Nursing School Can’t Expel Students for Posting Photo to Facebook–Byrnes v. Johnson County CC
By Eric Goldman Byrnes v. Johnson County Community College, 2011 WL 166715 (D. Kan. Jan. 19, 2011). The complaint. You’ve probably already heard about this case. Four nursing students posted photos of a patient’s placenta to Facebook, and the school…
My 2005 Prediction of Wikipedia’s Failure By 2010 Was Wrong
By Eric Goldman “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” — attributed to Niels Bohr I’ve written a few notorious posts in my 6 years of blogging, but none more so than my December 2005 prediction that Wikipedia would…
Lawyer-Spam Plaintiff Loses in the Sixth Circuit Over Allegedly Misleading DISH Network Emails — Ferron v. Echostar
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Ferron v. Echostar Satellite LLC, 09-4407 (6th Cir.; Dec. 28, 2010) Ferron brought claims against Dish Network and its retail and marketing partners alleging that he had been deceived by the terms of email offers sent…
Ripoff Report Ordered to Stop Publishing User-Submitted Report–Giordano v. Romeo
By Eric Goldman Giordano v. Romeo, No. 09-68539-CA-25 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Dec. 28 2010). The complaint. Today’s case is a baffling and clearly erroneous ruling. What’s even more bizarre is that the judge initially got the right result and *then*…
Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 4
By Eric Goldman Blogs and Boards * Reuters on the wild-and-wooly world of investor message boards. * KingCast.net v. Friends of Kelly Ayotte, 2010 WL 4683829 (D.N.H. Nov. 2, 2010). Blogger’s unsuccessful lawsuit to gain mandatory access to a candidate’s…
Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to TCPA Based on Vagueness in “Prior Express Consent” Exception — Kramer v. Autobytel, Inc.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Kramer v. Autobytel, Inc., et al., 10-cv-02722 CW (N.D. Cal.; Dec. 29, 2010) We’ve blogged a bunch about cases involving defendants accused of sending text messages – none of them have resolved favorably in favor of…
Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Wikileaks Wikileaks has been on my mind for the past 2 months, but the stories have moved faster than I can. From my perspective, Wikileaks is principally a story about The Empire Strikes Back (It is a…
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…
Court Finds Juvenile Delinquent Based on Allegedly Offensive Instant Messages — In re Alex C.
[Post by Venkat with additional comments by Eric] In re Alex C., No. 2009-399 (N.H. Supreme Court; Nov. 30, 2010) Rachel K.’s daughter ran away from home. In an effort to locate her, Rachel logged on to her daughter’s AOL…
Court Finds That Threatening Video Posted to YouTube and Facebook Can Constitute a “True Threat” — US v. Jeffries
[Post by Venkat] US v. Jeffries, 10-CR-100 (E.D. Tenn) (Report and Recommendation; Oct. 22, 2010) Background: The defendant was charged with transmitting a video through interstate commerce which contained a threat to kill or injure a Knox County Chancellor. The…