Overview
Butzel's media team is an active force in media law on the state and national levels. We routinely handle all aspects of the legal challenges faced by the media industry, and we advise a variety of media organizations as they seek to serve the public interest. Our clients are traditional media outlets with traditional media issues, along with emerging technology groups and digital businesses needing advice on data protection and cybercrimes. We also advise clients with respect to publishing and royalty disputes, representing both publishers and authors.
Our team has extensive experience in the traditional areas of libel and privacy, newsroom counseling, state and federal Freedom of Information Acts, Open Meetings Act disputes, entry into courtrooms and other public proceedings, and access to public records. We advise on the gamut of newsgathering issues, subpoena, and access litigation. We are also experienced in digital media including the areas of advertising clearance, the Communications Decency Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, user agreements including terms of use and privacy policies, international privacy protection, endorsement issues, content licensing, branding, website and software development, PCI compliance and cybersquatting. We dedicate ourselves to helping clients avoid litigation by regularly counseling on legal issues throughout content development. We conduct, for example, pre-publication reviews and seminars to help avoid costly litigation. Yet, when the need arises, our attorneys bring to bear a rich history of successfully litigating traditional and digital media issues at the trial and appellate levels as we actively participate in the development of First Amendment theory and practice.
Our clients are diverse and sophisticated, conducting their business both on and offline. Our digital media clients range from bloggers and social media boards to internet start-up companies. Representative clients include AWeber Communications, Bank on Yourself, Fluency Media, Scambusters, and This Is True. Our press and publishing clients include Advance Magazine Publishers, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Anteebo Publishers Inc., the Battle Creek Enquirer, BusinessWeek, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), CBS Broadcasting Inc., Crain Communications, the Detroit News, E!, the Flint Journal, Gannett Co., Inc., Holt Rinehart & Winston, Digital First Media, Journal Register Company, the Lansing State Journal, the Macomb Daily, Media Networks, Inc., the Michigan Press Association, the Monroe Evening News, E!, Discovery Communications, NBCUniversal,Newsweek, the Oakland Press, the Ogemaw County Herald, Petoskey News Review, Random House Inc., the Readers Digest Association, Scripps Media, Inc., Simon & Schuster, Sports Illustrated, the Traverse City Record Eagle, U.S.A. Today, the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (Group W), WJRT ABC 12, WWJ Radio, and WXYZ-TV Channel 7.
