Kevin Goldberg
The following are little bits of great journalism law rules to follow from class speaker Kevin Goldberg. He teaches Comm 475 Journalism Law at George Mason University in the Fall and is a lawyer that specializes in First Amendment law.
Gluttony
The Fair use Defense is not an excuse. For whatever you use that isn’t your own content, give credit to whoever its due.
If you are using content that you didn’t create try to get permission or pay for their usage. Be certain
Greed
Do they want to make money? If so then we shouldn’t use their stuff to make money.
It’s not enough that you use only 30 seconds or less you need to make sure you know what you are doing with that person’s work would you be helping them or not.
You can say to a source in 49 states plus DC give you reporter’s privilege and you don’t know what will happen if you don’t get that information.
Maryland had the very first reporters privilege law.
Shield Law is different in every state– check out your states laws.
What type of media does it cover? Internet, broadcast ect. Some states don’t consider blogging journalism.
Sloth
To hell with getting it first, get it right.
If you use the word allegedly you are not 100% accurate, but if you have a source that is reliable saying allegedly…
Be as precise as you can.
If someone said something to you say it as they did it’s accurate and it shows fairness.
There is an idea that they more important someone is in our society we can say more things about them.
You wait long enough to give them time to “no comment”.
If you go to print without asking them for a comment then you can get sued.
Lust
Section 230 if people post on your site you take advantage of this section
Broken promises
Section 512 is the copyright version
The copyright of the content belongs to whoever created the content
Pride
Make a clarification about who you were wrong about or take down what you did.
Envy
Ask for permission first
wikimedia commons
Wrath
Not everything is fair game.
Reasonable expectation of privacy generally in a public space.
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in your home, on your telephone, in a doctor’s office or secured place.
How can we determine privacy in the gray areas?
Ask yourself, what is reasonable?
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