District Court Rules YouTube Protected by DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions in Viacom Copyright Infringement Suit By Chinh Vo – Edited by Gary Pong Viacom Int’l Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., No. 07 Civ. 2103 (S.D.N.Y. June 23, 2010) Slip Opinion hosted by Justia.com On June 23, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Google’s motion for summary judgment in a copyright infringement suit brought against its video-sharing service YouTube by media company Viacom. In dismissing ... Read More...

By Emily Hoort New Law in San Francisco Requires Retailers to Post Cell Phone Radiation Levels Ars Technica reports that San Francisco has passed an ordinance that requires all cell phone retailers to post radiation levels for their mobile devices. The city passed the law despite a lack of conclusive scientific evidence connecting cell phone use to increased health risks. Cell phone retailers will be required to post the specific absorption rate (SAR), which measures the rate of energy absorption ... Read More...

Tenth Circuit Rejects First Amendment Challenge to U.S. Copyright Law By Abby Lauer – Edited by Gary Pong Golan v. Holder, Nos. 09-1234 & 09-1261 (10th Cir., June 21, 2010) Slip Opinion Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified in 17 U.S.C. § 104A, restored the U.S. copyrights of foreign authors who had lost copyright protection for failing to comply with certain formalities required by U.S. law.  Plaintiffs challenged Section 514 as a violation of the First ... Read More...

By Sharona Hakimi The White House Endorses FCC Plan and Calls for More Broadband Spectrum Reuters and CNet report that on June 28, President Obama signed a Presidential Memo endorsing the FCC’s goal to free up 500 megahertz of wireless broadband over the next ten years. The memo estimates that the flow of wireless data used in the next five years will increase to as much as 45 times the total bandwidth used in 2009. The memo calls on government ... Read More...