Media Law

Question 1

What is defamation?

Answer 1

Ruining someone’s reputation

Question 2

What is libel?

Answer 2

Written from of defamation

Question 3

What is slander?

Answer 3

Spoken form of defamation

Question 4

What are libel defenses?

Answer 4

1. Truth
2. Qualified privilege
3. Fair comment
4. Actual malice

Question 5

What is truth?

Answer 5

How can it be defamation if what was said was true?

Question 6

What is qualified privilege?

Answer 6

I had every reason to believe that was true

Question 7

What is fair comment?

Answer 7

Free speech

Question 8

What is actual malice?

Answer 8

Journalists show reckless disregard for truth.

Question 9

What are the four privacy laws?

Answer 9

1. Intrusion
2. Private facts
3. False light
4. Appropriation

Question 10

What is intrusion?

Answer 10

Walking into situation when people have reasonable expectation of privacy, including trespassing. Example: picture of someone topless

Question 11

What is private facts?

Answer 11

Reporting/ publishing private info. Need explicit permission to publish infor (med records, sex preferences)

Question 12

What is false light?

Answer 12

False placement on public plaintiff (report on underage drinking and used photo of kids at mall. This suggest that those kids are drinking underage and the picture could get them in trouble).

Question 13

What is appropriation?

Answer 13

Using plaintiff’s name. (Perfume ad using Kim Kardashian’s name w/out permission.)

Question 14

What is intellectual property law?

Answer 14

1. Copyright law
2. Trademark law
3. Patent law

Question 15

What do copyright works include?

Answer 15

Literature, music, dramatic works, choreography, pictorial graphic and sculptural works, films, architectural works.

Question 16

What are some non-copyrightable works?

Answer 16

1. Ideas
2. Facts
3. Names

Question 17

What are the four factors that determine fair use of copyrighted material?

Answer 17

1. The purpose and character of the use
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount used
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market

Question 18

What are some recent copyright cases?

Answer 18

1. RIAA vs. Napster
2. Viacom vs Youtube
3. JK Rowling vs RDR Books`

Question 19

What is a trademark?

Answer 19

Any word, name, symbol or device (or any combination of these) used by a company to identify its goods or services

Question 20

What is the Miller Test?

Answer 20

Designed as a test to figure out what counts as obscenity and what does not.

Question 21

How did the Miller Test come about?

Answer 21

Came from court case Miller v. California (1973).

Question 22

What are the three things the Miller Test says?

Answer 22

1. Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.
2. Whether the work depicts/ describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions, specifically defined by applicable state law.
3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

Question 23

How are cameras in the courtroom treated by the law and the state and federal levels?

Answer 23

States can allow cameras in some cases. Federal/ supreme courts do not allow cameras

Question 24

What was the Times v. Sullivan case?

Answer 24

Police commissioner sued NY Times because ads suggested that police used undue forces, treated people unfair in protest.

Question 25

What important concept was derived from Times vs Sullivan?

Answer 25

Derived actual malice-reckless defense for truth - to win case on libel must have actual malice, public figure official has to approve this and public figures.

Question 26

What are the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment?

Answer 26

Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition

Question 27

What is a chilling effect?

Answer 27

The phenomenon that occurs when journalists or other media producers decide not to publish stories on a topic after a journalist has been punished or jailed for such a story.

Question 28

What is sedition?

Answer 28

Speech or action that encourages overthrow of a government or that subverts a constitution or a nation's laws.

Question 29

What is censorship?

Answer 29

The act of prohibiting certain expression or content. Censors usually do not target the whole publication, program, or website but seek to prohibit some part of the content.

Question 30

What is the Hays Code?

Answer 30

A code established in 1930 by the movie industry to censor itself regarding showing nudity or glorifying antisocial acts in movies.

Question 31

What is indecent content?

Answer 31

Language or material that, in context, depicts or describes in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.

Question 32

What are the three criteria for determining whether content is obscene?

Answer 32

1. An average individual applying contemporary community standards must believe the content, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest. 2. The content must show or describe in an offensive manner sexual conduct. 3. The content on the whole must lack series literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Question 33

What is the FCC?

Answer 33

Federal Communications Commission. It is the principal communications regulatory body in the US. It allocates new broadcast radio and television stations and renews the licenses of existing stations, ensuring that each license is complying with the laws mandated by Congress.

Question 34

What is universal service and what are the six laws central to this evolving notion?

Answer 34

1. Quality services at reasonable and affordable rates 2. Access to advanced telecommunications and information services throughout the US 3. Access to rural and high-cost areas 4. Equitable and nondiscriminatory contributions to the preservation and advancement of universal service 5. Specific, predictable, and sufficient federal and state mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service 6. Access to advanced telecommunications services in elementary and secondary schools and classrooms, health care providers and libraries.

Question 35

What is the FTC?

Answer 35

The Federal Trade Commission. It enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws, including cases of deceptive advertising in print, electronic media, and the internet.