Supreme Court's eBay ruling discussed

The recent Supreme Court ruling in eBay v. MercExchange, setting the standard for injunctive relief in patent cases, is the topic of this week's legal affairs podcast Coast to Coast. Joining my co-host J. Craig Williams and me are two prominent patent lawyers, Rachel Krevans, partner at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, and Dennis Crouch, patent attorney at the law firm of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff in Chicago and author of the blog Patently-O.

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Time must give Libby documents

AP reports that a federal judge today ruled that Time magazine must give I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby drafts of articles so that the former White House aide can use them to defend himself against charges in the CIA leak case.

"U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton limited the scope of subpoenas that Libby's lawyers had aimed at Time, NBC News and The New York Times for e-mails, notes, drafts of articles and other information.

"But in a 40-page ruling, Walton rejected the news organizations' argument that they have a broad right to refuse to provide such information in criminal cases."

The opinion is here.

Victory for bloggers in Apple v. Does

In a victory for bloggers as journalists, a California appeals court today issued a decision preventing Apple Computer from forcing the disclosure of unnamed individuals who allegedly leaked information about new Apple products to online news sites. In a 69-page opinion in O'Grady v. Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal said that the trial court erred in refusing to grant an order protecting against disclosure of their identities.

"We hold that this was error because (1) the subpoena to the email service provider cannot be enforced consistent with the plain terms of the federal Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2712); (2) any subpoenas seeking unpublished information from petitioners would be unenforceable through contempt proceedings in light of the California reporter’s shield (Cal. Const., art. I, § 2, subd (b); Evid. Code, § 1070); and (3) discovery of petitioners’ sources is also barred on this record by the conditional constitutional privilege against compulsory disclosure of confidential sources (see Mitchell v. Superior Court (1984) 37 Cal.3d 268 (Mitchell)). Accordingly, we will issue a writ of mandate directing the trial court to grant the motion for a protective order."

Denise Howell has more analysis of the decision. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has background.

Immigration reform discussed in podcast

Sweeping proposals this week from Congress and the president to change U.S. immigration laws have been met with strong reactions from across the political spectrum. On this week's Coast to Coast legal-affairs podcast, my cohost J. Craig Williams and I discuss these proposed changes with immigration lawyers Gregory Siskind, founding partner of Siskind Susser in Memphis, Tenn., and Monica Guizar, employment policy attorney at the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles.

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Maine court rejects papers' bid for tribal records

AP reports (via Editor & Publisher) that Maine's highest court has rejected newspapers' request under the state Freedom of Access Act to obtain access to Passamaquoddy documents and meetings about a proposed $500 million liquefied natural gas terminal on tribal land. In its meetings to discuss the LNG terminal, the tribe was acting as a for-profit business rather than as a governmental body, the court said.

The full text of the opinion is here.

Podcast: Electronic Discovery

Somehow I neglected to mention my own podcast last week, in which we focused on e-discovery. We had two great guests and experts in the field, Eric Meyer from Dilworth Paxon in Philadelphia and Stephen Prignano from Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge in Providence, R.I.

Coast to Coast is the weekly legal affairs podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and me and produced by the Legal Talk Network. An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

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Suit dropped against Maine blogger

The New York ad agency that sued Maine blogger Lance Dutson for libel today voluntarily dismissed the case. More details available from Dutson and from Media Bloggers Association.

Connecticut passes reporter shield law

The Connecticut legislature yesterday overwhelmingly voted to pass a shield law for reporters to protect their confidential sources. The bill was approved in the Senate by a vote of 36-0 and in the House by 136-11. The Connecticut Post reports that Gov. M. Jodi Rell will sign the bill, which will then take effect Oct. 1.

The bill creates a "qualified" shield, meaning that courts still can require disclosure of a source in certain circumstances. A court could compel disclosure in either a criminal or a civil case if it were shown by clear and convincing evidence that:

• The information or the identity of the source of the information is critical or necessary to the investigation or prosecution of a crime or to a criminal defense, or to the maintenance of a party's claim, defense or proof of a material issue.
• The information or the identity of the source of the information cannot be obtained from any alternative source.
• There is an overriding public interest in the disclosure.
  

The law defines "news media" to include:

• Any newspaper, magazine or other periodical, book publisher, news agency, wire service, radio or television station or network, cable or satellite or other transmission system or carrier, or channel or programming service for such station, network, system or carrier, or audio or audiovisual production company that disseminates information to the public, whether by print, broadcast, photographic, mechanical, electronic or any other means or medium.
• Any person who is or has been an employee, agent or independent contractor of any such entity and is or has been engaged in gathering, preparing or disseminating information to the public for such entity, or any other person supervising or assisting such person with gathering, preparing or disseminating information.
• Any parent, subsidiary, division or affiliate of any such persons or entities.
  

It is not clear whether this definition would include bloggers. At first glance, it would appear to exclude bloggers who are not working for a media organization, but perhaps one could argue that a blog is a "periodical" or "other transmission system" and therefore covered.

Full information about the bill and its legislative history is available here.

Podcast: America's top-grossing law firms

Today on the legal affairs podcast Coast to Coast, we discuss the Am Law 100, the annual ranking by The American Lawyer magazine of the nation's 100 highest grossing law firms. Joining us as our featured guest is the magazine's editor-in-chief, Aric Press.

Coast to Coast is the weekly legal affairs podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and me and produced by the Legal Talk Network. An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

• Download the show as MP3 file.
• Play it now in streaming Windows Media.