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1976 copyright act
this is the law which current copyright protection is guaranteed
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cease and desist order
- an administrative agency order prohibiting a person or business from
- continuing a particular course of conduct. For example, the federal
- trade commission may order an advertiser to cease and desist from
- misleading consumers w/its advertising.
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copyright
an exclusive legal right used to protect intellectual creations from unauthorized usage
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corrective advertising
- in advertising, a requirement imposed by the federal trade
- commision forcing an advertiser to include information in future
- advertisements that corrects false or misleading claims made in
- previous ads.
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fair use
- a test courts use to determine whether using anothers copyrighted
- material w/o permission is fair or an infringement. Fair use test is
- also used in trademark infringement cases. ex: viacom vs. youtube
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Federal Trade Commission
- a federal agency created in 1914. Its purpose is to promote free
- and fair competition in interstate commerce; this includes preventing
- false and misleading advertising.
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franchise
a contract or agreement between a government, usually a city, and a cable system operator.
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hicklin rule
- a rule taken from a mid 19th century english case and used in the US
- until the mid 20th century that defines material as obscene if it
- corrupts children.
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indecency
a narrow legal term referring to sexual expression inappropriate for children on broadcast radio and television.
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lanham act
- a federal law that regulates the trademark registration process, but
- that aso contains a section permitting business competitors to sue one
- another for false advertising.
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nonduplication rule
FCC regulations requiring cable systems not to carry certain programming that is available through local broadcast systems
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notice of proposed rule making
- a notice issued by the FCC announcing that the commission is
- considering changing certain parts of its regulations or adopting new
- roles.
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patently offensive
term describing material with hardcore sexual conduct.
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PEG access channels
channels that cable systems set aside for public, educational, and govt usage.
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pornography
a vague--not legally precise--term for sexually oriented material.
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prurient
lustful thoughts or sexual desires
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public domain
the sphere that includes material no protected by copyright law and therefore available for use without the creators permission.
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puffery
- advertising that exagerates the merits of products or services in such
- a way that no reasonable person would take the ad seriously. Usually,
- this is not illegal.
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retransmission consent
part of the federal cable television law allowing broadcast television stations to negotiate.
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safe harbor
- an FCC policy designing 10 pm to 6 am as a time when broadcast
- radio and television stations may air indecent material w/o violating
- federal law or FCC regulations.
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standing
the posisition of a plaintiff who has been injured or has been threatened with injury.
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substantiation
in advertising, the authority of the FTC to demand that an advertiser prove the claims made in the advertisements.
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trademark
- a word, name, phrase, symbol, or design used to identify a companys
- goods and distinguish them from similar products other companies make.
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variable obscenity
- a concept that sexually oriented material would not meet the definition
- of obscenity if distributed to adults but would be found obscene if
- distributed to minors
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vice products
alcohol, beer, cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco
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work made for hire
- work created when working or another person or company. The copyright
- in a work made for hire belongs to the employer, not the creator.
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zapple rule
- a political broadcasting rule that allows a candidates supporters
- equal opportunity to use broadcast stations if the candidates opponents
- supporters use the stations.
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commercial speech doctrine
- 1.) the govt may regulate advertising that is false, misleading or deceptive.
- 2.) the govt may regulate advertising for unlawful goods and service.
- ex. Joe Cool cigarettes w/camel
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Comstock Act
a federal law adopted in 1873 prohibiting the mailing of obscene, lewd, or lascivious material. This lead to the hicklin rule.
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infringement
Using any part of copyrighted work can be considered this. The copyright plaintiff must prove: 1.) The work used is protected by a valid copyright--meaning it is an original work fixed in a tangible medium. 2.) The valid copyright is registered with the Copyright office. 3.) and either: a) there is evidence the defendant directly copied the copyrighted work; or b) the infringer had access to the copyrighted work and the two works are substantially similar.
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intellectual property
the legal category including copyright, trademark, and patent law.
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licensing
this allows the station to use a part of the broadcast spectrum. It is granted for and 8 year period and may be renewed for subsewuent 8 year periods. every broadcast station must have a license.
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obscenity
courts definition: 1.) an average person, applying contemporary community standards found the work taken as a whole appealed to the prurient interests. 2.) it doesnt show any social importance. 3.) No social value, meaning it has no artistic value.
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public interest
the courts will not give a defintition of this interest but they say it is more important than the stations` interestists.
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RICO
Racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act. This forbids using money earned from illegal activities--racketeering--to finance legal or illegal businesses or nonprofit enterprises engaged in interstate commerce. Violators can be imprisoned and fined.
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Section 315
If two or more legally qualified candidates are competing for the same elective office and one of the candidates uses a broadcast station or cable system, if asked, he or she must provide his opponents with equal opportunity to use those stations he used.
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SLAPS TEST
the material is lacking any serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
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spectrum scarcity
the limitation that arises because only a certain number of broadcast radio and television stations in a geographical area may use the spectrum without causing interference with other stations` signals. This is the primary reason courts give for allowing congress and the FCC to regulate broadcasters.
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Federal Communications Commission(FCC)
An independant US govt agency, directly responsible to Congress, charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television,wire, satellite and cable. The FCC was established by the COmmunications Act of 1934; its jurisdiction covers 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. possessions.
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must carry rule
this states that locally-licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.
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Red Lion Broadcasting Co. Vs. FCC
- MUST ALLOW EQUAL TIME FOR OTHER PARTIES ON THE RADIO. This case established the doctrine that broadcast television stations are full First Amendment
- speakers whose editorial speech could not be regulated absent good
- reason. However, because they were granted government licenses on a
- scarce radio spectrum, they could be regulated to preserve openness in
- covering news by the FCC.
- The FCC by administrative rulemaking had a requirement that discussion of public issues be presented on broadcast stations, and that each side of those issues must be given fair coverage.
- As a result the FCC added an "equal time rule" and a
- "response to personal attack" rule. Red Lion Broadcasting Co.
- challenged these rules as unconstitutionally infringing on the speech
- of the station's editorial judgment. Justice Byron White, writing for
- the majority explained, the FCC has included among the conditions
- of the Red Lion license itself the requirement that operation of the
- station be carried out in the public interest.
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Turner Broadcasting Inc vs. FCC
- CABLE SYSTEMS HELD IN 1st AMMNDMENT LIKE NEWSPAPERS> established that cable television companies were indeed 1.) First
- Amendment speakers but didn't decide whether the federal regulation of
- their speech trenched upon their speech rights. Under the Miami Herald v. Tornillo case, it was unconstitutional to force a newspaper to run a story the editors would not have included absent a government statute because it was compelled speech which could not pass the strict scrutiny of a compelling state interest being achieved with the least restrictive means necessary to achieve the state interest. However, under the rule of Red Lion
- the High Court held that a federal agency could regulate broadcast
- stations (TV and Radio) with far greater discretion. In order for
- federal agency regulation of broadcast media to pass constitutional
- muster, it need only serve an important state interest and need not
- narrowly tailor its regulation to the least restrictive means
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RENO VS> ACLU
- ALL NINE US JUSTICES STRIKE DOWN CDA BECAUSE THEY VIOLATED FREEDOM OF SPEECH. is a United States Supreme Court case, in which all nine Justices of the Court voted to strike down anti-indecency provisions of the Communications Decency Act (the CDA), finding they violated the freedom of speech provisions of the First Amendment.
- Two Justices concurred in part and dissented in part to the decision.
- This was the first major Supreme Court ruling regarding the regulation
- of materials distributed via Internet.
- The CDA was an attempt to protect minors from explicit material on
- the Internet by criminalizing the knowing transmission of "obscene or
- indecent" messages to any recipient under 18; and also the knowing
- sending to a person under 18 of anything "that, in context, depicts or
- describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary
- community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs."
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FCC vs. Pacifica Foundation
7 WORDS YOU CANNOT SAY ON AIRWAVES. is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over indecent material as applied to broadcasting.
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Roth vs. United States
RESULTED IN ROTH TEST. THE COURT SAID THAT OBSCENE MATERIAL IS NOT PROTECTED BY 1ST AMMENDMENT. a landmark case before the United States Supreme Court which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the First Amendment.
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Miller vs. California
was an important United States Supreme Court case involving what constitutes unprotected obscenity for First Amendment purposes. The decision reiterated that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment and established the Miller test for determining what constituted obscene material.
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STANLEY VS. GEORGIA
- was a United States Supreme Court decision that helped to establish an implied "right to privacy" in U.S. law.
- The Georgia home of Robert Eli Stanley, a suspected and previously-convicted bookmaker, was searched by police with a federal warrant to seize betting paraphernalia. They found none, but instead seized three reels of pornographic
- material from a desk drawer in an upstairs bedroom, and later charged
- Mr. Stanley with the possession of obscene materials, a crime under
- Georgia law. This conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Georgia.
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Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. vs. Public Service Commission of New York.
- was an important case decided by the United States Supreme Court
- that laid out a four part test for determining when restrictions on commercial speech violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
- Justice Powell wrote the opinion of the court. Central Hudson Gas had
- challenged a Public Service Commission regulation that prohibited
- promotional advertising by electric utilities. Justice Blackmun and Justice Stevens wrote separate concurring opinions and were joined by Justice Brennan. Justice Rehnquist dissented.
- The case presented the question whether a regulation of the Public
- Service Commission of the state of New York violates the First and
- Fourteenth Amendments because it completely bans promotional
- advertising by an electrical utility.
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Elder vs. ashcroft
a case concerning the duration of copyrights
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