Another Case Involving School Discipline for a Violent Post on a Social Networking Site — Wynar v. Douglas County School Dist.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Mynar v. Douglas County School Dist, 2013 WL 4566354 (9th Cir. Aug 29, 2013) [pdf] This is a school discipline case involving a student’s MySpace posts: • “its pretty simple / i have a sweet gun…
Big Victory In Effort To Curb Libel Tourism–Trout Point Lodge v. Handshoe (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Trout Point Lodge, Ltd. v. Handshoe, 2013 WL 4766530 (5th Cir. Sept. 5, 2013) Compared to other countries, the United States has relatively narrow defamation laws. The First Amendment significantly restricts defamation claims, and legislatures have provided…
High Schooler’s Facebook Post Can Constitute the Crime of Menacing – In re P.T.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] In the Matter of P.T., 2013 – Ohio- 3881 (Ohio Ct. App. Sept. 9, 2013) [pdf] This is another online threat case, this time involving online comments that constituted the crimes of…
Facebook Sponsored Stories Settlement Approved – Fraley v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Fraley v. Facebook, Inc., C 11-1726 RS (N.D. Cal. Aug. 26, 2013) (Digital Media Law Project’s page for the case) (Access a copy of the amended settlement agreement here: [pdf].) Judge Seeborg initially rejected the proposed…
Email Exchange Creates Binding Settlement Agreement Per UETA–Forcelli v. Gelco
[Post by John Ottaviani] Forcelli v. Gelco Corp., 2013 NY Slip Op 05437 (N.Y. App. Div. July 24, 2013) E-Sign and UETA cases have been few and far between to date. Perhaps it is because the laws still are relatively…
When Should Search Engines Ignore Court Orders To Remove Search Results? (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Companies and individuals are constantly seeking more effective ways to scrub unwanted online content. One common technique is to get a court declaration that content is unlawful and should be removed, and then send that ruling to…
Effort to Game Website User Agreement Rules Fails -– Traton News v. Traton Corp.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Traton News v. Traton Corp., 2013 WL 2500601 (6th Cir. June 11, 2013) Moses was involved in a dispute against Traton Corp., a home builder. Moses sued for trespass and lost. Later, he formed “Traton News…
Sending a “DTF?” Text Message Supports Restraining Order — Finigan v. Weinberg
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Finigan v. Weinberg, 2013 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 5868 (Cal. Ct. App. Aug. 21, 2013) Weinberg was a lieutenant in the Navy. In July 2011, he met with Finigan (a JAG Officer) to obtain legal advice….
Yelp Gets Another Anti-SLAPP Victory in Lawsuit Over Consumer Review—Bernath v. Tabitha J.
Bernath v. Tabitha J., 1305-06167 (Ore. Cir. Ct. Aug. 26, 2013) The plaintiff, who is also a lawyer (and surely you recall how I feel about lawyer-plaintiffs), has repeatedly written about this case online focusing on different facts, but I’m…
TripAdvisor’s “Dirtiest Hotels” List Isn’t Defamatory—Seaton v. TripAdvisor
Seaton v. TripAdvisor LLC, 2013 WL 4525870 (6th Cir. Aug. 28, 2013) TripAdvisor published a list of the “Dirtiest Hotels” based on users’ rankings, including some unflattering quotes from users’ reviews. One of the listed hotels sued TripAdvisor for defamation…