The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) is currently involved in a number of exciting projects, including the following:
Legal Guide: The CMLP publishes a comprehensive legal guide for individuals and organizations involved in online and citizen media. The guide covers topics ranging from how to form a business to how to use freedom of information and open meetings laws to get access to information, meetings, and governmental records, as well as other legal subjects such as risks associated with online publication, including discussion of defamation and privacy torts; legal issues related to newsgathering; use of copyrighted and trademarked materials; and special risks associated with covering elections.
The Legal Guide now runs to more than 600 pages and covers the fifteen most populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Users of the guide can search by keyword, browse by state, or simply browse by section. The guide is broken into six major sections:
- Forming a Business and Getting Online;
- Dealing with Online Legal Risks;
- Newsgathering and Privacy;
- Access to Government Information;
- Intellectual Property; and
- Risks Associated with Publication.
Database of Legal Threats: The CMLP publishes a database of more than 900 entries covering lawsuits, subpoenas, and other legal actions involving citizen media and online speech. Each entry consists of a plain-language description of the case or threat and links to blog or press coverage. Most entries also contain the underlying documents, including copies of cease-and-desist letters, lawsuit complaints, legal briefs, and court orders.
The database is publicly searchable by keyword and by more than 25 distinct data fields, including by state, legal claim, type of publisher, subject area, and date of filing. Users of the database can also do full-text searching of the pleadings and motions associated with each database entry. If you've been threatened with legal action or know of someone who has, please let us know by using our contact form or by entering the information directly into the database through our easy to use threat entry form.
CMLP lawyers publish the results of this research in academic journals and serve as a resource to the press about the legal threats facing online publishers.
Legal Education and Training: The CMLP works with other journalism and new media organizations to provide training and educational materials. Some of our work in this area includes:
- In June 2011, CMLP Director David Ardia, working with Professor Geanne Rosenberg of City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College, published an online, self-directed course on newsgathering law and liability for Poynter News University.
- In 2009, CMLP Director David Ardia taught news entrepreneurs how to avoid legal trouble through a series of Journalism that Matters Conferences, and organized workshops for newspaper editors in conjunction with the New England Press Association and Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association.
- In November 2008 and summer 2009, CMLP partnered with YouTube to create instructional videos for its Reporters' Center and Video Your Vote initiatives.
- In September 2008, the CMLP partnered with News University at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies to provide legal expertise for the creation of a course entitled Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers. The interactive course was specifically designed for individuals and journalists engaged in online publishing, and covers three important areas of media law -- defamation, privacy, and copyright.
- In 2007, the CMLP assisted the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism in the creation of multimedia modules on the "Top 10 Rules for Limiting Legal Risk" hosted on J-Lab's Knight Citizen News Network.
Litigation and Pro Bono Legal Services: The CMLP operates the Online Media Legal Network (OMLN), which is a network of more than 200 law firms, law school clinics, in-house counsel, and individual lawyers throughout the United States willing to provide free and reduced-fee legal assistance to qualifying online journalism ventures and other digital media creators. Since its inception, the CMLP has assisted over 135 clients with more than 275 separate matters. Lawyers and clinical law students at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic also provide legal advice to individuals and organizations that operate citizen media sites.
The CMLP also organizes and participates in amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs in cases raising important First Amendment and intellectual property issues, including filings in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals, and the highest courts of various states. See Amicus Efforts for details.
Forums, Blogs and Social Media: In order to facilitate communication between the CMLP and those that it serves, the CMLP operates a series of online forums dedicated to the discussion of specific journalism and media law topics. Participants in the forums can discuss legal questions of interest or crowd-source opinions with respect to particular issues that they are facing. CMLP Staff also participate in the forums, answering questions about CMLP services and providing information on specific legal issues outside the scope of our Legal Guide.
The CMLP blog includes content from CMLP staff as well as a diverse group of lawyers, law professors, law students, and others with an interest in new media. Blog posts provide commentary and insight on current events in media law and digital publishing, promote resources and events of interest to digital publishers, and announce new initiatives by the CMLP and its partner organizations. The CMLP blog is a popular destination for site visitors, with individual posts routinely obtaining hundreds or thousands of reads.
The CMLP also maintains an active social media presence, with accounts on Twitter at @citmedialaw and @omln, a Delicious feed, and a page on Facebook.
OpenCourt: OpenCourt is a groundbreaking experiment in public access to the courts run by WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station. OpenCourt provides all-day, live-streaming video of court proceedings at the Quincy District Court just south of Boston, and also provides a WiFi network for use by journalists and bloggers in the courtroom. The CMLP serves on the Advisory Board of the project, providing in-depth knowledge of First Amendment issues and the public’s right of access to the courts.
Conferences: The CMLP, in conjunction with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, regularly produces conferences on media law topics either on its own or in conjunction with partner organizations throughout the United States. Past and upcoming conferences include:
- Journalism's Digital Transition: Unique Legal Challenges and Opportunities
- Media Law in the Digital Age
- Online News Association 2011: Law School for Digital Journalists at Harvard
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