Charlie Hebdo Tragedy

In the syllabus and in last weeks introduction to the course I suggested a living lab model of learning might serve this course rather well. The notion behind that thought was that so much is happening in the world in relation to law and media, that bringing that into class every week would ground us in relevance. Making it that much easier to engage with the subject matter. My rather bold prediction was that something would inevitably come up every week that was highly relevant. Was thinking about issues like the film “Selma” not actually using the actual words of Martin Luther King for reasons of copyright chill. Or even the Sony hack and all that became of it including the non-release/release of the “The Interview”. That the abominable acts of murder at Charlie Hebdo in Paris occurred is something we need to talk about as it clearly implicates free expression in the digital age. If the core of this course is to examine the constraints on creativity, there are few more serious than being murdered for what you have created. It is of course very difficult to parse real meanings, much less legal and normative implications so close to such events, but we will at least try to go down that road Tuesday during our News of the Week discussions.

To help here are links to some news stories and perspectives:

Salman Rushdie condemns attack on Charlie Hebdo

‘Anonymous’ Member Calls For Revenge On Terrorists For Charlie Hebdo Massacre

Blasphemy and the law of fanatics

Hitler’s Cartoon Problem and the Art of Controversy

These are the biggest hypocrites celebrating free speech today in Paris

Former ‘Onion’ editor: Freedom of speech cannot be killed

Terrorists Can’t Kill Charlie Hebdo‘s Ideas

A Modern History of Free-Speech Martyrs

jon