1. Chapter 15
Legal Controls and
Freedom of Expression

2. Copyright Law and Digital Culture
“The uneven and unclear rules for the
use of sound, images, video, and text
have become one of the most contentious
issues of today’s digital culture.
As digital media make it easier than
ever to create and re-create cultural
content, copyright law has yet to catch
up with these new forms of expression.”

3. Copyright Law and Digital Culture
DJ Drama and Girl Talk
Fair Use Exemption – allows for
transformative use – creating new work from
bits of copyrighted work.

4. Models for Expression
• Authoritarian model
• Communist model

5. Models for Expression
•Social responsibility model
•Libertarian model

6. Models for Expression
47 Nations Not Free

7. Censorship as Prior Restraint
• Government cannot block publication or speech before
it occurs.
• Pentagon Papers
• Daniel Ellsberg
Vietnam War – Clear and Present Danger to National Security

8. Censorship as Prior Restraint
• The Progressive
• National security as a cause for restraint
• Article offered “how-to” H-bomb guide

9. Unprotected Forms of Expression
• Libel: defamation of character in written or broadcast
form NY Times v. Sullivan
• Different from slander

10. Libel
• Public Officials vs Private Citizens
Private
1.That the public statement about them was false
2.That Damages or actual injury occurred (such as the
loss of a job, harm to reputation, public humiliation, or
mental anguish)
3. That the publisher or broadcaster was negligent in
failing to determine the truthfulness of the statement.

11. Libel
• Public Figures
• Also have to prove malice on the part of the medium

12. Unprotected Forms of Expression
(cont.)
• Defenses against libel charges
• Can be protected by qualified privilege or rule of opinion
and fair comment

13. Unprotected Forms of Expression
(cont.)
• Obscenity
• Miller v. California (1973)
• Acknowledges differing community standards
• Must judge the work as a whole

14. Unprotected Forms of Expression
(cont.)
1. The average person, applying contemporary community
standards, would find that the material as a whole appeals to
purient interest
2. The material depicts or describes sexual conduct in patently
offensive way.
3. The material, as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, or
scientific value.

15. Unprotected Forms of Expression
(cont.)

16. Unprotected Forms of Expression
(cont.)
• Right to privacy
• Most journalism organizations use their own guidelines.
• Rights for public and private citizens

17. Unprotected Forms of Expression
• Seditious expression
• Clear and present danger established with Schenck v. United
States
• Copyright legally protects the rights of authors and
producers to their published or unpublished work.

18. First Amendment versus Sixth
Amendment
• First Amendment’s protections of speech and
the press clash with the Sixth Amendment’s
guarantees of a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury.
• Gag orders and shield laws regulate trials, protect
reporters and their sources.
• Cameras in the courtroom still debated
• Limited TV coverage of U.S. federal trials
• Supreme Court still bans all cameras

19. Film and the Film Industry
• Film review boards
• State and local boards try to control film.
• Jack Johnson and boxing films
• Fatty Arbuckle and the MPPDA
• Industry self-regulation
• The Motion Picture Production Code
• 1952: The Miracle Case, Burstyn v. Wilson

20. Expression in the Media:
Print, Broadcast, and Online
• McCarthy hearings
• Red Channels names those “sympathetic” to
communist, left-wing causes
• “Red scare”
• Among those scarred by witch-hunts:
• Lena Horne
• Dashiell Hammett
• Arthur Miller

21. The FCC Regulates Broadcasting
• Red Lion v. FCC: Radio broadcasters’ responsibilities to
public interest outweigh right to choose programming.
• Miami Herald Publishing v. Tornillo: Supreme Court
ruled the right-to-reply law is unconstitutional for
newspapers.

22. Political Broadcasts and Equal
Opportunity
• Section 315
• Stations must provide equal opportunity for response and
counter.
• Only applies to broadcast
• Supporters of equal opportunity law argue that it has provided
forums for lesser-known candidates.

23. The Demise of the Fairness Doctrine
• The Fairness Doctrine required stations to offer
balancing opinions on controversial issues.
• By 1987, broadcasters argued that mandating
opposing views every time a program covered a
controversial issue was an unfair burden.

24. Communication Policy and the Internet
• Internet regarded as the one true venue for
unlimited free speech
• Public conversation about the Internet focuses on
First Amendment issues.
• 2010: Debate over classification of Internet
continues.
• Can be considered an essential utility or information
service

25. The First Amendment
and Democracy
• As citizens, we must:
• Engage in public debate about media ownership
• Pay attention to those excluded from opportunities to buy
products and shape the cultural landscape
• Challenge journalists and leaders
• Become watchdogs and critical consumers