Q: What affect will Bartnicki v. Vopper have on the Wikileaks situation?
A:
Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001), will likely immunize the US media outlets from US liability for disclosing or discussing the leaked Wikileaks documents. The case is from the United States Supreme Court, and relieved a media defendant of liability for broadcasting a taped conversation of a labor official talking to other union people about a teachers' strike. The parties stipulated that the taped conversation had been illegally obtained by an intercept in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Court held the radio station not liable because the radio station itself did nothing illegal to obtain the tape. The case stands for the rule that media defendants are not liable even if a third party violated the law.
However the case will not insulate from criminal liability the help "source" that leaked the documents to Wikileaks.
Paul Overhauser
www.overhauser.com
317 891-1500
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