Employee Wins Harassment Claim Based in Part on Co-Workers’ Offsite Blog Posts–Espinoza v. Orange
By Eric Goldman Espinoza v. County of Orange, 2012 WL 420149 (Cal. App. Ct. February 9, 2012) Espinoza was born with an incomplete hand. In 1996, he started working for the county probations department. In 2006, a co-worker started two…
Comments on Twitter’s Country-by-Country Tweet Removal Announcement
By Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric. Twitter recently announced its decision to censor tweets on a country-by-country basis. People were up in arms and planned a #twitterblackout. It was a big story last week. (Needless to say, I didn’t…
Newspaper Isn’t Liable for User Website Comment Per 47 USC 230–Delle v. Worcester T&G
By Eric Goldman Delle v. Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp., 2011 WL 7090709 (Mass. Super. Ct. Sept. 14, 2011) I previously mentioned this ruling in a recent Quick Link, but I can write up a full post now that I’ve…
Federal Prosecution Over “Threats” on Craigslist – US v. Stock
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] US v. Stock, Cr. No. 11-182 (W.D. Pa.; Jan. 23, 2012) I blogged about a case before where a defendant was charged under a federal threat statute of posting a threatening video to YouTube. (“Court Finds…
Attempted Trademark Workaround to 47 USC 230 Immunity Fails Badly—Ascentive v. PissedConsumer [Catch-Up Post]
By Eric Goldman [This is one of the top dozen or so most important Internet law opinions of 2011, but unfortunately it came out just as I was going into my exam-grading exile and I had to put blogging it…
TheDirty Denied 47 USC 230 Immunity–Jones v. Dirty World
By Eric Goldman Jones v. Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, LLC, 2012 WL 70426 (E.D. Ky. Jan. 10, 2012). Prior blog post on this case. A Kentucky federal judge rejected 47 USC 230 immunity for thedirty.com for third-party content. It’s entirely…
Nov.-Dec. 2011 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman 47 USC 230 * Wang v. OCZ Technology Group, Inc., 2011 WL 4903190 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 14, 2011). In a false advertising suit, the plaintiff argued that the defendant quoted/linked to third party testimonials on the defendant’s…
Academic Literature Recap, Q4 2011
By Eric Goldman I’m mired in grading heck, slogging my way through 146 exams. As a result, blogging has taken a back seat. I have several key items to blog, including the UMG v. Shelter Capital and Ascentive v. Opinion…
Medical Justice Capitulates by “Retiring” Its Anti-Patient Review Contracts
By Eric Goldman It’s been a rough week for Medical Justice, the company that tries to help doctors suppress patient reviews. First, the Center for Democracy and Technology filed an FTC complaint alleging three main points: (1) Medical Justice deceives…
October 2011 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Copyright * MUST READ from Techdirt: MPAA Helped Police Seize ‘Pirated’ DVDs That Were Actually Fully Authorized. On the topic of errors in determining copyright infringement, the incident a powerful reminder both that even those “in the…