7# - Exploiting a News Story

After the shooting a Parkland, Florida the national debate on what to do about gun violence has been brought to the forefront. While this sense of urgency was caused in large part due to tragedy itself, the survivors of the tragedy have really made the dent by putting a face to the problem. While it is sadly true that Americans are used to hearing about school shootings frequently, which has led to increasing safety measures and some political debate. This always ends with purposal's from both sides and the issue being put to bed by a speech from the current sitting President on what could be done.

David Hogg

However because of students like Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg who have been the most visible. With Hogg having appeared on news channels CNN, PBS and on HBO's Real Time Bill Maher and Gonzalez having also appeared on CNN, but more was brought into the public eye with speeches at Rally to Support Firearm Legislation and at the March for Our Lives, which both Hogg and Gonzalez participated in. 

Emma Gonzalez

All of this exposure has been both positive and negative, positive in that is was good for the the gun legislation movement and negative that with both Hogg and Gonzalez being public figures makes them easy targets for political opponents.

In February David 2018, Hogg was accused of being a "crisis-actor" in the pocket of anti-gun legislators or is being coached by his father who is a former FBI agent.

In March 2018, Emma Gonzalez appeared in an article with several other teenage activists where in which she tore apart a shooting target. After this article came out the image was altered to show Gonzalez ripping up the constitution instead of the target. The altered image was first appeared on the social media platform Gab which has been criticized for having a largely far-right and white nationalist userbase.

At left is @tyler_mitchell’s photo of @Emma4Change for the cover of @TeenVogue. At right is what so-called “Gun Rights Activists” have photoshopped it into. #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/jW6tTOv2Db

— Phillip Picardi (@pfpicardi) March 25, 2018

Washington Post article about the edited picture here.
CNN article about edited picture here.
Teen Vogue here.

#6- Copyright and Fair Use

When something is created whether it be an artistic work like a painting or a film it is your creation and deserves protection from others who might to use it without your permission. In order for the works to be protected they are copyrighted which then makes the idea itself your property. Copyright does protect artistic works but it also extends to things like architecture and the tech industry.

BlackBerry has brought a lawsuit on Facebook for supposed copyright infringement, where they claim that Facebook has "created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry's innovations". More specifically they allege that Facebook uses messaging security, messaging notification and other intellectual property that was created by BlackBerry. 

While these lawsuits might seem like a waste of time considering the amount of power Facebook holds in the messaging world, BlackBerry has actually one cases with similar claims. In 2017 they sued Nokia, sued Qualcomm and were awarded $800 million, and in 2016 sued Avaya.

This is unusual because of the speed to which the silicone valley tech industry moves ideas are frequently taken from each other. Facebook has blatantly copied from others like it competitor Snapchat's Facial recognition and it's Stories feature. Facebook also uses the FourSquare check-in in its applications. 

With all of these events and with Blackberry's exit from the mobile device market. It seems that BlackBerry has started to use it's copyright lawsuit's as a business model. 

Link to the story about BlackBerry's lawsuit's. 
Link to the story about Facebook's copying competitors.
Link to another story about BlackBerry lawsuit's. 
Link to some copyright protections. 

#5 - Reporter's Privilege

The field of Journalism can be unpopular, mainly because part of the job is sometimes having to talk about parts of society that might anger some. The backlash can come from the public and can result in something as meaningless as a few bad words among the angered to in the worst case some form of retribution against them. Now while threats from the average person might be a problem, the real and more likely threat comes from more powerful forces who will attempt to discredit the journalist in any way the can.

Journalist are not left defenseless when it comes to their work as Shield Laws allow for a journalist to defend themselves by invoking Reporters Privilege. Reporter Privilege ensures that a journalist can refuse to reveal the source of information whether they be documents or a person. 

Jamie Kalven

In 2014 journalist Jamie Kalven reported the death of Laquan McDonald, the seventeen year black teen who was shot sixteen times by police. This story coming to light would eventually lead to mass protests in the city of Chicago calling for justice to be served and after the police dash-cam footage was released officer Jason Van Dyke was eventually charged with first degree murder. 

However, Kalven's involvement did not end after he reported the story as he subpoenaed during the pretrial period of the Van Dyke case. This was done in an effort by Van Dyke's attorney to paint Kalven as a "slanted journalist" with a disdain for law enforcement as Kalven had reported on corruption in 2005 and alleging that Kalven had used internal police testimony that is protected by federal law in order to get other witnesses testimony. This was a failed attempt by Van Dyke's lawyer to make the judge press Kalven in order to give up his source, something that Kalven said he would do under no circumstances. 

Link to article on Jamie Kalven. 

Link to interview with Jamie Kalven.