Media Law Exam Quick Notes

FOIA Exemptions ( 9 categories)

• National security/defense/intelligence/foreign-relations

• Agency “housekeeping” materials

• Statutorily-exempted information (no agency discretion)

• Trade secrets & confidential commercial data

• Inter-agency/intra-agency working papers; lawyer-client privilege

• Personal & medical files (clearly unwarranted privacy invasion)

• Law-enforcement records when disclosure would:
  • Interfere with proceedings
  • Jeopardize fair trial
  • Reveal confidential source or investigative methods
  • Risk circumvention of law or endanger life/safety

• Financial-institution reports

• Geological & well data

Privacy Torts

• Appropriation (name/likeness for trade)

• Intrusion into solitude/seclusion

• Public disclosure of private facts

• False-light publication

Shield Laws

• State statutes granting reporters privilege to withhold sources/notes

• Aim: protect newsgathering from compulsory court disclosure

Obscenity

• Miller test ( 3 prongs):
  • The average person, applying contemporary community standards, finds work appeals to prurient interest
  • Patently offensive depiction of sexual conduct as defined by state law
  • Work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

• Key cases: Ulysses (work judged as a whole), Roth (obscenity unprotected), Miller (current test)

• FCC distinctions:
  • Obscene: no First Amendment protection
  • Indecent: patently offensive sexual/excretory content (broadcast only)
  • Profane: grossly offensive language (broadcast only)

Trademark Basics

• Function: identify source & prevent consumer confusion

• Lawful unlicensed uses: parody, criticism/commentary, news reporting

• Distinctiveness spectrum: fanciful → arbitrary → suggestive → descriptive (most to least protectable)

Copyright & Fair Use ( 4 factors)

• Purpose/character (transformative? commercial?)

• Nature of copyrighted work

• Amount/substantiality used

• Effect on market/value

• Owner’s rights: reproduce, prepare derivatives, distribute, perform, display

• Non-owners need permission; all fixed works automatically protected

Advertising Regulation

• Self-regulation: industry codes

• Private litigation: competitors & consumers (Lanham Act requires economic/reputational injury)

• State & local “little FTC” consumer-protection statutes

• Federal: FTC (false/deceptive ads) & FDA (food/drug safety)

• FTC deception test: misleading act/omission + reasonable consumer standard + materiality

Net Neutrality

• Principle: equal treatment of all internet traffic; ISPs barred from favoring own content

• 2024 FCC attempted restoration; 2025 court (after Supreme Court power-limiting ruling) blocked FCC absent Congressional authorization → no federal rules, only state policies

First Amendment Protection by Medium

• Print & internet: most protected; no prior restraint

• Cable/satellite: intermediate; subscription choice reduces intrusiveness

• Broadcast: least protected; FCC may restrict indecency/profanity 6\text{ a.m.}–10\text{ p.m.} due to spectrum scarcity & child access

Broadcast Regulation History

• Spectrum scarcity doctrine

• Radio Act 1927: “public interest, convenience, necessity” standard

• Communications Act 1934: created FCC; unified communication regulation

Sunshine & Information Acts

• Sunshine Act 1976: certain federal agency meetings open to public

• FOIA (above), COPPA, COPA, CIPA addressed below

Children & Online Content Laws

• COPPA 1998: sites for <13 must obtain parental consent before collecting personal data

• CDA 1996: criminalized sending “indecent” internet content to minors (struck down in part)

• COPA 1998: targeted commercial porn access by <17; struck down as overbroad

• CIPA 2000: libraries must install filters for federal funds; upheld despite “overblocking” concerns

Liberty & Free Speech (14th Amendment linkage)

• Free speech is a fundamental liberty; enables expression, criticism, idea exchange, and government accountability—core to democratic self-governance