This document discusses several key legal issues in public relations, including intellectual property, freedom of speech, defamation, and privacy. It outlines how the First Amendment protects free speech but also has limits, such as with libel and slander. Common types of intellectual property like copyrights, trademarks, and patents are explained as well as related concepts like plagiarism, fair use, and creative commons. Federal agencies that regulate aspects of public relations practice are also identified.

1. Legal Issues in
Public Relations
Chapter 11

2. Key learning outcomes
• Explain the importance of the First Amendment to public
relations.
• Describe limits to free speech, including libel and slander.
• Identify common types of intellectual property and how they
are protected.
• Summarize the role of public relations professionals in
providing public information.
• Identify federal agencies that influence and regulate the
business of public relations.
• Analyze legal and ethical concerns related to privacy and
handling of confidential information in public relations.
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3. Who owns ideas?
Who owns the ideas in books, websites, videos,
poems, blogs, photos, graphics, software, etc.?
Intellectual property is any product of the human
mind protected by law from unauthorized use by
others.
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4. What’s legal?
• Defamation—Can you sue when someone from another country
tweets something mean and nasty about you or someone else in your
organization?
• Sunshine laws—If you work for the government, do you have to share
the results of that survey you ran with anyone who asks?
• Business regulations—Can you tell your buddies that your company
stock options are about to double?
• Appropriation—Can you use that picture of Rihanna on your
Facebook event page?
• Privacy—Can you write about your colleague’s baby shower on your
company blog?
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5. The First Amendment
At its core, the practice of public
relations in democratic societies is a
communication function, dependent
on free speech.
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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

6. The First Amendment
There’s freedom, but context is important, too.
In a classic 1919 Supreme Court opinion, Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes wrote that you cannot falsely yell “Fire!” in a
crowded theater and cause a panic.
Some circumstances present enough of a possibility of
harmful outcomes that they justify limits on First Amendment
freedoms—this is sometimes called the clear and present
danger doctrine.
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7. Case Study
Amazon v. NYT
A case in the courtof publicopinion
Amazon is one of the world’s largest marketplaces for physical
goods and digital products.
Amazon also has grown into a formidable voice in the marketplace
of ideas.
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8. Defamation
A statement that injures someone’s reputation
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 Slander: spoken communication
 Libel: written or recorded
communication that can be
reproduced and shared repeatedly
 “twibel”

9. Defamation
• Courts are rather strict on what counts as defamation.
• The statement must actually be false and hurt someone’s
reputation.
• The statement must be published or spoken to at least one other
person besides the person who is the subject of the statement.
• The false statement has to be factual.
• The statement must be made with fault.
• Public figures
• Actual malice
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10. Intellectual Property
When you communicate on behalf of an organization, you often
must ask who owns the information. Do you have the rights to
use the words, images, music, or multimedia being exchanged?
• Copyright
• Trademarks
• Patents
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11. Copyright, trademarks, and patents
• Copyright: claim to authorship of an original work, including the rights to
reproduce, distribute, perform, display or license the work, such as
literature, music, drama, choreography, pictures, graphics, sculptures,
music and even architecture
• Trademarks: words, names, phrases, symbols or designs used to
distinguish a product or service from others in the competitive
marketplace, indicated with the symbol ®
• Patents: the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using,
importing, and selling the patented innovation for a limited period
of time
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12. Plagiarism
Presenting someone else’s specific
ideas or words as your own
An issue outside of the classroom, too, plagiarism can
become a problem when an executive or organizational
leader uses someone else’s words without attribution in
public communication.
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13. Fair use
Fair use helps answer this question:
How can we participate in the marketplace of ideas if the only
way to work with someone else’s ideas is to obtain their
permission and pay for the right?
What constitutes fair use?
• The purpose and character of the use
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount and substantiality of the portion taken in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work
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14. Digital age intellectual
property issues
Review the terms of service for your Instagram, Facebook,
Snapchat, and Tumblr accounts.
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By tweeting anything at all to your
account, you grant Twitter “a
worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free
license (with the right to sublicense) to
use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt,
modify, publish, transmit, display and
distribute” the content.

15. Creative Commons
Sometimes intellectual property holders want to put their
content out there for everyone to use, share, mash-up and
redistribute.
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Other times, they want to claim their
content and protect it like a financial
asset.
The nonprofit organization Creative
Commons assists both sides.

16. Linking
Hyperlinks, links that make a connection to other content,
originally distinguished the Web from other media.
Some organizations have tried policies requiring users to obtain
permission before posting deep links, which bypass an
organization’s home page and take users directly to otherwise
copyrighted material.
Framing refers to clickable material in a link that is actual content
from the site to which it links.
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17. Linking
Reposting provides easy sharing and re-sharing leads to questions
about who owns what content and who is responsible for
inappropriate or unauthorized content.
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When in doubt about your ownership rights of social media
content, check the provider’s terms of service.

18. Public information and the
Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a U.S. federal law that
went into effect in 1967 to ensure that the government makes its
information accessible to citizens.
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States also have specific freedom
of information laws called
sunshine laws that stipulate which
documents and records must be
open to the public and also which
meetings and events must be
open.

19. Protecting Publics
Safety and accuracy
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that
product claim advertisements include the following:
• The name of the drug (brand and generic)
• At least one FDA-approved use for the drug
• The most significant risks of the drug
• The FDA’s regulatory authority extends well beyond drug
ads.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects consumers
of all types of products and services.
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20. Protecting Publics
Financial information
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates
communication activities with investors, including
initial public offerings (IPOs).
• Material information is any information that could
influence the market value of a company or its
products, such as tips involved in insider trading.
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21. Privacy
As your level of responsibility grows in an organization, so does
your access to information about internal and external publics.
• Intrusion into seclusion
• Appropriation of likeness or identity
• Public disclosure of private facts
• Portrayal in a false light
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22. Ethics
Safeguarding confidences
Who owns your social networks?
As a public relations professional, privacy is one area in which you
may need more than a legal interpretation to make ethical
decisions.
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In business law, a trade secret is
information that is not generally
known to others and not readily
available to others who could profit
from its disclosure or use.

23. Summary
• Explain the importance of the First Amendment to public
relations.
• Describe limits to free speech, including libel and slander.
• Identify common types of intellectual property and how they
are protected.
• Summarize the role of public relations professionals in
providing public information.
• Identify federal agencies that influence and regulate the
business of public relations.
• Analyze legal and ethical concerns related to privacy and
handling of confidential information in public relations.
Kelleher,PublicRelations,1e
OxfordUniversityPress
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