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| Roberson v. Rochester Folding Box Company |
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Definition
| 1902 - Abigail Roberson’s picture was reproduced on 25.000 copies of a poster advertising. She sued, but lost her case when the New York court ruled that there was no law of privacy. But the case generated such public outrage that the NY legislature passed the first statutory law of privacy making it illegal to use one’s name or likeness for advertising or trade purposes without consent. |
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| Pavesich v. New England Mutual Life Insurance |
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| 1905 - Atlanta artist Paolo Pavesich sued when his photo was used in a newspaper ad representing a happy, contented person with insurance. Georgia became the first state to recognize the right of privacy in common law when they awarded Pavesich $25,000 in personal damages due to the invasion. |
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| Ford Motor Co. wanted Bette Midler to perform her 1970s hit "Do You Want To Dance?" in a series of commercials; she refused and Ford's advertising agency hired one of her former backup singers to imitate Midler's voice as closely as possible. The imitation was convincing, and Midler sued for appropriation. Significance: traditionally it is not considered commercial appropriation to feature in advertising someone who looks or sounds like a particular celebrity without the celebrity's consent; however, when the look-alike or sound-alike is used in a manner likely to confuse the public, some courts have allowed the celebrity to recover damages, either on a right-of-publicity theory or on some other ground. |
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| 1971 - ruled that photos taken inside a private home w/o knowledge were an invasion of privacy. Cameras and voice recording devices are inconsistent with a person’s expectation of privacy inside his/her home. Later rulings have differed when the facts involved secret recordings inside a place of business. |
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| 1971 - Court ruled that it is not an invasion of privacy to publish the name of a rape victim when that name is a part of public record during a trial; Florida Star v. B.J.F., 1989, extended to legally obtained information gotten from outside of court. |
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| Leverton v. Curtis Pub. Co |
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Definition
| 1951 - Post ran a photo of a child at an accident scene with a story of pedestrian carelessness. Accident had been fault of driver . . . therefore false light. |
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| 1988 - re a fictitious interview with Rev. Jerry Falwell in which it was said that “his first time” was with his mother in an outhouse. Included a small disclaimer. Falwell sued for libel, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress. Judge dismissed the privacy claim but sent the libel and emotional distress cases to court. Jury dismissed the libel claim noting that it was so farfetched, no one would believe it was intended as the truth; but awarded $200,000 in emotional stress damages; U.S. Appeals Court upheld; U.S Supreme Court reversed. Rehnquist said that though most would consider it repugnant, it was satire and satirists must be protected. Said that in order to win an emotional distress claim, it would have to be shown: 1. That the parody or satire amounted to a statement of fact, not opinion. 2. That it was a false statement of fact. 3. That the person who drew the cartoon or wrote the article knew it was false, or exhibited reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the material. (show actual malice) |
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| 1964 - one of the earlier cases addressing the issue of information gathering, a U.S. citizen is denied a passport to go to Cuba to gather information. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote: the right to speak and publish does not include the right to gather information. |
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| Pell v. Procunier and Saxbe v. Washington Post |
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Definition
1974 - in separate cases reporters requested but were refused the right to interview specific prisoners ..... both were told they could tour prison facilities and even talk with prisoners at random, but could not interview specific prisoners. Media argues the denial was a violation of First Amendment rights.
SC Decision: Reporters have no constitutional right of access to prisons or their inmates beyond that afforded the general public. Press have the right to print whatever they can get, but government has no obligation to provide legal access beyond that given the general public. |
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| 1975 - similar to Pell and Saxbe, an inmate in a California jail committed suicide, and a psychiatrist’s report said the jail conditions may have contributed to the suicide. KQED TV requested permission to film in the part of the jail where the inmate resided, but the sheriff refused. They were offered a regular jail tour, the same tour offered the general public. However, it did not include the portion of the jail where the suicide had taken place. KQED argued that it had a constitutional right to gather information and challenged the restriction. SC Decision: Neither the First nor Fourteenth Amendments mandate a right of access to governmental information or sources of information within governmental control. NOTE: the decision does not preclude access, just leaves it up to the prison superintendent |
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| Wilson v. Layne and Hanlon v. Berger |
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Definition
| 1999 - both involved cases in which law enforcement officers invited reporters/photographers to accompany them on arrests (Layne) or gathering evidence (Hanlon) on private property. Does not apply to ride-alongs etc. in public places. |
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| Food Lion v. Capital Cities/ABC |
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Definition
| 1999 - reporters in NC went undercover at a Food Lion to follow up on claims the store was selling old/spoiled meat. Original award of $5 million eventually became $2 - $1 for trespass, and $1 for being unloyal employee. |
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1965 - SC ruled that the First Amendment did not give the press the right to take photographs during a trial, but did say that at some point in the future when technology not so obtrusive it might be allowed. Decision said:
1. Cameras interfere with jury - pressure due to exposure.
2. Interfere with witnesses - intimidating.
3. Impact on judge - burden of control.
4. Impact on defendant - harassment. |
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| 1981 - ruled that cameras do not prevent a fair trial and that states may allow their presence in the courtroom. If a state allows cameras, their presence does not violate the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial. / If a state denies cameras, it is not a violation of the First Amendment. |
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| 1991 - federal court upheld the prohibition on television coverage of executions. |
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| 1966 - controversial trial in which conviction of Sheppard was overturned due to prejudicial publicity . . . . in which decision criticized the judge for not controlling the courtroom. Sheppard was a wealthy doctor in the Cleveland suburb of Avon Lake. His wife was killed while he was downstairs sleeping on the couch. He claimed he heard a noise, ran upstairs, fought with the assailant, was knocked unconscious by a figure huddled over his wife’s bed. Press sensationalized Sheppard’s affair with a nurse, quoted a judge as saying he was “guilty as hell,” questioned why he had not been arrested and brought to trial, printed names of jurors and urged readers to call or write. Sheppard was convicted, overturned, re-tried, acquitted. |
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| Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart |
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Definition
1972 - Court ruled there must be a clear/present danger to a defendant's right to a fair trial before a judge can gag information
· Evidence of:
○ Intent and pervasive publicity about the case
○ No other measure would work
○ Restrictive order would prevent more precedential publicity |
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| Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia |
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Definition
| 1980 - case the SC heard to clarify the ruling in Gannett. Overruled interpretation of Gannett as allowing closure of criminal trials. Said the public right to attend criminal trials is guaranteed by common law and the First Amendment. Requires extreme circumstances in order to close a criminal trial. Upholds interpretation of Gannett as allowing closure of pre-trial hearings. |
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| Press Enterprise v. Riverside Superior Court (I and II) |
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Definition
1984 – ruled that the public and the press have the right to attend the voir dire process. Press Enterprise v. Riverside Superior Court, 1986 - opened pre-trial hearing except when . . .
1. It is proven that there is substantial probability that the defendant’s right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by publicity.
2. A reasonable alternative to closure cannot protect defendant’s rights. |
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| 2005 - New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed in 2005 on civil contempt charges for refusing to reveal confidential sources having to do with information never published (Valerie Plame case). She was released only after her source released her from the confidentiality agreement and the prosecutor agreed to limited testimony – D.C. district court and appeals court both upholding precedent, which says there is no First Amendment privilege protecting sources . . . USSC refused to hear. Prompted Congress to consider the Free Flow of Information Act . . . still not passed. |
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| 1972 (also in re Pappas & U.S. v. Caldwell) - Branzburg was a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He did a story about making hashish from marijuana and about drug use in Frankfort County. He was called to testify before a grand jury, refused, and lost argument . . . appealed to USSC. RULING: Reporters do not have a right of confidentiality, no special privilege. |
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| 1972 - reporter ignored a judge’s gag order and printed a story, reporter was cited for contempt, court of appeals struck down the judge’s gag order but upheld the contempt citation. Dickinson Rule - contempt citation may stand even though a court order which resulted in the citation is later ruled invalid. (Not accepted in all jurisdictions). |
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| U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Bono CTEA 2003 - protecting continued protection of copyrights held by companies such as Disney. |
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| Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co, Inc. |
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| 1991 - ruled that a list of names in a telephone directory is not copyrightable. Feist did not need permission to take names from Rural Telephone Service Company’s directory and publish them in its own directory. Eliminated the “sweat of brow” argument. Labor invested to gather information does not give ownership when there is no original creation. |
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| Miller v. Universal Studios |
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| 1981 - - ruled that facts/research/news are not copyrightable. Universal was not required to have Gene Miller’s permission to use facts from his book in a docudrama. Copyright only protects the way a story is told, not the story itself -- the expression of the facts, not the facts. |
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| Associated Press v. International News Service |
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Definition
| 1919 - AP said INS was pirating its news. INS said the news dispatches were not copyrighted and thus were public domain. The Supreme Court ruled that while there were no property rights to the news, what INS was doing constituted unfair competition and was thus illegal. |
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| 1991 - ruled that Kinko’s practice of copying articles and compiling them into custom textbooks to be sold to college students was an infringement. |
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1985 - ruled that Nation’s publication of an excerpt from an unpublished book by Gerald Ford -- approx. 300 words about Ford’s pardon of Nixon -- was not fair use. Based largely on right of first publication and the quality rather than quantity of the selection -- Ford’s discussion of the controversial pardon was the heart of the book, the selling point.
Note: Many lower courts read the decision as precluding a fair use of unpublished materials, and in 1992 Congress amended the copyright law to read that the fact that a work is unpublished does not bar a finding of fair use. |
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| Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc |
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| 1994 - parody case involving 2 Live Crew’s parody of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.” SC supported the idea that the use was a parody protected by Fair Use even though a commercial. |
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| 2001 – Napster provided the framework for peer to peer file sharing through a central server. Court ruled it was a contributory infringer and shut it down. |
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| 2005 – ruled that the act of distributing and promoting a product/software with the clear intent of fostering copyright infringement is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by others . . . inducement theory of contributory copyright infringement. This even though Grokster only provided software for users to share peer to peer. |
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