Court Says No Negligence Claim for Third Party Infringement via Open Wi-Fi Connection – AF Holdings v. Doe
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] AF Holdings, LLC v. Doe, C 12 2049 (PJH) (N.D. Cal.; Sept. 4, 2012) I blogged about a case where a P2P infringement plaintiff argued that a defendant should be held liable for failing to secure…
Pointing Out Possible Hypocrisy by a Self-Claimed Sextortion Expert Protected by Anti-SLAPP Laws–Backlund v. Stone
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Backlund v. Stone, B235173 (Ca. Ct. App.; Sept. 4, 2012) When is it OK to tweet a threat to expose seminude photographs of a teenage girl? When you’re a law student? When you’re a self-professed expert…
Another School Violated a Student’s First Amendment Rights by Disciplining Her For Facebook Posts — R.S. v. Minnewaska Area School Dist. No. 2149
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] R.S. ex rel. S.S. v. Minnewaska Area School Dist. No. 2149, 2012 WL 3870868 (D.Minn. September 6, 2012) R.S. was a twelve year old student at a Minnewaska Area middle school. She posted a message to…
Courts Allows Text Spam Class Action Against Voxer, a Cell Phone Walkie-Talkie App — Hickey v. Voxernet
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Hickey v. Voxernet, C12-373 MJP (W.D. Wash.; Aug 13, 2012) Voxer is an app that turns your cell phone into a walkie-talkie. Plaintiff sued on his own behalf and on behalf of a putative class, alleging…
Another Case Says No Liability for Linking to Allegedly Defamatory Content, Plus a Recap (Guest Blog Post)
Vazquez v. Buhl, 2012 WL 3641581 (Conn. Super. July 17, 2012) [Eric’s Note: Sam Bayard is an associate at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in New York. I got to know him during his stint at the Citizen Media Law Project….
We’ve Filed a Request to Publish Redmond v. Gawker Media
By Eric Goldman My RA Sruli Yellin and I wrote a letter requesting that the California Appellate Court publish its opinion in Redmond v. Gawker Media, the recent case that said Gizmodo’s hyperlinks to its sources helped defeat a defamation…
Sixth Circuit Affirms Conviction for Threat Posted to YouTube – US v. Jeffries
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment from Eric] US v. Jeffries, 2012 WL 3641639 (6th Cir.; Aug. 27, 2012) We blogged previously about US v. Jeffries, where the district court declined to dismiss an indictment for posting an allegedly…
Ranking of “Dirtiest Hotels” Based on User Ratings is “Unverifiable Rhetorical Hyperbole”–Seaton v. TripAdvisor (Partial Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman [This is another situation where I’m posting the first draft of this post here and linking to the Forbes version, which reads a little differently. As always, I welcome feedback about which version you liked better.] Seaton…
Using Links as Citations Helps Gizmodo Defeat a Defamation Claim–Redmond v. Gawker Media
By Eric Goldman Redmond v. Gawker Media LLC, 2012 WL 3243507 (Cal. App. Ct. August 10, 2012) Gizmodo.com published an article, Smoke & Mirrors: The Greatest Scam in Tech, about Redmond’s venture, Peep Telephony. In addition to using the word…
The Newest Olympic Sport: Evasion of Geolocation (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble The Olympic Games can be credited for spreading awareness about and generating excitement for sports that might otherwise be unknown in various parts of the world. The global promotion of sports is one of the…