Archive | Internet

Students Presenting at AEJMC Conference in August

By on May 20, 2013 in Copyright, First Amendment, Internet, Journalism

Nearly 25 percent of the media law and policy research papers accepted for presentation at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) were written by UNC students.

Five students had six papers accepted for presentation in the Law and Policy Division at the AEJMC convention to be held in August in Washington, D.C.  All paper submissions were blind-reviewed in competition with both student and faculty-authored papers.

No other university had as many as six papers accepted in the Law and Policy Division.

These are the students and the titles of their papers:

  • Jesse Abdenour (J-School Ph.D. student):  “Documenting Fair Use: Has the Statement of Best Practices Loosened the Fair Use Reins for Documentary Filmmakers?”
  • Kevin Delaney (M.A./J.D. student): “The State of Indecency Law: A Positive and Normative Evaluation of the Fox Cases”
  • Karen McIntyre (J-School Ph.D. student): “Droned Journalism: Using Unmanned Aircraft to Gather News and When Such Use Might Invade Privacy”
  • Hysosun Kim (J-School Ph.D. student):  “New Media?  New Guidelines?  FDA Regulation of Online DTC Prescription Drug Promotion”
  • Elizabeth Woolery (J-School Ph.D. student):  “The Press, the Public, and Capital Punishment: California First Amendment Coalition and the Development of a First Amendment Right to Witness Executions”
  • Elizabeth Woolery (J-School Ph.D. student):  “When (News)gathering Isn’t Enough:  The Right to Gather Information in Public Places”

As the titles reflect, these papers present legal research on some of the most pressing and interesting legal and constitutional issues in today’s complex and evolving media environment.

Congratulations, young legal scholars!

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Carolina Law CLE Session: Media Law in the Digital Age

By on May 2, 2013 in Defamation, First Amendment, Internet

Next Wednesday, May 8, I’ll be presenting a continuing legal education (CLE) session in Wilmington, NC at the New Hanover County Executive Development Center.  The topic will be “Media Law in the Digital Age: Internet Defamation and other Digital Torts.”  Here is the description from the law school’s website:

With the advent of the Internet, everyone is a publisher today. Whether it is a company blog, Twitter or even Facebook, these publishing platforms can open you and your clients up to a potential lawsuit. Professor David S. Ardia will review the most recent case law on this evolving topic and share best practices for limiting liability and responding to claims involving speech on the Internet. UNC School of Law invites you to join Professor Ardia and other Carolina grads for this “lunch and learn” session as we explore the impact the Internet is having on media law, with a particular emphasis on libel, privacy, and other digital torts.

If you are in the Wilmington area, I hope you will come. It starts at noon and (bonus!) includes lunch. To register, go to the law school’s event page.

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UNC Students Presenting Research at AEJMC Southeast Colloquium

By on February 28, 2013 in Copyright, First Amendment, Internet, Journalism, Privacy

UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication graduate students will present 13 research papers at the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium in Tampa this week. Ph.D. student Liz Woolery, who works in our media law center, will present two papers, one of which won third place in the Law and Policy Division. Both of Liz’s papers are about the rights of journalists and others to gather news.

For this conference, papers go through a process of blind review, and then the best papers are selected to be presented at the conference. Faculty and student authors compete against one another.

This will be the first academic conference for most of the students, but they’re ready. They have polished their papers and rehearsed their presentations.

 

Accepted Law and Policy Division papers include:

“Documenting Fair Use: Has the Statement of Best Practices Loosened the Fair Use Reins for Documentary Filmmakers?” — Jesse Abdenour, first-year doctoral student

“The Advertising Regulation ‘Green Zone’: Analyzing Parallels of Commercial Speech Jurisprudence As It Might Apply to the Growing Issue of Medicinal Marijuana Advertising, Using the Denver Advertising Ban as an

Illustrative Example” — Joseph Cabosky, first-year doctoral student

“Hazelwood’s Footnote Seven” — Ryan N. Comfort, first-year master’s student

“Consumer Protection Challenges on the Social Web: How the FTC Regulates Consumer-Generated Media as Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” — Emily A. Graban, first-year master’s student

“Abortion Informed Consent Laws: How Have Courts Considered First Amendment Challenges?” — Jaya Mathur, first-year master’s student

“How the FTC Has Enforced Its Deception Jurisdiction in Cases Involving an Ill, and Therefore, Vulnerable Audience” — Emery Rogers, first-year master’s student

“A Decade of True Threats Decisions Since Virginia v. Black: The Digital Age Demands Supreme Court Attention to True Threats Definition and Doctrine” — Lynn Marshele Waddell, first-year master’s student

“The Press, the Public, and Capital Punishment: California First Amendment Coalition and the Development of a First Amendment Right to Witness Executions” — Elizabeth Woolery, second-year doctoral student

“When News(Gathering) Isn’t Enough: The Right to Gather Information in Public Places” — Elizabeth Woolery, second-year doctoral student

 

Accepted Newspaper and Online Division papers include:

“Three Days a Week: Has a New Production Cycle Altered The Times-Picayune’s News Coverage?” — David Bockino, first-year doctoral student

 

Accepted Open Division papers include:

“The Creepiness Factor: Explaining Conflicting Audience Attitudes toward Tailored Media Content” — Lisa Barnard, second-year doctoral student

“What Motivates People to Pass on Anti-brand Rumors Online?” — Hyosun Kim, second-year doctoral student

“What Sports Journalists Need to Know: Four Areas of Student-athlete Privacy Invasion” — Sada Reed, first-year doctoral student

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Freedom of Speech, Defamation, and Injunctions

By on February 18, 2013 in Defamation, Internet

As part of the Mary Junck Research Colloquium series, UNC Law Professor David Ardia will give a talk entitled “Freedom of Speech, Defamation, and Injunctions.” He will discuss his research on two centuries of case law surrounding injunctions in defamation cases, and the recent increase in court-ordered injunctions directed at defamatory speech, particularly speech on the Internet.

David  is an assistant professor at the UNC School of Law and a faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.  He also holds a secondary appointment as an assistant professor at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is the faculty co-director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy.  Before joining the UNC faculty, he founded and directed the Berkman Center’s Digital Media Law Project.

The presentation will be on Thursday, February 21 from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Halls of Fame Room on the first floor of Carroll Hall.   The event is free and open to the public.

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Employment Opportunities at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society

By on February 2, 2013 in Internet, Privacy

berkmanIf you are a lawyer (or law student) looking for a chance to learn about Internet Law, Privacy, Copyright etc., you can’t do better than to spend some time at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society (full disclaimer: I spent 5 years there myself). If you don’t believe me, read Tabitha Messick’s account of  her internship at Berkman last summer.  For those you looking for that kind of experience, I’ve got two announcements to pass along.

First, they are looking for a full-time legal fellow to join the Berkman Center’s Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data Project:

This project is a collaboration with Harvard’s Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS), generously funded by National Science Foundation.  It aims to develop computational and legal methods, tools, and policies to further the tremendous value can can come from collecting, analyzing, and sharing data while more fully protecting individual privacy.

The fellowship is a great opportunity for experienced legal practitioners who want to serve the public interest, transition to academic pursuits, or work in an intellectually invigorating environment.  The fellow’s primary responsibilities are to provide managerial support and substantive contributions to the Berkman Center’s role project, including but not limited to:

  • working closely with faculty from the Berkman Center to coordinate, oversee, and conduct legal research, written project outputs, and publications;
  • cultivating and supporting relationships between faculty and other experts in law, social science, applied mathematics, computer science, and other fields to understand non-legal substantive issues and objectives, assess needs and capabilities, and collaboratively develop new legal instruments (e.g., contractual agreements, policies, and procedures) to meet the project’s broader goals;
  • planning, communicating, and implementing privacy-related workshops and convenings;
  • managing the selection, oversight, and mentorship of student interns and research assistants;
  • developing plans and timelines to advance project priorities and meet deadlines; and
  • providing additional project support.

In order to most fully and efficiently carry out his or her duties, the candidate will attend workshops and conferences at the Center and at Harvard Law School, and will have frequent opportunities to expand his/her knowledge of technology and law.

More information about the position and the application process is below and at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/privacy.

Second, applications are now open for the 2013 summer internship program, which provides an opportunity to work on a more than a dozen “awesome” projects.  If you want to know more about what it’s like to be a law student at Berkman, read Tabitha’s blog post: A UNC Student’s Summer Experience in Media Law.  Act fast, however, as applications are due on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

 

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