This week Robert Millis sits down with Colette Vogele to discuss the legal issues surrounding new media. In particular, this interview features discussion of Josh Wolf, copyright and the evolution of creative control.
Ms. Vogele is a former fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society where she led litigation on copyright cases involving constitutional issues and the public domain. Today, as a non-resident fellow, she co-authored the first Podcasting Legal Guide with Creative Commons and Harvard's Berkman Center.
Hi. I'm Josh's mom. I wHant to thank you for keeping his case in the public eye. The parts of the video you showed is public video that the grand jury already has access to. The out takes, the unpublished part is what has been subpoened, along with his testimony. The issue that brought this into federal court was not the injury to a police officer, which Josh could not have taped because he was taping that man's partner who was choking Gabe Myers at the same time. The issue used to bring this into a federal court was the supposed attempted arson of a police car, and the SFPD's own police report shows no burn damage to the car, merely a broken tail light. The US Attorney has indicated that what they really want is Josh's testimony and identification of people at the video. This he refuses to do, likening it to the HUAC communist scare of the late 50's and early 60's. His grand jury should expire at the end of July, not next February, as the grand jury is formed for an 18 month period and was beginning in January of 2006. Josh is standing up for the principle of a free press and for the need of a federal shield law, similar to the California Shield Law, which would have protected him from testifying or turning over unpublished material. His belief is that free speech will be curtailed, certainly the reporting of it will, if anyone with a camera can be brought to a federal grand jury and threatened with jail if they don't turn over unpublished material and testify about who was present at any gathering. Peace, Liz Wolf-Spada
