This paper explores the rights of authors before publication of their works, if those works are to be published at all, and how these rights might yield to fair use of the works by other authors. Firstly, the paper examines the interests at stake of the three main groups involved: authors, the public, and people who wish to quote or closely…

An analysis of first amendment guarantees focuses on the federal government's power to regulate experiments, arguing that they do not merit the stringent level of first amendment protection offered by strict scrutiny or related standards. (Author/MSE)

The Media and Law section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 12 papers: "An Analysis of the Role of Insurance, Prepublication Review and Correction Policies in Threatened and Actual Libel Suits" (Elizabeth K. Hansen and Roy L. Moore); "Private Defamation Plaintiffs and Falsity since 'Philadelphia…

The establishment of First Amendment protection for statements of opinion has extended the category of protected expression, but judicially created tests for distinguishing fact from opinion provide limited guidance for judges and place little constraint on judicial interpretation of language. In writing the Supreme Court's majority opinion in…

Although colleges and universities generally regard the First Amendment as sacred, they often find themselves at the center of controversies concerning the right to say, print, write, or research with freedom. The complex relationships between a college or university and its student media have often contributed to conflicts over First Amendment…

News media representatives foresee a growing use of remote-sensing satellites to gather data, including data that could be used to check government claims about military and other activities occurring anywhere on the planet. The satellite technology is developing rapidly, and several nations and private corporations are involved in separate…

The ultimate test of the speech-action dichotomy, as it relates to symbolic speech to be considered by the courts, may be the fasting of prison inmates who use hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their confinement or to make political statements. While hunger strikes have been utilized by prisoners for years as a means of protest, it was…

Argues that First Amendment rights are not possible without the grant of public access to information provided by the doctrine of fair use. Notes that, with digitalization and electronic transfer, many corporate intellectual-property lawyers are pressuring for tightening public access. Argues that educators must understand that the existence of…

A study of reader response to newspaper articles in a defamatory context tested: (1) the judicial assumption that the macro-environment in which statements appear is important to a reader's distinguishing between fact and opinion; (2) the possibility that a byline may influence a reader's characterization of statements; and (3) the idea that…

This study surveyed principals, sponsors, advisers, and student editors concerning their knowledge of communication law in relation to freedom of the press under the First Amendment. Relevant court decisions were selected and the circumstances of ten composite cases were formulated; respondents were asked to indicate, for each case, how a judge…

The United States Supreme Court case, Meese v. Keene, in which the justices narrowly defined the meaning of the term "political propaganda," failed to address adequately the complexities of the issue. In this case it is necessary to bring together divergent views about communications in the analysis of the legal problem, including…

Section A of the Media and Law section of the proceedings contains the following nine papers: "RICO and the First Amendment: Racketeering Laws Threaten Free Expression" (Matthew D. Bunker and others); "Press Coverage of the Federal Appellate Courts: Technology and a Shared Notion of Newsworthiness" (Rebekah V. Bromley);…