Photo Courtsey of MichaelMaggs (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
So you’re a blogger or a journalist. You use words, photos and video to inform, educate and entertain the public. Not everyone necessarily agrees with you. And you’re fine with that, it’s part of being an a member of the press. But some people aren’t content to just disagree. You may have stared down an email in your inbox saying that your video or article got taken down, but you don’t know why. And you don’t know what to do. Or even worse, someone just sued you for something a third party posted on your website!
As a journalist, you're aware of the important social and cultural dimensions of your work. But you also like to be paid and credited fairly for your work. If third parties republish your work without permission and the necessary credit, it's reasonable to be upset. But you may not be entirely sure what to do about what to do next.
Sometimes being a blogger or a journalist is just frustrating. You try to track down the facts but maybe the state or federal government won’t turn over those documents. Do you need help with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or California Public Records Act (PRA) request?
And sometimes you worry, too. What if by secretly recording that politician, I did something illegal? Did I maybe go too far with that last public statement? Should I really have used that video clip in my video?
You probably have your own website. And your readers are great. You want to be able to gather data from users, but you want to do it in a way that avoids lawsuits and looking like you're the NSA. You wonder what kind of notice you need to provide your users, and how to draft a privacy policy and terms of use that lets users clearly know the conditions of their use of your app. You wonder if you should have a specially tailored privacy policy and terms of service instead of copying and pasting Facebook’s. Hint: You should.
That’s why New Media Rights provides free, reduced fee and competitive fee legal services. If you’re a blogger or journalist we can help with the following issues.
- Counseling on user privacy, data aggregation, and copyright and trademark issues.
- Writing Terms of Use and Privacy Policies.
- Review and writing of contracts.
- Respond to a DMCA takedown notice or cease and desist letters.
- Respond to other unfair content takedowns, access limitations, and account terminations.
- Help writing DMCA takedown notices and enforcement of copyrighted works.
- First Amendment Free Speech Issues.
- FOIA and Public Records Act requests.
- Legal advice regarding covert recording.
- CDA 230 disputes.
- Legal advice regarding covert recording.
- Avoiding and responding to defamation.
Now that you know how New Media Rights can help you, please feel free to fill in our contact form here.
