Blogs

Inventor of Vibrating Toilet Seat Sues Google Over Allegedly Defamatory Search Results

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From the we-aren't-making-this-up-department:

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NY Legislature Proactively Considering Whether Shield Law Applies to Bloggers? How Novel!

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As anyone who's been faithfully reading the CMLP blog knows, the law hasn't been particularly good at dealing with the intersection of media shield laws and bloggers.  Although there seems to be a modest trend towards application of shield laws to anonymous commenters on news stories, the judiciary's application of shield laws to bloggers has been pretty

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South Carolina Attorney General Agrees to Temporary Restraining Order in Craigslist Suit

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Today, a federal district court in South Carolina issued a consent order temporarily restraining South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster from "initiating or pursuing any prosecution against craigslist or its officers and employees in relation to content posted by third parties on craigslist's website." The order specifies that it is issued "by agreement of the parties.&qu

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Yahoo! Petitions for Rehearing in Barnes v. Yahoo!, CMLP Joins Amicus Coalition in Support

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Yesterday, Yahoo! filed a petition for rehearing in Barnes v. Yahoo!, a case in which the Ninth Circuit recently held that Cecilia Barnes could pursue a promissory estoppel claim against Yahoo!

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Web of Justice?: Jurors' Use of Social Media

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At the start of a trial, the judge usually reads to jurors general instructions about how the trial will proceed. The instructions also tell jurors how they should behave during the trial, including the admonition that they should not discuss the case with others, including both trial participants and outsiders.

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Top Conservative on Twitter Takes Critic to Court

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Shortly after the election last November, a call went out within the conservative blogosphere to use Twitter to organize conservatives online.  Not long thereafter, Michael Patrick Leahy and Rob Neppell started the website Top Conservatives on Twitter and pushed like-minded conservatives to use the Twitter hashtag #TCOT (the # allows twitterers to

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Craigslist Sues South Carolina AG Over Threats of Criminal Prosecution

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Tired of being bullied by South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, craigslist is going on the offensive.  CEO Jim Buckmaster announced on the craigslist blog today that that craigslist is suing McMaster in South Carolina federal court, seeking "declaratory relief and a restraining order with respect to criminal charges he has repeatedly thre

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How to Make Your Client Look Bad, in Three Easy Steps

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Courtesy of counsel for Newt Gingrich and Saul Anuzis.

1.  Demonstrate a complete failure to understand how the relevant technology works.

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Employee Surveillance: How Big Brother Could Be Your Boss

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When it comes to employee surveillance, will your electronic communications be spared from your employer's watchful eye? The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey will soon consider this question in the context of social networks.

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Merrill Lynch to Financial Blogger: Don't Quote Our Bearish Reports

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Felix Salmon of Reuters reports that the pseudonymous lead blogger behind the financial blog Zero Hedge received DMCA takedown notices for six posts that cited or excerpted from Merrill Lynch reports authored by Merrill's former chief economist, David Rosenberg.  According to Salmon, Zero Hedge is "an insider financial blog whose writers believe the worst of the mel

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Craigslist Dropping 'Erotic Services' Section, No Word On Whether State AGs Will Drop Their Bullhorns

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The Associated Press is reporting that craigslist has decided to replace the "erotic services" section of its site with a new adult category that will be reviewed by craigslist staff (craigslist just issued a statement confirming the change).  The decision follows several months of pressure from officials in a number of states who have been trying to force the onlin

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White House Drops License Restrictions on Photos, Flickr Stream Now in Public Domain

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Wired/Epicenter reported yesterday that popular photo-sharing site Flickr, in collaboration with the Obama administration, has changed the licensing designation on photos in the Official White House Photostream to reflect that, as U.S.

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News Links

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I sent this list out to the CMLP's team of intrepid bloggers to pique their interest, but with things being a bit slow around the office today, I figured I'd avoid the middleman. 

Things that caught my eye this past week:

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Barnes v. Yahoo: Section 230 Does Not Insulate Online Service Provider From Contractual Liability

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This is an interesting Section 230 decision from the Ninth Circuit that clarifies one of the many possible lines between enjoying Section 230 protection and losing it, namely what kinds of legal claims treat an interactive computer services as a "publisher or speaker" within the meaning of the statute and what kinds do not.

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YouTube Restores National Organization for Marriage Video Outside DMCA Parameters, Cites Fair Use

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Ben Sheffner reports that YouTube has restored the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM")'s "No Offense" video without waiting for the expiration of the

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Lesson of "Communist" Libel Cases in Vietnamese Community: Know Your Audience

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In the United States after the Cold War, saying that someone is a Communist may not have the same sting that it did during the the decades of tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies.

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