Communications Law in the Digital Age 2009

Overview

iPhone USERS - Join us on November 13th at www.pli.edu/mobile when PLI presents a video stream especially for iPhone users of the 4-5:00 p.m. eastern time session on Advertising, Commercial Speech and Corporate Expression. Access is free … there is no CLE for viewing via the iPhone. The minimum requirements to receive the presentation are an iPhone 3G, 3Gs or an iPod Touch with firmware 3.0.2 or higher. A network download speed of 120Kbps or higher and a Wi-Fi or 3G internet connection with a data plan.

Why You Should Attend

This one of a kind program, long recognized as the most comprehensive in its field, has been updated to encompass the latest issues and case law in media, digital communications, intellectual property and privacy law. Find out for yourself how this program has evolved to account for the many transformations in the communications industry. An all-star faculty comprising the country’s leading practitioners and in-house First Amendment and media law counsel will provide the strategic and practical knowledge needed to keep apace in this rapidly developing area.

What You Will Learn

• Examine First Amendment issues arising in the context of the Internet, other digital speech, as well as traditional media
• Review privacy and data protection issues facing the private sector, including regulatory initiatives 
• Focus on newsgathering and information access issues such as subpoenas to bloggers/Internet Service Providers/websites, reporter’s privilege issues, access to electronics records and Freedom-of-Information Act developments
• Discuss developments in the Internet age regarding defamation, the publication of private facts, right of publicity and false light, and especially evolving case law under Section 230 of the CDA
• Explore the intersection of digital technology and copyright and trademark law and much more…

Who Should Attend

Firm attorneys, in-house counsel and allied professionals who practice in the fields of media and telecommunications, corporate compliance, privacy and First Amendment law.

Special Features

Live Webcast - Simultaneous live webcast of the New York session is available for individual viewing. Webcast participants will receive streaming audio and/or video of the program, view and print the Course Handbook, and have the ability to submit questions electronically.

For more information click on the Live Webcast link in the Related Items box.

Special Bonus to all Registrants

All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of PLI's comprehensive Course Handbook. This softcover, bound volume was written to augment the program and to stand alone as a permanent reference. PLI's Course Handbooks represent the definitive thinking of the nation's finest legal minds, and are often the standard reference in the field.

Please Note: Webcast attendees will receive a downloadable version of the Handbook one business day prior to the program.

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.

Schedule

Please plan to arrive with enough time to register before the conference begins. A networking breakfast will be available upon your arrival.

Day One: 8:45 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Morning Session: 8:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

8:45  Electronic Media Regulation

• Will the recent Supreme Court decisions embolden the FCC’s indecency enforcement?
• Will the new FCC impose broadcast localism requirements or other forms of content regulation? Now that the digital television transition is complete, what lies down the road for broadcasters, cable and satellite operators and viewers?
• Will Congress overhaul the retransmission consent regime or alter the legal landscape for media companies?
• Will the FCC continue to impose restrictions on the traffic management of broadband networks and/or extend those restrictions to wireless phone companies?
• How is the DOJ’s new antitrust enforcement agenda affecting the media marketplace?

Speaker: Helgi C. Walker 
Moderator: Jeffrey P. Cunard
Panel: Robert D. Joffe, Jane E. Mago, Thomas R. Nathan, Gigi B. Sohn

10:15  Networking Break

10:30  Developments in First Amendment Jurisprudence 

• What is the future of broadcast regulation after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the “fleeting expletives” case?
• How did the Supreme Court’s decision in the “Hillary movie” case affect the First Amendment limits on campaign finance regulation?
• Will the Court create a new category of unprotected speech involving graphic images of cruelty to animals?
• Does the right of expressive association afford religious student groups an exemption from generally applicable anti-discrimination rules in public schools and colleges?
• How will the Summum case affect the government speech and public forum doctrines?

Speaker: Paul M. Smith
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: RonNell Andersen Jones, Kathleen M. Sullivan, Jack M. Weiss

12:00  Lunch

Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.

2:00  Privacy Protection, Safety and Security

• Will Congress tolerate “deep packet inspection” of users’ communications by Internet operators?
• Will the European Union’s concerns about consumers’ rights finally begin to affect transborder exchanges of information?
• Behavioral advertising: If it is here to stay, will it be regulated? How and by whom?
• Identity theft and data breach - legislation: What will the Supreme Court’s ruling in Flores-Figueroa v. United States mean as Congress considers new identity theft legislation? Will the FTC ever enforce its Red Flag Rules on identity theft? Will Massachusetts’s tough new rules on data security and privacy become de facto national compliance standards?
• Identity theft and data breach - class actions: The “new new thing” for the plaintiff’s bar?

Speaker: Jane E. Kirtley
Moderator: Jeffrey P. Cunard
Panel: David Bender, Joel R. Reidenberg, Sherrese M. Smith, Mike Yang

3:30  Networking Break

3:45  Reporters Privilege and Anonymous Speech  

• Is the Fifth Amendment a viable basis for protecting sources?
• Should the law - and their media “hosts” - protect the anonymity of posters on forums and websites?
• If Texas can pass a shield law, will all the states follow?
• What is the lawyer’s role when a client has been ordered to identify a confidential source?

Speaker: George Freeman 
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Kevin T. Baine, Eve B. Burton, James C. Goodale, RonNell Andersen Jones, Barbara W. Wall

5:15  Adjourn

Day Two: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

9:00  Defamation, Invasion of Privacy and Related Claims

• Is “truth” as a defense to libel eroding, or is Noonan v. Staples an aberration?
• Libel tourism: What’s the problem, and what’s being done?
• Public figures and the Internet: Does worldwide publication make traditional tests obsolete?
• How do the single publications rule, statutes of limitations, and correction statutes apply to Internet publications - or do they apply at all?
• Have the rumors of the death of libel and privacy claims from SLAPP statutes been greatly exaggerated?

Speaker: Kelli L. Sager 
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Sandra S. Baron, Robin Bierstedt, Slade R. Metcalf, Honorable Robert D. Sack 

10:30  Networking Break

10:45  Intellectual Property 

• Keyword advertising and “Uses” in Commerce: Is this issue finally settled?
• When is a trademark use in a commercial video game a non-infringing “artistic” use?
• Is copyright registration always a prerequisite for subject matter jurisdiction? 
• DMCA: When are online video sharing sites protected by safe harbors? What are the implications of the prohibition on altering content management information for content repurposing on the Internet?
• Is actual distribution required to infringe a copyright, or is “making it available” enough?

Speaker: Mary Snapp 
Moderator: Bruce P. Keller
Panel: Andrew P. Bridges, Jeffrey P. Cunard, John G. Palfrey, Jennifer L. Pariser 

12:15  Lunch

Afternoon Session: 1:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

1:45  Newsgathering Liability 

• Can aggressive interviewing techniques really give rise to a wrongful death claim?
• How and when to obtain an effective release for non-news programs?
• When are journalists safe to take photographs in the EU?
• Can you misappropriate the news?
• Journalists’ relationships with law enforcement - how close is too close?

Speaker: Thomas S. Leatherbury 
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Stephanie S. Abrutyn, Barbara W. Wall, John W. Zucker 

2:45  Access

• Who controls access to classified information in the courts - the judiciary or the executive?  
• Who controls access to grand jury records - the judiciary or the legislature?  
• FOIA access and new technologies: Who is winning the battle over politicians’ email?
• Do secret dockets still exist? How do we know, why should we care, and what can we do?
• Is the media’s economic plight reducing access to government information, and will the new FOIA fee-shifting provisions provide any relief?

Speaker: David A. Schulz 
Moderator: Lee Levine
Panel: Lucy A. Dalglish, Joseph D. Steinfield, David H. Tomlin 

3:45  Networking Break

4:00  Advertising, Commercial Speech, and Corporate Expression 

• Data-mining: Speech or conduct?
• Does the overbreadth doctrine apply to commercial speech?
• Are video depictions of suffering animals, displayed on a nonprofit group’s mobile vans, subject to a city ordinance prohibiting mobile “advertising”?
• Lawyer advertising: Can New York prohibit lawyers from portraying “irrelevant” characteristics?  Will bankruptcy firms be required to label themselves “debt relief agencies”?
• Double standards based on content: How can governments ban certain advertising at some locations while simultaneously permitting similar ads at others?

Speaker: Steven G. Brody 
Moderator: Bruce P. Keller
Panel: Bruce E. H. Johnson, Thomas R. Julin, John J. Walsh

5:00  Adjourn

Faculty

Co-Chair(s)

James C. Goodale, Chairman Emeritus, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Bruce P. Keller, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Lee Levine, Partner, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, L.L.P.

Speaker(s)

Stephanie S. Abrutyn, Vice President and Senior Counsel, Litigation, Home Box Office, Inc.
Kevin T. Baine, Williams & Connolly LLP
Sandra S. Baron, Executive Director, Media Law Resource Center
David Bender, Adjunct Professor, University of Houston Law Center, The Law Office of David Bender
Robin Bierstedt, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Time Inc.
Andrew P. Bridges, Winston & Strawn LLP
Steven G. Brody, Bingham McCutchen LLP
Eve B. Burton, Vice President and General Counsel, The Hearst Corporation
Jeffrey P. Cunard, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Lucy A. Dalglish, Executive Director, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
George Freeman, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, The New York Times Company
Robert D. Joffe, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
Bruce E.H. Johnson, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
RonNell Andersen Jones, Associate Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Thomas R. Julin, Hunton & Williams LLP
Jane E. Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota
Thomas S. Leatherbury, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Jane E. Mago, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, National Association of Broadcasters
Slade R. Metcalf, Hogan & Hartson LLP
Thomas R. Nathan, Deputy General Counsel, Senior Vice President, Law & Regulatory Affairs, Comcast Cable Communications
John G. Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law, Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School
Jennifer L. Pariser, Senior Vice President, Litigation & Anti-Piracy, Recording Industry Association of America
Joel R. Reidenberg, Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center on Law and Information Policy, Fordham University School of Law
Hon. Robert D. Sack, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Kelli L. Sager, Partner; Chair, Media Practice, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
David A. Schulz, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, LLP
Paul M. Smith, Jenner & Block LLP
Sherrese M. Smith, Legal Advisor for Media, Consumer and Enforcement Issues, Federal Communications Commission
Mary Snapp, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Corporation
Gigi B. Sohn, President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Joseph D. Steinfield, Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye LLP
Kathleen M. Sullivan, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP
David H. Tomlin, Associate General Counsel, The Associated Press
Helgi C. Walker, Wiley Rein LLP
Barbara W. Wall, Vice President/Senior Associate General Counsel, Gannett Co., Inc.
John J. Walsh, Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP
Jack M. Weiss, Chancellor, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
Mike Yang, Senior Product Counsel, Google, Inc.
John W. Zucker, Senior Vice President, Law & Regulation, ABC, Inc.

Program Attorney(s)

Seema Lal Meehan, Program Attorney, Practising Law Institute

CLE Credit

Travel Information

New York City Seminar Location

PLI New York Center, 810 Seventh Avenue at 53rd Street (21st floor), New York, New York 10019. Message Center, program days only: (212) 824-5733.

New York City Hotel Accommodations

The New York Hilton & Towers, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. 1 block from PLI Center. Reservations 1-800-HILTONS or, 1-877-NYC-HILT. Please mention that you are booking a room under the Practising Law Institute Corporate rate and the Client File # is N495741. Reservations on line at www.hilton.com and enter the same Client File # in the Corporate ID # field to access Practising Law Institute rates.

The Warwick New York Hotel, 65 West 54th Street New York, NY 10019. 1 block from PLI Center. Reservations 800-223-4099 or, hotel direct 212-247-2700. Please mention that you are booking a room under the Practising Law Institute Corporate rate. Reservations on line at www.warwickhotelny.com Click reservations in menu bar on left. Select desired dates. In 'Special Rates' drop down window select Corporate Rate. In 'Rate Code' enter PLIN. Click search and select desired room type and rate plan. Or, you may email reservation requests to: res.ny@warwickhotels.com.