Law for Media Startups

http://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.org

Launching a Nonprofit News Site
Top 10 Rules for Limiting Legal Risk
Journalists Guide to Open Government

Thanks!

Jan Schaffer
Jans@j-lab.org
@janjlab