Higginbotham v. City of New York
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed Higginbotham’s First Amendment retaliation lawsuit against police officers who arrested him when he was filming an Occupy Wall Street arrest.
Category: 2017
Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the circumstances of Lozman’s case, the existence of probable cause does not bar Lozman’s First Amendment retaliation claim.
Lohan v. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. / Gravano v. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
Plaintiffs Lohan and Gravano argued to rewrite New York Civil Rights Law Section 51 to include protections against the inclusion of “image,” “persona,” or “likeness” in any work for which a creator or publisher seeks compensation.
Georgia House Resolution 353
H.R. 353 would create a study commission to consider HTPA legislation.
Utah Senate Bill 185
S.B.185 would provide a cause of action to sue for a person to sue anyone who produces or distributes material harmful to minors if, at the time the material was produced the person was a minor; and the material was the proximate cause for the person being harmed physically or psychologically, or by emotional or medical illnesses.
New York Assembly Bill 8155 and Senate Bill 5857
New York A.B. 8155 and S.B. 5857 would amend the state’s existing right of publicity law to extend the right to individuals post mortem and broaden the right beyond a person’s name, portrait, picture or voice.
Louisiana House Bill 415
Summary Louisiana HB 415 would create a right of publicity for the life of a person plus 50 years. The right applies to a person’s “identity,” which is defined as their name, voice, signature, photograph,...
Wyoming House Bill 245
House Bill 245 would deem anyone who manufactures, sells or distributes an internet enabled device in this state that does not contain blocking software to violate the existing law for distributing obscenity, which is subject to up to one year in prison.
West Virginia Senate Bill 447
The bill bars any retailer from selling any devices that allow access to the internet without active and operating digital blocking capability” that blocks obscene material. [West Virginia does not have a harmful to minors law.]
North Dakota House Bill 1185
The bill bars any business or individual that manufactures, produces or sells any device that provides internet access unless it makes inaccessible obscene material and to any “intimate image” as defined in the North Dakota harmful to minors law. However, the law does not define “intimate image.”
Indiana House Bill 1533
The bill bars the manufacture or distribution of devices that provide access to the internet without active software that blocks material harmful to minors or obscene as designated by the attorney general.
Georgia House Bill 509
H.B. 509 bars the manufacturing, production or sale of any device that provides internet access unless it contains an active and operating filter that blocks or restricts access to obscene material, “revenge porn” and “websites known to facilitate prostitution and trafficking in persons for sexual servitude.”
Texas House Bill 2266
Texas HB 2266 would bar a business from selling or leasing to a consumer any product that makes content accessible on the internet is barred from doing business in Texas unless the product contains an “active and operating digital blocking capability” that blocks access to obscene material.
Louisiana House Bill 172
The bill bars any retailer in Louisiana from selling or leasing any device that provides internet access unless it includes an “active and operating digital blocking” capability that renders obscene material inaccessible. It also bars any retailer outside Louisiana from selling or leasing such a device to anyone in Louisiana.
Alabama House Bill 428
The bill would make it a crime for anyone to sell any device that allows access to the internet unless it contains an active filter that blocks or restricts access to “obscene material,” which is defined to include “sexual cyber harassment” and any offers or ads for prostitution or human trafficking.
South Carolina House Bill 3003
The bill requires that all devices that allow access to the internet must come with an “active and operating digital blocking capability” that make obscene material “inaccessible.”
Florida House Bill 337 and Senate Bill 870
The legislation would make it illegal would make it illegal for a business or individual to manufacture, produce or sell any device that provides internet access unless it contains an active and operating filter that blocks or restricts access to: material harmful to minors, obscene material, “revenge porn,” “lewdness” (indecent acts, i.e., ads for sexual encounters or hook ups) and human trafficking (only defined by the act, not what speech about it is).
Oklahoma House Bill 1472
The bill requires blocking of obscene material. It was amended to make filtering for obscenity opt in. Must still block “revenge porn” and sites that facilitate prostitution and human trafficking.
New Jersey Assembly Bill 4503 and Senate Bill 2928
The legislation would make it a violation of New Jersey’s consumer fraud act to manufacture, or distribute any product that makes content on the internet accessible unless it contains digital blocking capability that that blocks any obscene material, defined as obscenity or harmful to minors, inaccessible. New Jersey’s harmful to minors’ law is unconstitutional.
