Massachusetts Supreme Court Finds Email Sufficiently Authenticated Based on Surrounding Evidence — Commonwealth v. Purdy
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Commonwealth v. Purdy, 2011 WL 1421367 (Mass.; Apr. 15, 2011) Defendant was prosecuted and convicted for maintaining a house of prostitution and deriving support from the earnings of a prostitute. The trial judge admitted various emails…
Plaintiff Can’t be Forced to Accept Defense Counsel’s Facebook Friend Request in Personal Injury Case — Piccolo v. Paterson
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Piccolo v. Paterson, No. 2009-04979 (Pa. Ct of Common Pleas; May 5, 2011) [.pdf] In addition to cases dealing with whether Facebook posts are discoverable in civil cases, courts and litigants continue to grapple with the…
Maryland Supreme Court Rejects “Circumstantial Authentication” Standard for MySpace Evidence — Griffin v. Maryland
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Griffin v. Maryland, No. 74 (Maryland; Apr. 28, 2011) I blogged last year about a case in Maryland where the court allowed prosecutors to authenticate a witness’s MySpace page merely by accessing it from the internet,…
March 2011 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * Lots of Google antitrust activity: – Apparently, an EU antitrust investigation IS something that Microsoft would wish on its worst enemy. – Every legal regulator in the world is considering antitrust investigations into Google,…
Court Denies Request for Discovery of Facebook and Twitter Account Information, Finding that the Request is a “Digital Fishing Expedition”
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Caraballo v. City of NY, Index No. 75535/08 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.; Mar. 4, 2011) Plaintiff suffered personal injuries “while performing work at 417 O’Gorman Avenue, also known as 45 Keegans Lane, on Staten Island.” Predictably, defendant…
Website Privacy Policy Supports Pseudonymous Poster’s Expectation of Privacy — Cornelius v. Deluca
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Cornelius v. Deluca, 10-Cv-027-BLW (D.Id.; Mar. 15, 2011) A district court judge in Idaho denied a request to unmask the identity of a pseudonymous forum poster. In support of its decision, the court looked to the…
Jan.-Feb. 2011 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Search Engines Google’s search algorithm has been very much in the news the past 2 months! * Google’s announcements: – “Google search and search engine spam” – Matt Cutts explains Google penalties in a video. – “Microsoft’s…
Top 5 Cyberlaw Developments of 2010, Plus a 2010 Year-in-Review
By Eric Goldman Earlier this Fall, I posted my top 8 trends in Internet law, and that’s a good place to start if you want to see how I think things are developing. Because of that post, this year I’m…
Contrary LinkedIn Evidence Crushes Witness’ Testimony — Blayde v. Harrah’s Entertainment
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Blayde v. Harrah’s Entertainment, 08-cv-02798 (W.D. Tenn.; Dec. 17, 2010) By my guesstimate, LinkedIn ranks last among the major social networks for being invoked as a source of evidence in court cases. MySpace is the runaway…
MySpace Profile and Photo Evidence Used to Support Conviction for “Participation in Criminal Gang Activity” — State v. McCraney
[Post by Venkat] State v. McCraney, 2010-Ohio-6128 (Ohio Ct. App.; Dec. 15, 2010) There has been a proliferation of MySpace (and more recently, Facebook) cases in the criminal context. Most of these cases involve evidentiary issues where the prosecution seeks…