Welcome to the website of the Digital Media Law Project. The DMLP was a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2007 to 2014. Due to popular demand the Berkman Klein Center is keeping the website online, but please note that the website and its contents are no longer being updated. Please check any information you find here for accuracy and completeness.
Kevin Cogill, a blogger on Antiquiet, which provides "uncensored music reviews and interviews," pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement after he allegedly posted nine songs from the then unreleased Guns N' Roses album "Chi
Online speakers are attracting more attention than ever from governments across the world, for good or for ill. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more online journalists are currently imprisoned for their speech than journalists in print, broadcast, or other media. The CPJ identified 125 journalists currently serving prison sentences, 45 percent of whom are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors.
The Loveland Connection is reporting that a Colorado man has been
charged with two counts of criminal libel after allegedly posting
comments about a former girlfriend and her lawyer on Craigslist.com's "Rants and Raves" section:
Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman charged in the first federal
cyberbullying case, was cleared of felony computer-hacking charges by a
jury Wednesday morning, but convicted of three misdemeanors. The jury
deadlocked on a remaining felony charge of conspiracy.
Lori Drew's trial for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) began this week. There has been some great coverage of the proceedings, including the following highlights:
Believe it or not, the criminal case against Lori Drew heads to trial next Tuesday. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles indicted Drew last May for her alleged role in a hoax on MySpace
directed at Megan Meier, a 13-year-old neighbor of Drew's who committed suicide in October 2006. Prosecutors claim that Drew violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA),
18 U.S.C.
It looks like Jeremy Jaynes, the first person in the United States to be convicted of a felony for spamming, is going to get a free pass, thanks to a decision handed down by the Virginia Supreme Court last week striking down Virginia's anti-spam law, Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-152.3:1, on First Amendment grounds.
Kevin Cogill, a blogger on Antiquiet, a site that provides "uncensored music reviews and interviews," was arrested yesterday at his home near Los Angeles on suspicion of violating federal copyright law after he allegedly posted nine songs from the unreleased -- and highly-anticipated -- Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy."
On August 1, 2008, the Third Circuit Court of the Appeals issued its opinion
in United States v. Wecht. The opinion is great news for citizen
media creators, because the court ruled that the First Amendment
confers a presumptive right of access to obtain the names of trial and
prospective jurors in a criminal case prior to empanelment. U.S.
We've posted before (here and here) on the tragic Megan Meier suicide case, in which a 13-year-old neighbor of Lori Drew committed suicide
in October 2006 after a "boy" she met on MySpace abruptly turned on her
and ended their "relationship." In
We are looking for contributing authors with expertise in media law, intellectual property, First Amendment, and other related fields to join us as guest bloggers. If you are interested, please contact us for more details.
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