Social Media Rant Against Airline Employee Wasn’t Defamatory But May Be False Light–Patterson v. Grant-Herms
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Patterson v. Grant-Herms, 2013 Tenn. App. 675 (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 8, 2013) Defendant Natalie Grant-Herms wasn’t allowed to board a flight at the same time as her four year old daughter,…
Organizing an “Internet Safety” Presentation? Don’t Troll Through Students’ Facebook Accounts Looking for Bikini Photos
[By Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Chaney v. Fayette County Public School Dist., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143030 (N.D. Ga. Sept. 30, 2013). Chelsea Chaney posted a photo to Facebook of herself in a bikini standing next to a…
Presentation About the Problems of Online Trespass to Chattels
You may recall my prior post where I outlined my conceptual objections to online trespass to chattels doctrines, including the common law, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act and state computer crime laws like California Penal Code Sec. 502. As…
California’s Latest Effort To Keep Some Ads From Reaching Kids Is Misguided And Unconstitutional (Forbes Cross-Post)
California recently enacted SB 568 (Business & Professions Code 22580) to prevent certain types of online advertising from being shown to kids. Like so many other state efforts to regulate the Internet, the new law takes an understandable regulatory objective…
Calling Out Scraper for “Stealing” Data Is Not Defamatory – Tamburo v. Dworkin
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Tamburo v. Dworkin, 04 C 3317 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 26, 2013) This is an interesting dispute that brings together several legal doctrines we love to cover here. It’s the type of fact pattern a law school…
California’s New ‘Online Eraser’ Law Should Be Erased (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman People mocked Google CEO Eric Schmidt for his 2010 suggestion that teenagers should change their names when they turn 18 to avoid the indiscreet and ill-advised Internet posts they made as youths. The California legislature thought it…