rustad, M. (2009). Internet Law in a Nutshell. St. Paul, MN: West.
• Solove, D. J. (2007). The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. (2008). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• Sparrow, A. P. (2007). Film and Television Distribution and the Internet: A Legal Guide for the Media Industry. Aldershot, England: Gower.
• Stokes, S.(2005). Digital Copyright Law and Practice (2nd ed.). Oxford: Hart Pub. (ebrary)
• Tambini, D. (2008). Codifying Cyberspace: Communications Self-Regulation in the Age of Internet Convergence. London: Routledge.
• Vaidhyanathan, S. (2004). The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System. New York: Basic Books.
• Vaidhyanathan, S. (2001). Copyrights and Copywrongs the Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity. New York: New York University Press. (ebook)

Note: to find the books above, I searched the catalog for: 
Subject(online internet web blog weblog computer) AND Subject(law legal)

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