Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) in the Supreme Court of the State of Idaho in Verity v. USA TODAY. The brief urges the court not to recognize a cause of action for “defamation by implication” based on the dissemination of concededly accurate facts about a matter of public concern. The case involves a [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Courthouse News Service v. Brown. The brief argues that the public has a First Amendment right to contemporaneous access to newly filed civil complaints at the time of filing. Contemporaneous access benefits the public by promoting greater understanding [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) in the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Microsoft Corp. The brief stresses that journalists must be able to protect sensitive reporting materials in the modern digital newsroom, which resides in the cloud. The brief notes that expanding the U.S. government’s ability to reach electronic records [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Yershov v. Gannett. The case involved the sharing of an anonymous device code with a data analytics provider used by USA Today. The brief argued that the district court panel relied on a highly technical reading [...]
Filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Eastern Division) in the matter of the search of an Apple iPhone. The Media Institute argued that the FBI’s attempt to order Apple, Inc. to write code to “unlock” the contents of an iPhone amounts to compelled speech under [...]
Filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging the court to overturn a district court decision in Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. Aereokiller, LLC, which would allow FilmOnX (Aereokiller) to qualify for a compulsory license under Section 111 of the Copyright Act. The brief noted that Congress [...]
Filed comments with the FCC in support of a Petition for Class Waiver of the Commission’s Sponsorship Identification Requirement sought by a coalition of radio broadcasters. The petition would allow broadcasters of music and sports programming to furnish information about promotional arrangements with record companies and others on the stations’ websites. The number of [...]
Filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to hear Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC, involving an errant expansion of the fair use doctrine. The brief argues that the Court could thereby: (1) Reaffirm the fundamental distinction between parody and satire. (2) Maintain the Copyright Act’s protection of derivative works [...]
Filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case that could have disastrous consequences for the U.S. broadcasting industry. The Institute filed a brief in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., arguing that Aereo's model for distributing broadcast content to its subscribers violates broadcasters' rights under copyright law and is merely a blatant [...]
Filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to grant a writ of certiorari from petitioners in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. The brief argues that Aereo's bizarre scheme of using thousands of tiny antennas to retransmit broadcast content to its subscribers amounts to "manipulative technological exploitation." The [...]
