Cyberlaw Clinic

The Cyberlaw Clinic provides legal representation to private litigants and other clients in matters involving the public interest and technological development. The Cyberlaw Clinic gives students an opportunity to participate in supervised litigation, policy and legislative advocacy in matters involving technology and the public interest. Through the Clinic, students will develop and hone skills in interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, issue identification, case theory, development, planning and organization, discovery and motions practice, ethics, negotiation and oral advocacy. Bar Certified law students work directly with clients, file legal motions and briefs and argue matters in court.

The Clinic is seven credits and offered in both Fall and Spring Semesters. Additionally, students from the Clinic may, with the consent of the instructor, continue their work as Advanced Clinic Students for additional credits.

Recent Cyberlaw Clinic news:

State AG Threats To Craigslist Implicate Free Speech

by Ryan Calo, posted on May 19, 2009 - 3:33pm

This post is co-authored by Ryan Calo and CIS summer intern Joshua Auriemma.

On Saturday Night Live’s classic segment “Really?!? With Seth & Amy,” two incredulous news anchors blast a ridiculous current event—for instance, the fact that AIG held a lavish retreat six days after receiving 85 billion dollars in federal bailout money to celebrate the company’s top earners. “Really?” Amy Poehler asks. “What does it take to be a top earner at AIG right now? Did you sell your office furniture on Craigslist?”

Some lawyers following the ultimately successful pressure placed by various state attorneys general on Craigslist to take down its erotic services section have experienced a “Really?!?” moment of their own. A particularly unsubtle letter from South Carolina AG Henry McMaster basically threatened Craigslist with "criminal investigation and prosecution" of its management personnel if the popular classifieds website didn’t remove all offending material by 5:00PM, Friday, May 15, 2009.

Substantive Tags: free speech

Court Denies Savage's Motion to Dismiss

by Julie Ahrens, posted on May 8, 2009 - 9:56am

Michael Savage’s motion to be dismissed as a defendant in Brave New Films’ wrongful DMCA takedown lawsuit was denied by Judge Illston on April 15.

Lexicon Resurrected

by Anthony Falzone, posted on December 6, 2008 - 11:49am

As announced yesterday and reported first by the Leaky Cauldron and then the Associated Press, RDR Books has withdrawn its appeal from the Court's decision enjoining the publication of the Lexicon, and will publish a new Lexicon instead.

Following the trial and the Court's decision, Steve Vander Ark created a new Lexicon manuscript. That manuscript addressed some of the concerns expressed by J.K. Rowling at trial, and those expressed by Judge Patterson in his thorough and detailed decision. As it turns out, Vander Ark and RDR like the new manuscript much more than the old one, and they decided they are much more excited to publish the new manuscript instead of the old one.

Substantive Tags: Fair Use Project

Fair Use Protection Limits Common Law Copyright Claims Over Sound Recordings in New York

EMI Records sought to enjoin Premise Media Corporation (Premise) from using a clip from John Lennon’s song, Imagine, in the documentary film, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. The court did not issue guidance on the exact amount of use needed to constitute copyright infringement. Instead, the court ruled that EMI was unlikely to win on the merits of the case because the fair use defense likely applied to Premise’s use of Imagine. The court denied the injunction since granting one would cause harm.

EMI Records v. Premise Media

Published in Tuesday, October 10, 2008, Volume 6, No. 1

Fair Use Project Files Suit On Behalf Of Brave New Films Against Michael Savage and Original Talk Radio Network

by Anthony Falzone, posted on October 13, 2008 - 9:39am

Michael Savage has one of the most popular shows on the radio. He doesn't hesitate to speak his mind, no matter how controversial his views. He should be applauded for that. Many find those views highly offensive, and level fierce criticism at him. They should be applauded for that. That is the dialogue of free speech. The right to speak and the right to criticize speech you don't like are equally important.

You'd think that Savage of all people, who depends on free speech to do what he does for a living, would understand that. Yet when the Council on American-Islamic Relations ("CAIR") put up a web page last year documenting overtly hostile remarks Savage made about Muslims on his show and urging advertisers to boycott Savage's show, Savage tried to shut down CAIR's criticism of him. He sued CAIR, claiming the snippets of Savage's show CAIR used to document Savage's statements and support CAIR's criticism of him infringed his copyrights in his show. If fair use protects anything, it protects the right to use portions of a copyrighted work to criticize it, so Savage lost his case quickly and decisively.

But the attack goes on. Brave New Films created a similar video and posted it to YouTube. That video likewise documents Savage's comments and urges viewers to do something about them. Brave New Films also created a website, www.nosavage.org to support its efforts to speak out against Savage and the comments he made. Late last month, Savage's nationwide syndicator, Original Talk Radio Network, complained to YouTube about BNF's video. In response, YouTube removed it pursuant to the DMCA.

The Fair Use Project, along with co-counsel Bingham McCutchen, have now sued OTRN and Savage to recover damages for the misrepresentations made in connection with the wrongful removal of the video from YouTube, and declaratory and injunctive relief to vindicate BNF's right to say what it said about Savage in the video, and prevent the suppression of the video in the future.

Expelled Is Absolved

by Anthony Falzone, posted on October 6, 2008 - 9:07pm

After both the state and federal courts rejected the attempts of Yoko Ono Lennon and EMI Records to enjoin the showing of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed on the ground it used a 15-second fragment of John Lennon's Imagine, all of the plaintiffs in both cases have now withdrawn their claims and dismissed their cases.

This is the right result to be sure. There should never have been any doubt the filmmakers who were sued here had every right to use a short segment of a song for the purpose of criticizing it and the views it represents. But the right result came far too late. The mere pendency of these cases caused the film's DVD distributor to shy away from releasing the full film -- the version that includes the Imagine segment. So the film goes out on DVD on October 21 in censored form, illustrating the damage that even an unproved and unsupported infringement claim can do.

At the same time, the result here -- great but imperfect -- is a fantastic lesson in how we might start to solve the fair use dilemma. We launched the Documentary Film Program with Media Professional Insurance and Michael Donaldson to help solve a critical problem: fair use rights are expensive to use because they require lots of lawyer time. Media Pro took the visionary step of insuring fair use risks. We and Donaldson agreed to mediate these risks by vetting the fair use issues ahead of time. (We do it for free; Donaldson has to make a living.) Donaldson reviewed Expelled, and Media Pro insured it. When its producers got sued, we agreed to defend it pro bono, alongside the producers' regular counsel at the Locke Lord firm. Together we won, kept the cost to Media Pro minimal, and thus demonstrated that the fair use problem can be solved, in many (but perhaps not all) cases by teamwork like this.

I'm proud to have been a part of it.

Avada Kedavra -- The Harry Potter Lexicon Disappears

by Anthony Falzone, posted on September 8, 2008 - 7:18pm

Reference guides and companion books about literary works have been a critically important part of literature since its inception, and the right to publish them stood largely unchallenged. We agreed to help defend the Harry Potter Lexicon because J.K. Rowling's claims threatened that right, and because we believe the fair use doctrine protects the Lexicon, and other publications like it. We tried the case in April in a Manhattan Court and waited through the summer for a decision.

Today we found out we lost. In a thoughtful and meticulous decision spanning 68 pages, the Court recognized that as a general matter authors do not have the right to stop publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works, and issued an important explanation of why reference guides are not derivative works. Needless to say, we're very happy the Court vindicated these important principles.

But the Lexicon did not fare so well. The Court held the Lexicon infringed Ms. Rowling's copyright, was not protected by fair use, and permanently enjoined the publication of it. (Read the full decision here.)

Needless to say we're disappointed, as is our client, RDR Books. Careful and thoughtful as the decision is, we think it's wrong. So stay tuned to see where we go from here. In the meantime, thank Roger Rapoport, the Publisher of RDR Books for having the courage to stand up for free speech and fair use. He fought a fight that not many would have the stomach to fight, and we are proud to fight with him.

While you're at it, thank Steve Vander Ark. It's not easy to stand up to your hero, or bear the unjustified scorn of your fellow fans.

Finally, remember that avada kedavra -- the killing curse -- is not always fatal. One wizard survived it. Three times. And it was he who cast the spell (and won't be named here) that ultimately suffered for it. Maybe someday the Lexicon will be known as The Book That Lived.

Substantive Tags: Fair Use Project

Jacobsen v. Katzer/Kamind – Federal Circuit Upholds a Free Software License

by Zohar Efroni, posted on August 14, 2008 - 7:50am

As reported by Lessig and others, the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded yesterday a ruling by the Northern District of California which denied the copyright claims of an open source software developer for violations of the Artistic License. This is a landmark decision which is likely to influence all types of free licensing, including Creative Commons licenses and the question of enforceability of copyright claims upon violation of free licenses in general. Here are four quick points on the decision:

New York Supreme Court Rejects EMI's Bid to Enjoin Expelled

by Anthony Falzone, posted on August 13, 2008 - 11:33am

Two months ago, a Manhattan federal court rejected Yoko Ono Lennon's attempt to enjoin the further showing and distribution of Expelled: No Intelligence allowed on the ground that film used fifteen seconds of the John Lennon song Imagine.

EMI Records filed a nearly identical claim in state court based on the film's use of the sound recording, and demanded a nearly identical injunction. We're happy to report the state court has now denied EMI's request for an injunction.

The state court's order is particularly important because it establishes that fair use applies to the use of sound recordings under common law copyright, and rejects the insane conclusion of the Sixth Circuit in Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films that there is no such thing as de minimis use when it comes to sound recordings.

Read the full order here.

Substantive Tags: Fair Use Project

The Cost of Bogus Copyright Claims: BT Wins Motion for Attorneys' Fees

by Julie Ahrens, posted on August 12, 2008 - 4:34pm

In a decisive victory for defendants beleaguered by baseless copyright infringement claims, U.S. District Court Judge Pauley ruled last week that Plaintiffs Ralph Vargas and Bland- Ricky Roberts must pay Defendants BT and East West Communications $175,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.

Substantive Tags: Fair Use Project
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