Tag Archives | CMLP

UNC Center for Media Law and Policy

Center joins Carnegie Media Law Project

The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy has joined the Carnegie Media Law Project on Journalism Schools as News Providers.

Funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the project aims to identify and address the legal needs and concerns of journalism schools whose students are publishing online.  The project is directed by Geanne Rosenberg, professor in the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions at the Baruch College of the City University of New York.

Participating schools and organizations, in addition to the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, include Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, The Poynter Institute, Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center’s Citizen Media Law Project, Howard University, Arizona State University, Boston University, CUNY, American University, University of Missouri, University of Minnesota and USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.

In February Professor Rosenberg met in Chapel Hill with members of the faculty of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication to hear their thoughts about how to best protect the valuable journalism UNC students are contributing to the public.

On April 8, 2011, representatives of all the participating schools and organizations will meet at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., to continue work on the project.  The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy will be represented at the meeting by Center Director Cathy Packer.

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FCC Commissioner McDowell visits J-School

FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell visited the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Feb. 10, 2011, to discuss why he voted against the net neutrality regulations adopted by the FCC in December 2010.  He held a 75-minute question-and-answer session with undergraduate students in Dr. Cathy Packer’s Internet law class.  This is JOMC major Natasha Duarte’s Twitter feed on the event (in reverse order, of course):

•  New tech innovation is taking less and less time to reach an audience. We need to look at general consumer laws, not tech specific — McDowell

•  McDowell: transparency rules for ISPs blocking content would be helpful to consumers, but the FCC doesn’t have the legal authority

•  “(wireless) not substitutable (for cable), but when we think something’s not substitutable, that’s when it starts becoming substitutable.”

•  McDowell: wireless-only broadband is the fastest growing segment of broadband.

•  @hartzog asked if wireless/mobile will provide meaningful competition for cable broadband

•  McDowell says Comcasts’s blocking Bit Torrent was a bandwidth efficiency decision, not an anticompetitive business move

•  In 2008, Comcast was sued for blocking file sharing Bit Torrent; court said FCC didn’t have legal authority over Comcast

•  McDowell says he hasn’t seen anticompetitive content-based discrimination by ISPs.

•  McDowell: Statutes already exist to address collusion and “refusal to deal” by ISPs and other companies

• McDowell says he thinks #netneutrality will go to the courts (lawsuits have been filed)

•  McDowell: Congress could defund FCC enforcement of #netneutrality, but it probably won’t pass the Senate. If it does, Obama will veto.

•  McDowell: #netneutrality was embedded in Obama’s campaign promises in 2008. The promise was written by @FCC Chairman Genachowski.

•  McDowell: 90 percent of @FCC votes are unanimous and bipartisan. It’s not like Congress

•  McDowell: “Internet architecture defies authoritarian management”

•  McDowell: There’s a role for the #FCC to shine a light on allegations of discriminatory practices on the Internet

•  McDowell: The #FCC doesn’t have statutory authority to litigate over the Internet

•  #netneutrality has 3 components: Transparency, no blocking and no unreasonable discrimination

•  Here’s the #netneutrality order passed by the @FCC in December: http://bit.ly/gV6Xn1

•  McDowell’s here. I just shook his hand. OK, I’m going to stop being nerdy and start being a journalist now.

•  I’m tweeting from the @UNCJSchool N.C. Halls of Fame room where @FCC Commissioner McDowell will address students & faculty on #netneutrality

McDowell also was interviewed by The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer.  Here’s that story:    http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/14/987721/decisions-on-digital-data-loom.html#storylink=misearch.

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FCC v. Fox Television Stations and a Call for Protecting Emotive Speech

Wat Hopkins, Park Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, presented his research at the Mary Junck Research Colloquium. Dr. Hopkins discussed the Supreme Court’s recent treatment of non-traditional language and the appropriate level of protection for the emotive, as well as the cognitive, element of speech. The presentation focused on the justices’ attempt in FCC v. Fox Television Stations to define the f-word and then determine whether, when used as a fleeting expletive rather than repeatedly, the word is indecent for broadcast purposes. Dr. Hopkins, a professor of communication at Virginia Tech, has published three books and a number of articles on free speech topics. The presentation was co-sponsored by the UNC Center for Media Law & Policy.

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The Crime of the (20th) Century: How We Threw Away our Cultural Heritage for No Good Reason (and whether Google Books will bring it back)

James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School, gave a public lecture on the public domain, its erosion by copyright, and the controversial Google Books project. Boyle is the author of numerous books and articles about intellectual property and copyright law, and the way they shape our culture.

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Copyright Lecture

Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University, delivered a public lecture on copyright law and his recent representation of RDR Books in a copyright lawsuit brought against the book publisher by J.K. Rowlings and Warner Bros. This event was co-sponsored by the Center for Media Law and Policy, the University Library and the Triangle Research Network of Libraries. A dinner with the speaker followed the lecture.
View this event on iTunes U
Read news coverage of this event

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