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Arkansas Judge Tosses Defamation Lawsuit Against Dixie Chicks Over "West...
Yesterday, a federal district court in Arkansas dismissed Terry Hobbs' defamation lawsuit against Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines and her band mates over a letter published on the band's website and...
View ArticleMan Bites Dog: Prosecutor Pays a Price for Chasing Commenters
When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news. — attributed to New York Sun city editor John B. Bogart (1848- 1921) Unfortunately, it's...
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Kim Kardashian Finds Herself in a Low Calorie Twitter Mess
Last week, celebrity, model, socialite, and actress Kim Kardashian found herself in diet hell. Dr. Sanford Siegal, creator of the "Cookie Diet," and his Company, Dr. Siegal's Direct Nutritionals, LLC,...
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Commentary on Obama/Palin Image Generates Questionable DMCA Takedown Notice
Last Friday, political commenter and blogger Patrick Frey of Patterico's Pontifications found a chilly email waiting in his inbox. The email purported to be a DMCA takedown notice from photographer Ted...
View ArticleNYU Law Professor Charged With Criminal Libel in French Court for Refusing to...
Manyothersalreadyhavewrittenabout the worrisome case of Professor Weiler, an NYU law professor who is being haled before a French criminal court to answer for the "crime" of hosting an academic book...
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Out of the Lab and Into the Fray, Scientists and Science Writers Talk About...
Last Friday, the Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Science, Technology & Society hosted a conference to discuss science journalism online. Alongside scientists and science journalists, Sam...
View ArticleWe Love a Happy Ending...
Earlier this week, we received the good news that travel blogger extraordinaire Christopher Elliott sucessfully resolved the defamation lawsuit brought against him by Palm Coast Travel. Chris found a...
View ArticleFirst Amendment Alert! Author arrested for writing a book
I'm the first to admit that Phillip Greaves is not the most sympathetic figure in America. Greaves wrote "The Pedophile's Guide," which was originally for sale on Amazon.com before the online retailer...
View ArticleMedia Bloggers Assn Files Amicus Brief in Righthaven Case, Blasts Business...
Yesterday, the Media Bloggers Association filed an amicus brief in Righthaven LLC v. Hyatt, urging a federal judge in Nevada to award only minimal damages and no attorney's fees to Righthaven against a...
View ArticleThe SLAPP-Happy Story of Rakofsky v. Internet
By now, you've perhaps heard of the plight of one Joseph Rakofsky, the man who sued everyone who ever wrote about him on the Internet. In short: Man represents defendant in murder trial; judge...
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At the Intersection of Anti-SLAPP and Anonymity
Consider two cases: In Colorado, clothing company Façonnable is attempting to sue an anonymous Wikipedia editor (or, possibly, more than one; the number is sort of up in the air) over some...
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ISP Gets Identity-Seeking Subpoena Vacated
From the credit-where-credit's-due department (with the requisite hat-tip to David Ardia's Twitter account): I've written previously about clothing company Façonnable's lawsuit against an anonymous...
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Online Defamation, Injunctive Relief, and the Future of Prior Restraint
It's sitting there in pretty much every online speech-related defamationcomplaint you'll find: right along side a request for a visit from our friend Stacks O'Cash, the plaintiff asks for an...
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A Victory for Recording in Public!
My apologies to Justin Silverman for bumping the second half of his excellent blog post about the BART phone blackout with this breaking news -- I urge you to read Justin's posts as well. The CMLP is...
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Everybody's Public to Somebody?: Social Media and the Public/Private Divide
First Amendment doctrine is sort of obsessed with the idea of a public/private divide – the idea that we can clearly slice society up into those things that are "public" (about which we want robust...
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