This is a webcast of the live San Francisco session.Why you should attend
The increasingly digital media environment continues to create new challenges for communications lawyers, and this program, long recognized as the most comprehensive in its field, will highlight the hottest issues and case law facing the industry today. Covering a wide array of topical issues in media, digital communications, First Amendment, intellectual property, and privacy law, this program brings together experts who include the country’s leading practitioners and in-house counsel. Providing you with the strategic and practical knowledge needed to keep apace in this constantly changing practice area, this program is not to be missed.
What you will learn
- Electronic media regulation hot topics
- Domestic and international privacy and data protection regulatory initiatives
- First Amendment update in digital speech and traditional media formats
- Reporters privilege and media liability updates
- Recent developments in intellectual property practice
- Right of publicity developments
- Social media issues for communications lawyers
Special Feature
Earn one full hour of Ethics credit! Lunch will be provided prior to the ethics presentation.
Who should attend
Firm attorneys, in-house counsel and allied professionals who practice in the fields of media and communications, corporate compliance, privacy, and First Amendment law.
PLI Group Discounts
Groups of 4-14 from the same organization, all registering at the same time, for a PLI program scheduled for presentation at the same site, are entitled to receive a group discount. For further discount information, please contact membership@pli.edu or call (800) 260-4PLI.
PLI Can Arrange Group Viewing to Your Firm
Contact the Groupcasts Department via email at groupcasts@pli.edu for more details.
Cancellations
All cancellations received 3 business days prior to the program will be refunded 100%. If you do not cancel within the allotted time period, payment is due in full. You may substitute another individual to attend the program at any time.
All times are E.S.T.
Day One: 8:45 a.m. - 5:15 p.m. (E.S.T.)
Morning Session: 8:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (E.S.T.)
8:45 Electronic Media Regulation
- Will the FCC be successful in conducting an incentive auction for broadcast spectrum?
- Does the FCC still regulate broadcast indecency?
- Should the statutory schemes applicable to retransmission of broadcast programming be overhauled?
- What are the prospects for significant reform of the Communications Act?
- What should the FCC do about the All-Vid proceeding in light of Echostar and new video apps
Speaker: Helgi C. Walker
Moderator: Jeffrey P. Cunard
Panel: Jane E. Mago, Cristina Chou Pauzé, Sherrese M. Smith, Gigi B. Sohn
10:15 Networking Break
10:30 Developments in First Amendment Jurisprudence
- Will McBurney curtail the flow of public records under state FOIA laws?
- Can courts forbid the public display of gruesome images of fetuses if children may see them?
- Does the Boston Marathon bombing portend a retreat from Brandenburg’s strict limits on incitement?
- Does the First Amendment permit injunctions prohibiting expression about the private lives of public figures?
- Will the Supreme Court strike down or further restrict limits on campaign contributions?
Speaker: Jack M. Weiss
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Floyd Abrams, Adam Liptak, Paul M. Smith, Kathleen M. Sullivan
12:00 Lunch
Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. (E.S.T.)
2:00 Newsgathering Liability
- Will more states pass “Ag-Gag” laws and are they constitutional?
- What have we learned from the Bradley Manning case?
- Should states pass regulations governing the use of reconnaissance drones by non-governmental entities?
- Why the renewed interest in “Anti-Paparazzi Laws”?
- What is the status of the right to record in public places?
- How bad are restrictions on newsgathering in the UK and could they ever be transplanted here?
Speaker: Thomas S. Leatherbury
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: James C. Goodale, John W. Zucker, Gerson A. Zweifach
3:00 Reporters Privilege and Anonymous Speech
- Where does the reporter’s privilege stand in the wake of the Government’s efforts to enforce its subpoena seeking Jim Risen’s confidential sources?
- What impact has the passage of additional state shield laws had on the right to protect confidential sources?
- Has a consensus been reached as to whether and when to fight to protect anonymous posters?
- How has the press been dragged into the Obama Administration’s war against leakers?
Speaker: George Freeman
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Eve B. Burton, Karen Kaiser, Barbara W. Wall
4:00 Networking Break
4:15 Access
- From Guantanamo to the Bradley Manning trial to the secret drone memos, will 2013 go down as a year of setbacks for advocates of transparency?
- Is there a growing hostility to claims for greater rights of access under the First Amendment and through FOI building in the courts?
- What do the gag orders in the Aurora shooting case, sealing orders in sexual abuse lawsuits, and new restrictions on access to gun license lists tell us about the bounds of openness in high-profile cases?
- How are American news organizations taking the fight for access abroad?
- Are federal and state courts taking a fresh look at what agencies have to do, and when, to meet their obligations under FOI laws?
- Is the right of access to mug shots disappearing?
Speaker: David E. McCraw
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Bruce D. Brown, Lucy A. Dalglish, David A. Schulz
5:15 Adjourn
Day Two: 8:45 a.m. - 5:15 p.m. (E.S.T.)
Morning Session: 8:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (E.S.T.)
8:45 Defamation
- Has “libel tourism” reached the end of the road?
- What will be the impact of the British Defamation Act of 2013?
- Has the well-financed libel plaintiff returned?
- Has social media generated a new wave of libel cases?
- Do state anti-SLAPP statutes apply in federal court?
- Is it becoming more difficult to prove libel-by-implication?
Speaker: Kevin T. Baine
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Sandra S. Baron, Hon. Robert D. Sack, Mark Stephens
9:45 Right of Publicity and Related Claims
- Is misappropriation law different for fictional works?
- Are courts ignoring prior restraint law in right-of-publicity cases?
- What are the implications of Hart, Brown, and Keller?
- What are the implications of the Dryer class action settlement?
- Is professional wrestling really higher on the scale of First Amendment values than other sports?
Speaker: Kelli L. Sager
Moderator: Bruce P. Keller
Panel: Stephanie S. Abrutyn, Darci J. Bailey, Craig Bloom
10:45 Networking Break
11:00 Intellectual Property
- After Prince and Meltwater, is fair use expanding or contracting?
- Is anything left to the DMCA safe harbors after YouTube and Veoh?
- How are recent copyright cases affecting the technical design of new digital business?
- New boundaries of first sale: digital “used” – and foreign made – copies
- When does U.S. intellectual property law have extraterritorial impact?
- Can a “timeline” in social media be trademarked?
Speaker: Mary Snapp
Moderator: Bruce P. Keller
Panel: Andrew P. Bridges, Susan P. Crawford, Jeffrey P. Cunard, Jennifer L. Pariser
12:30 Lunch
Please note that lunch will be provided.
Afternoon Session: 1:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. (E.S.T.)
1:00 Legal Ethics for Media Lawyers: Current Issues
- What happens when professional judgment and a client’s litigation directions collide?
- Are porn trolls unethical? And what about lawyer sock puppets?
- Do lawyers have a First Amendment right to blog about their clients’ cases (and how do social media platforms create other problems for lawyers)?
- How should lawyers deal with media clients who gain access to privileged or classified information?
- What professional responsibility risks are created by lawyers as defamation targets (and plaintiffs)?
Moderator: Bruce E. H. Johnson
Panel: Pamela A. Bresnahan, Dale M. Cohen, Sue Friedberg, Hon. Mark R. Hornak
2:00 Networking Break
2:15 Global Privacy and Advertising Developments
- Comprehensive U.S. privacy legislation - how likely are the prospects?
- What’s new in the world of privacy and mobile apps?
- How are businesses complying with the new COPPA regulations?
- What is happening with the EU data protection regime and how will it affect U.S. businesses?
- When can social networking data be used for employment and credit decisions?
- Privacy legislation vs. self-regulation: What’s the right approach?
- Where is the line between commercial and noncommercial peech in the world of buzz marketing and blogs?
Speaker: Jane E. Kirtley
Moderator: Jeffrey P. Cunard
Panel: David Bender, Katrina Blodgett, Steven G. Brody, S. Jenell Trigg
3:45 Networking Break
4:00 Hot Issues in Social Media
- How are journalists using social media to find stories, and what are the legal pitfalls of such use?
- Are social media libel suits on the increase, and what unique issues do they raise?
- What new guidelines govern the use of social media by jurors, judges, and courtroom observers?
- What tort liability might social media providers face for negligent distribution of material?
- What are the consequences for anonymous speech when news sites require that comments from readers be posted through Facebook accounts?
Speaker: RonNell Andersen Jones
Moderator: Jeffrey P. Cunard
Panel: Reggie Davis, Jonathan D. Hart, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
5:15 Adjourn
Co-Chair(s)
Speaker(s)
Stephanie S. Abrutyn ~ Vice President and Senior Counsel, Litigation and Anti-Piracy, Home Box Office, Inc.
Darci J. Bailey ~ Vice President and Associate General Counsel, A&E Television Networks, LLC
David Bender ~ Adjunct Professor, University of Houston Law Center, The Law Office of David Bender
Katrina Blodgett ~ Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Craig A. Bloom ~ Vice President, Production Legal, NBCUniversal Media, LLC
Bruce D. Brown ~ Executive Director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Eve B. Burton ~ Senior Vice President and General Counsel, The Hearst Corporation
Prof. Susan P. Crawford ~ Roosevelt Institute Fellow; Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Lucy A. Dalglish ~ Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
Reggie Davis ~ Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Zynga Inc.
Hon. Mark R. Hornak ~ District Judge, United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
Karen Kaiser ~ Associate General Counsel, The Associated Press
Jane E. Kirtley ~ Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota
Adam Liptak ~ Supreme Court Correspondent, The New York Times
Jane E. Mago ~ Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Legal and Regulatory Affairs, National Association of Broadcasters
David E. McCraw ~ Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, The New York Times Company
Jennifer L. Pariser ~ Senior Vice President, Litigation and Anti-Piracy, Recording Industry Association of America
Mary Snapp ~ Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Products and Services, Microsoft Corporation
Barbara W. Wall ~ Vice President and Senior Associate General Counsel, Gannett Co., Inc.
Gerson A. Zweifach ~ Senior Executive Vice President and Group General Counsel, News Corp and 21st Century Fox
Program Attorney(s)
PLI makes every effort to accredit its Live Webcasts. Please check the CLE Calculator above for CLE information specific to your state.
PLI's Live Webcasts are approved for MCLE credit (
unless otherwise noted in the product description) in the following states/territories: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho*, Illinois, Indiana
1, Iowa*, Kansas*, Kentucky*, Louisiana, Maine*, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire*, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York
2, Ohio
3, Oklahoma, Oregon*, Pennsylvania
4, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia
5, Virgin Islands, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming*.
*PLI will apply for credit upon request.
Arizona: The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement.
Arkansas and Oklahoma: Audio-only live webcasts are not approved for credit.
1Indiana: Considered a distance education course. There is a 6 credit limit per year.
2New York: Newly admitted attorneys may not take non-transitional course formats such as on-demand audio or video programs or live webcasts for CLE credit. Newly admitted attorneys not practicing law in the United States, however, may earn 12 transitional credits in non-traditional formats.
3Ohio: To confirm that the live webcast has been approved, please refer to the list of Ohio’s Approved Self Study Activities at http://www.sconet.state.oh.us. Online programs are considered self-study. Ohio attorneys have a 6 credit self-study limit per biennial compliance period. The Ohio CLE Board states that attorneys must have a 100% success rate in clicking on timestamps to receive ANY CLE credit for an online program.
4 Pennsylvania: A live webcast may be viewed individually or in a group setting. Credit may be granted to an attorney who views a live webcast individually. There is a 4.0 credit limit per year for this type of viewing. A live webcast viewed in a group setting receives live participatory credit if the program is open to the public and advertised at least 30 days prior to the program. Live webcasts viewed in a group setting that do not advertise at least 30 days prior the program will be considered "in-house", and therefore denied credit.
5Virginia: All distance learning courses are to be done in an educational setting, free from distractions.
Running time and CLE credit hours are not necessarily the same. Please be aware that many states do not permit credit for luncheon and keynote speakers.
Note that some states limit the number of credit hours attorneys may claim for online CLE activities, and state rules vary with regard to whether online CLE activities qualify for participatory or self-study credits. For more information, refer to your state CLE website or call Customer Service at (800) 260-4PLI (4754) or email: info@pli.edu.
If you have already received credit for attending some or the entire program, please be aware that state administrators do not permit you to accrue additional credit for repeat viewing even if an additional credit certificate is subsequently issued.