9th Circuit Issues a Blogger-Friendly First Amendment Opinion–Obsidian Finance v. Cox
This case involves defamation claims brought by Kevin Padrick of Obisidian Finance Group against Crystal Cox. Obsidian (Padrick) was the Chapter 11 Trustee for Summit Accomodators, and Cox wrote a series of posts accusing Padrick and Obsidian of fraud, corruption,…
Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013 (Forbes Cross-Post)
A look back at the Internet law highlights of 2013: #10: Copyright Defendants Get High-Stakes Wins. 2013 saw several copyright defendants win long-running litigation affairs–and potentially crack open new markets, including (1) Google’s stirring win in its nearly decade-long Google…
Nurse Properly Fired and Denied Unemployment Due to Facebook Rant
Guevarra worked as a staff nurse at Seton Medical Center for 12 years. In mid-May 2011, shortly before she went to work, she posted the following Facebook post: Instead of spending my birthday celebrating, I will be working all night…
Is Sacramento The World’s Capital of Internet Privacy Regulation? (Forbes Cross-Post)
It’s only two hours between Sacramento, California’s state capitol, and the Silicon Valley, the world’s technology capital, but when it comes to regulating the Internet, philosophically they are worlds apart. The two worlds collided in 2013 when Sacramento enacted a…
Protip: Don’t Send Emails Threatening to “Inflict the Maximum Amount of Financial Pain” Allowed By Law
Dr. Karan wanted to open a call center in India to assist doctors in handling patient calls. He entered into agreements with Computech and mLogica, two entities owned by his childhood friend, Amit Okhandiar. Under the agreement, the two entities…
AAUP Says Kansas Regents’ New Faculty Social Media Use Policy Violates Academic Freedom (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s introductory note: this guest blog post comes from my colleague Stephen Diamond. You may have seen that last week the Kansas Board of Regents adopted a “social media use” policy for faculty members, which sadly represents the kind of…
Revenge Porn Plot Leads To Criminal Conviction–New York v. Piznarski (Forbes Cross-Post)
Recently, the California Attorney General’s office got a lot of attention for arresting Kevin Bollaert, the alleged operator of a revenge porn website. While the arrest was widely popular, it raised many questions. Why did the prosecutors seemingly stretch to…
Should We Cheer The California Attorney General’s Revenge Porn Arrest–Or Find It Alarming? (Forbes Cross-Post)
The California Attorney General’s office announced the arrest of Kevin Christopher Bollaert for his role in a revenge porn scheme. Most folks are cheering the arrest for understandable reasons: revenge porn is odious, especially when victims must pay to remove…
Prosecutor Makes Ill-Advised Tweets During Criminal Case–State v. Polk
Polk was convicted of assaulting an 11 year old some 20 years after the event, in part based on DNA evidence. The prosecutor (@JenniferJoyceCA) tweeted about the case during the trial: Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce repeatedly used her Twitter…
SPEECH Act Defendant Gets $48,000 In Attorneys’ Fees–Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v. Handshoe
The SPEECH Act combats libel tourism, the process of trying to enforce an international defamation ruling in the United States if the ruling isn’t consistent with U.S. law. The leading SPEECH Act case is Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v. Handshoe….