Warren Kremer Paino Advertising v. Dutson [1]

Lance Dutson operates a blog, the "Maine Web Report." Beginning in February 2006, he published a series of posts that were critical of the Maine Department of Tourism and Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC ("Warren Kremer"), an advertising agency that had worked on a Maine tourism campaign. In these posts, Dutson allegedly made statements to the effect that (1) Warren Kremer was violating Maine law by using state funds to promote Maine tourism to people inside Maine; (2) Warren Kremer expended state tourism funds for the purpose of returning internet search results for non-tourism activity, such as pornography and pedophilia; (3) Warren Kremer was "pissing away" Maine tax money; and (4) Warren Kremer had hired a subcontractor who had a conflict of interest. Dutson also allegedly posted "copyrighted material" owned by Warren Kremer (the specific material was not identified in Warren Kremer's complaint).

In April 2006, Warren Kremer sued Dutson in federal court in Maine for defamation, copyright infringement, and trade libel. Warren Kremer voluntarily dismissed the suit after a month, after facing extensive criticism on blogs and websites.