CMLP Completes Launch of Online Guide to Media Law

Today, we are launching the final sections of the Citizen Media Law Project’s online guide to media law covering the risks associated with publishing online, including defamation and privacy law.  (You can read the press release here.) 
The free online guide, which is intended for use by bloggers, website
operators, and other citizen media creators, focuses on the legal
issues that non-traditional and traditional journalists are likely to
encounter as they gather information and publish their work online.

The legal guide, which runs
more than 575 pages, is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It covers the 15 most
populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia and is broken into six major
sections:

• Forming
  a Business and Getting Online,
  which covers the practical issues online publishers should consider in
  deciding how to carry on their publishing activities, including forming a
  for-profit and nonprofit business entity, choosing an online platform, and
  dealing with critical legal issues relating to the mechanics of online
  publishing;
• Dealing
  with Online Legal Risks,
  which covers managing a website and reducing legal risks through
  compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws, finding
  insurance, finding legal help, and responding to legal threats;
• Newsgathering
  and Privacy,
  which addresses the legal and practical issues citizen media creators may
  encounter as they gather documents, take photographs or video, and collect
  other information, including information on state shield laws and using
  confidential sources;
• Access
  to Government Information,
  which provides information for citizens to proactively use the law in an
  affirmative manner to enhance their reporting and highlights the extensive
  amount of information available through government sources and explains
  how both traditional and non-traditional journalists can use various
  public access laws, including the Freedom of Information Act, state open
  records and open meetings laws to gather and make effective use of
  government information;
• Intellectual
  Property,
  which explains various intellectual property concepts, including
  copyright, trademark, and trade secrets, and provides practical advice to
  online publishers about how to use the intellectual property of others and
  protect their own property from exploitation; and
• Risks
  Associated with Publication,
  which covers defamation law, privacy law, rights of publicity, and other
  legal risks that can arise from public distribution of content. This section also explains the legal
  risks associated with the publication of reader comments and other
  user-submitted material.

Of course, law is never static, so we’ll be updating the guide from
time to time.  If you would like to stay abreast of these changes and
any new material, please sign up for our weekly newsletter, the Citizen Media Law
Brief.

The legal guide is the product of a tremendous amount of work by CMLP
students and staff, especially Sam Bayard, CMLP’s assistant director,
and Tuna Chatterjee, CMLP’s staff attorney. We also received help from
Allan Ryan, the Director of Intellectual Property at Harvard Business School Publishing, and a team of top lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, including Richard Hindman, Jane Harper, Kai Kramer, David Pawlik, and Eric Sensenbrenner. 

In keeping with our previous series of “highlights from the legal guide,” we’ll be posting summaries of the newest sections addressing the risks associated with publication on the Citizen Media Law Project Blog over the next few weeks.