MBA Legal

In one of the best-known recent cases involving both social networking and the criminal law, Lori Drew, a 49-year-old mother, was convicted in a Los Angeles federal court last week in on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers without authorization. Drew's sham assumption of the persona of a teenage boy, and subsequent online humiliation of 13 - year - old Megan Meier, led to Meier's hanging herself in response to Drew's increasingly cruel taunting. She was acquitted of murder charges, and the judge will soon be considering sentencing as well as post-trial motions.

Naturally many blogs are carrying discussions of the issues

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We know a little about defamation law, but Adrianos Facchetti appears to be the go-to man in the blogosphere, so from now on, ask him! He writes the California Defamation Law Blog, which does not appear to be limited, topically, to California law, and which includes pages called Defamation Basics and Blog Protection 101. Hat tip to Carolyn Elefant via Twitter. (Cross-posted on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®.)

Knoxnews.com reports:

Unsuccessful state House candidate Roger Byrge is suing Republican Rep. Stacey Campfield for libel.

Byrge, a Democrat who lost his East Tennessee race by fewer than 400 votes, filed the $750,000 lawsuit against Campfield in Jacksboro this week. The lawsuit alleges that Campfield, of Knoxville, falsely wrote on his blog that Byrge had been arrested several times on drug charges. 
Campfield said he has not seen the lawsuit. He said he was only repeating what he had heard about Byrge, and that he was not presenting it as a fact. 


An AP report fleshes out the matter of this "not quite a fact" defense some more:

In the Oct. 12 blog post, Campfield said more attention needed to be paid to the race for the open seat in House District 36.

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Andie Schwartz sends along this story concerning your tax dollars at work:

Unsuccessful efforts to uncover the identity of Internet bloggers critical of the Memphis Police Department and its top officers will cost the city $88,000.

The city filed suit in state court in an attempt to identify the people behind a Web site called MPD Enforcer 2.0, but the lawsuit was eventually dropped.

Now Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, a Tennessee blogger himself, has picked up the story, and adds, "Hey, it's not as if budgets are tight or anything," linking to this item reporting:

As Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration begins two weeks of budget hearings next week, the governor says he will ask department heads to cut their budgets by 10 percent or more in the face of tumbling revenues and a financial downturn of indefinite length.

The Citizen Media Law Project joined with Media Bloggers Association, New England Press Association, The Online News Association, and Globe Newspaper Company to submit amici curiae brief arguing that the Massachusetts anti-SLAPP statute applies to all parties. They argue that the law also includes members of the news media and professional Bloggers, who engage in petitioning activities, reports David Ardia of the Media Law Project.

The brief was filed in response to a defamation lawsuit filed against Peter Robbins, author of a blog that appears on a community website, Cape Cod Today. The dispute arose over a March 11, 2008 blog post entitled “Barnstable Harbor” Filling in and falling in” in which he criticized numerous individuals including plaintiffs Joseph Dugas and attorney Paul Revere III who had challenged orders and permits issued by the Town of Barnstable Conservation Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that authorized dredging in Barnstable Harbor.

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A blogging-based libel suit brought by the director of the Office of Public Information of Union County, New Jersey against a Union County watchdog group was dismissed last week by a Superior Court Judge, reports Leslie Murray of the Cranford Chronicle.

In April 2006 Cranford resident Tina Renna posted a blog titled, "County Hacks are Soulless Psychopaths" and questioned Union County Director of Public Information Sebastian D'Elia. In November 2006, D'Elia brought suit for libel against Renna and Patricia Quattrocchi.

After hearing oral arguments from both sides on a motion to dismiss, Superior Court Judge Marianne Espinosa in Elizabeth dismissed the suit, saying D'Elia was a public figure (and hence required to meet a heightened standard to sustain a defamation claim) and could not prove he was damaged by the blog post.

"This is a great victory for the First Amendment and the citizens of Union County," Renna said. "Pat and I will continue to shine a light on the inner-workings of county government and make sure it is exposed for what it is."

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A woman in Boca Raton Florida has been sued by a TV production company for a blog posting that warns other small businesses to be wary of the production company's alleged misleading marketing pitch. According to Jess McCuan of INC.Com, Leslie Richard, the owner of Oko Bos, agreed to an interview with Vision Media Television on "eco-fashion," and was told that it was for a documentary that might air on PBS or CNN. As talks continued, however, Richard was told her company would have to pay almost $25,000 to cover production costs. After feeling "creeped out" as Richards explained, she posted a message about her experience on her company's blog.

"Look alive small eco business owners," she wrote, " 'cause there is a new scam targeting us. [U]sing television lingo, an entire team of people, a website, video footage, and [a] whole bag of lies to cover their scheme."

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The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reports:

The Egyptian security apparatus is conducting an aggressive campaign against bloggers and Internet activists in many cities around Cairo . . .

Christian blogger Hani Nazeer Aziz, who is based in Gena and owns the blog Kariz Al Hub, has been targeted. They are also persecuting several Islamic bloggers, including Mohamed Khairi, who is based in Fayoum, Husam Yahia, whose blog is called The Voice of Liberty, Mohamed Adil, whose blog is "dead", and Bilal Alaa, whose blog is called The Country is Ours. Both Mohamed Adil and Bilal Alaa are from Al Gharbia City and Husam Yahia is from Al-Daghlia. . . .

Gamal Eid, ANHRI's executive director, issued the following statement:

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MBA Legal Intern Andie Schwartz reports: Bloggers and Facebook users in Tunisia have "banded together to push for a national day to defend the freedom of expression" and are designating November 4th as their "Day of Freedom," according to Magharebia.com:

The choice of November 4th is not random; bloggers decided to gather in solidarity with journalist Zied El Heni, who filed a lawsuit against the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) accusing it of blocking Facebook in Tunisia. The courts will review the case on November 4th.

Tunisia's policy of banning certain blogs and interrupting Facebook access, according to (banned) blogger Sofiene Chourabi, "has caused more harm to Tunisia's reputation and its elites, and has made us the joke in many other countries, and has not benefited our country in any way."

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The LA Times reports a rash of legal threats and filings against Los Angeles-area bloggers reporting on the real estate implosion in that most fantastic of places.

Blogs getting hit, according to the story, include Blown Mortgage, Housing Doom and blog / lender (?) called Implode-O-Meter.

With names like that, one can surmise that these bloggers are not invited to the annual real estate luncheon at the Rotary. Now they're being invited to court with summonses. It's getting very nasty out there!

Credit the ACLU for helping out on this one:

The four bloggers named in a lawsuit brought forth by Christiansburg developer Roger Woody have been cleared of all charges by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge.

Woody sought more than $10 million in actual damages and $350,000 in punitive damages from Terry Ellen Carter, Tacy Newell-Foutz, Carol Lindstrom and Meghan Dorsett for their alleged involvement in blog postings critical of his business practices and a topsoil stockpile at his property on Cambria Street in Christiansburg.

The lawsuit filed by Woody's attorney, B.K. Cruey of Shawsville, accused the four women of working "together for the purpose of developing a website on the internet to be used willfully and maliciously" to cause injury to him and his business. The Web site listed in the filing, www.think christiansburg.com is operated by Carter and Newell-Foutz.

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According to Gawker, the Los Angeles Times's publisher, Eddy Hartenstein, "is telling LAT reporters that leaking memos about the troubled newspaper's internal doings to blogs is 'treason" -- and he's threatening to sue those who do it:

[S]olid sources have let me know that current Times leadership is unhappy enough (or paranoid enough) about stuff getting out to consider action against staffers. . . . So take precautions — use your personal email, our PO box, or pick up the phone — and don't presume they aren't watching. And be assured that I will continue to report accurately on the Times with your help and, as always, will never divulge my sources.

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Today's New York Daily News has an article about the legal exposure bloggers may face:

Given their nature, blogs are particularly susceptible to litigation because they are inherently risky as publishing operations. There is typically very little operational control, the content is often deliberately designed to be provocative and it is immediately widely distributed and searchable.

Meanwhile, blogs have all the same legal exposures as traditional publishers: Bloggers have faced subpoenas seeking to unmask anonymous postings and demands from law enforcement authorities to provide names of sources and to turn over notes.

It's written by the MBA's Bob Cox.

General practice and other non-bloggy lawyers seeking an introduction to legal aspects of blogging can now get one, along with continuing legal education credit in California, Illinois and New York, from Lawline, the web-based CLE provider. The online introductory presentation, which in fact is called "Legal Aspects of Blogging," is given by the MBA's general counsel, Ron Coleman, who is also writing this in the third person as if he were someone else. And perhaps he is.

The cost for the approximately one-hour-long presentation is $45, but because the hour feels more like ten mirth-packed yet informative and fully credited minutes, it may feel like you are spending more money. But it is still only $45. Non-lawyers may also view the program but the price is the same.

The AP reports (via Jane Coleman) a pretty unusual intellectual property (well, let's say abstract property) lawsuit involving bloggers.

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David L. Hudson reports:

A middle school student suspended for 10 days for creating a fake MySpace profile featuring vulgar, lewd comments about her principal has lost her free-speech lawsuit in federal district court in Pennsylvania.

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I am the MBA's lawyer, and I have been blogging about legal issues of interest to bloggers at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® for a number of years. Here you can expect a less opinionated point of view, because it is the MBA's website, not mine, and a more narrow focus -- but, I hope deeper treatment -- of legal issues of concerns to bloggers.

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