Law for Media Startupshttp://towknight.org/research/law-for-media-startups/

Business Formation

Sole proprietorships

LLCs

Nonprofits IRS 4 criteria

Content must be educational

Manner of distribution must be distinguishable from ordinary publishing

Labor Law

Employees v Freelancers

Freelancers dont get min. wage, OT, workers comp, family leave, contributions to social security, medicaid

Interns must meet 6-point test or be paid

Training similar to schooling

For benefit of intern

Doesnt displace an employee

Employer doesnt benefit, may be impeded

Not promised a job

Both boss and intern know its unpaid

Copyright

Must be:

Original Content

Fixed in a medium

Not copyrightable:

Ideas

Facts

News

Copyright Dos and Donts

Linking is OK

Copying a portion of an article w a link may not be OK

Federal Documents not copyrightable, OK to use

Hot News Doctrine News orgs have tried to stake a claim to exclusive news. Courts have not agreed.

Are People Republishing your Content?

Permission? Rules?

ProPublica doesnt allow trimming stories.

Must credit

Tofel: Free is a good price. If it doesnt work for you, you should pass

Fair Use - Complicated

Lots of judgment calls

OK to use if its transformative, ie a parody

News more OK than entertainment

Depends on amount used: Pres. Ford exception-400 words used by The Nation on his pardon of Nixon

Is your use reducing commercial value?

Fair Use Most Common Misconception

Republication of copyrighted content during a breaking news event is NOT fair use

Exclusive photo of a crash or disaster has monetary value, audience value

Fair Use You Tube, Facebook

Can you use YouTube Videos?

Likely OK if the video is embedded w code provided w YouTube clip - YouTube allows video uploader to decide if it can be embedded in other sites

Facebook Photos?

FB requires users to allow 3rd parties to republish photos posted under Public setting.

Native Ads - sponsored, presented, featured, , in partnership with, promoted by

TheAtlantic.com and Church of Scientology

Comments were sponsored too

Apology and new guidelines

Social media issues

Native ads

Tricking consumers into thinking its a news story?

Consumers dont notice the labels.

Often dont understand them

When article looks like a news article, they think it is

Qualcoms Whats inside? series on Mashable new tech in new products. But once sponsorship ended, didnt have to continue to identify itself

When native ads travel thru social media, the origins get lost

Native ads and FTC

Diet pills and fake news stories FTC sued

2013, FTC notified search engine cos that including paid rankings in search results was a form of advertising had to distinguish

FTC updated guidelines on bloggers being paid for reviews. Blogger must disclose any material connection

Email Newletters

Accurate header & subject line identify person/business who is sending

Accurate address

Tell why they are receiving

How to unsubscribe

User-Generated Content

Section 230, Communications Decency Act -- means websites, apps, ISPs not liable for content users post

OK to moderate, edit or delete it

Exception: Roommates.com. Asked users to post profile info could violate fair housing rules, courts ruled that the site was a developer of the info., not just publisher. Therefore liable

UGC

You are liable if user infringes on someones copyright and 3rd party sues you.

Register w US Copyright Office, under DCMA, a copyright owner will be required to first serve you with a take-down notice. If you remove it, you will not be liable.

Open Meetings

Most states have open meeting laws. RCFP summarizes by state

Most have open records laws.

Most consider emails of public officials to be public records

FOIA & Open Records

Only applies to FEDERAL agencies and depts(Congress exempted itelf. But can get correspondence between member and an agency.)

Covers RECORDS not INFORMATION

Have to respond, but not deliver, within 20 days

Can appeal, sue

Write a news story

Access to Information

State shield laws protect some sources

No Federal shield law

But investigators can access your sources electronically track phone calls, emails

Surveillance

Standard email and social media account contains kind of information interrogators used to pull out fingernails to get. Joel Simon, CPJ, 2014.

Take care in using public hot spots: Your cell phone or connecting to the internet in a hotel room can telegraph your location

Current laws allow IR, FBI, others to get stored emails and docs in the cloud w/o a warrant

Subpoenas for Anonymous Commenters

Courts balance strength of defamation claim against comments 1st Amendment rights

Might be ordered to turn over any info. you have on your users.

Other J-Lab Resources KCNN.orgLaunching a Nonprofit News SiteTop 10 Rules for Limiting Legal RiskJournalists Guide to Open Government

Thanks!

Jan Schaffer Jans@j-lab.org

@janjlab