Matt Lovell's blog

An 18 year-old from Carlisle, Pennsylvania has been charged with a felony under Pennsylvania's wiretap statute -- for videotaping a police officer during a traffic stop.

Brian D. Kelly didn't think he was doing anything illegal when he used his videocamera to record a Carlisle police officer during a traffic stop. Making movies is one of his hobbies, he said, and the stop was just another interesting event to film. [...] Kelly, 18, of Carlisle, was arrested on a felony wiretapping charge, with a penalty of up to 7 years in state prison. [...] Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone's oral conversation without their consent.  read more »

A (Louisville) Courier-Journal reporter was stripped of his press credential at an NCAA Super Regional baseball game yesterday and asked to leave the stadium for live-blogging the game. Contrary to the views of some commentators (including, apparently, the newspaper's own lawyer in a prior story), this is not a copyright issue, as the NCAA does not appear to be claiming that the live-blogging infringed or otherwise violated its copyright in the game. (In probably the most widely quoted opinion addressing the issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the NBA v. Motorola case stated that sporting events are not original works of authorship subject to copyright protection.) Rather, the NCAA is claiming that as a condition of access to the press box or for receiving a press credential, a journalist must refrain from live-blogging or filing reports for publication during a game. While it is debatable whether a live blog is an adequate substitute for a television or radio broadcast, the NCAA is clearly trying to protect the value of the broadcast rights it licenses for TV, radio and other live media.   read more »

Editor & Publisher details a new venture between the Associated Press and Attributor, a service provider that will fingerprint and track the use of AP content on the web.

The Associated Press is moving to protect its content by partnering with the technology company Attributor, which will track AP material across the Internet. The arrangement will allow Attributor to "fingerprint" AP copy down to a level where it can be identified anywhere on the Web.

"Our goal is to get a feeling for some of the useful ways to monitor content," said Srinandan Kasi, vice president, general counsel and secretary at the AP. "We are looking at it not just to protect our rights but to derive some intelligence."

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