Spreadbury v. Bitterroot Public Library, 2012 WL 734163 (D. Montana, March 6, 2012) Plaintiff was upset at some local government officials, and ended up getting arrested for allegedly trespassing at the public library. Local newspapers covered the story, including on their websites. Some online commenters said mean things about plaintiff, so plaintiff sued a whole [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Defamation’
Oregon media shield law did not protect blogger from having to reveal her sources
December 4th, 2011
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Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox, 2011 WL 5999334 (D.Or. November 30, 2011) Plaintiff filed a defamation lawsuit against defendant, who self-identified as an “investigative blogger” and a member of the “media.” Defendant asked the court to protect her from having to turn over the identity of the sources she spoke with in connection with [...]
Court protects identity of anonymous email sender
May 21st, 2011
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Sandals Resorts Intern. Ltd. v. Google, Inc., — N.Y.S.2d —, 2011 WL 1885939, (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept., May 19, 2011) Some unknown person sent an email to a number of undisclosed recipients containing information that was critical of the hiring and other business practices of the Caribbean resort Sandals. Irritated by this communication, Sandals filed an [...]
Woman mistaken for Spitzer prostitute in Girls Gone Wild internet video awarded $3 million
March 13th, 2011
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Arpaio v. Dupre, 2011 WL 831964 (D.N.J., Mar 3, 2011) It has been three years since Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York for getting busted for hooking up with a prostitute (time flies!). Shortly after he resigned, Girls Gone Wild offered Ashley Dupre, the high-priced prostitute Spitzer was accused of patronizing, a million [...]
Seventh Circuit: Website operator does not have to obey injunction in defamation case
December 28th, 2010
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Blockowicz v. Williams, No. 10-1167, (7th Cir. December 27, 2010) Plaintiffs got an injunction that ordered defendants to remove defamatory content from the web that defendants had posted. When the defendants did not comply with the injunction, plaintiffs asked the court to enforce the injunction against Ripoffreport.com, the website on which some of the defamatory [...]
Section 230 shields Google from liability for anonymous defamation
October 2nd, 2010
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Black v. Google Inc., 2010 WL 3746474 (N.D.Cal. September 20, 2010) Back in August, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a lawsuit against Google brought by two pro se plaintiffs, holding that the action was barred under the immunity provisions of 47 USC 230. That section says that “[n]o provider [...]
Yelp successful in defamation and deceptive acts and practices case
September 9th, 2010
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Reit v. Yelp, Inc., — N.Y.S.2d —, 2010 WL 3490167 (September 2, 2010) Section 230 of Communications Decency Act shielded site as interactive computer service; assertions regarding manipulation of reviews was not consumer oriented and therefore not actionable. As I am sure you know, Yelp! is an interactive website designed to allow the general public [...]
Communications Decency Act immunizes hosting provider from defamation liability
August 5th, 2010
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Johnson v. Arden, — F.3d —, 2010 WL 3023660 (8th Cir. August 4, 2010) The Johnsons sell exotic cats. They filed a defamation lawsuit after discovering that some other cat-fanciers said mean things about them on Complaintsboard.com. Among the defendants was the company that hosted Complaintsboard.com – InMotion Hosting. The district court dismissed the case [...]
Anonymous sender of beer pong email gets to remain unknown
March 19th, 2010
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A.Z. v. Doe, 2010 WL 816647 (N.J. Super. App. Div. March 8, 2010) Even if you do just a cursory review of cases that deal with online anonymity, you are bound to come across a 2001 New Jersey case called Dendrite v. Doe. That case sets out a four part analysis a court should undertake [...]
