« Utah's "Don't Email the Kids" Registry a "Financial Failure" | Main | YouTube Sued Again--Football Association Premier League v. YouTube »
May 05, 2007
Blogger Protected by Anti-SLAPP Statute--GTX v. Left
By Eric Goldman
GTX Global Corp. v. Left, 2007 WL 1300065 (Cal. Ct. App. May 4, 2007)
This is one of the first cases explicitly holding that a blogger is protected by anti-SLAPP laws. It's not really surprising that bloggers would qualify for anti-SLAPP protection, but still, it's nice to see a case confirm it.
In this case, the blogger operated stocklemon.com, a blog discussing stocks that Left (the blogger) believes are "lemons." He blogged on GTX a few times, for which he got sued for defamation, securities fraud and other claims. GTX isn't the only plaintiff going after stocklemon.com; it looks like the blogger had a knack for getting into trouble, and there have been numerous claims (including by GTX) that the blogger was a short seller deliberately publishing misinformation to manipulate the stock price in his favor. This whole situation is vaguely reminiscent of the problems experienced by the Rip-off Report.
In any case, in response to GTX's lawsuit, Left filed an anti-SLAPP motion to strike. In response, GTX did not adequately muster up sufficient evidence that Left's statements are false. As a result, the trial court dismissed the lawsuit, and in this ruling, the appeals court upholds the trial court's ruling and remands for a determination of Left's attorneys' fees (which GTX will now have to pay).
Posted by Eric at May 5, 2007 05:02 PM | Content Regulation
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/cgi-bin/web/mt-t.cgi/392