In two unanimous rulings today, the Supreme Court invalidated laws restricting free speech with respect to sex offender use of social media and trademark registration of disparaging terms. In Packingham v North Carolina, the Supreme Court addressed a North Carolina law that barred sex offenders from using social media. Packingham was a convicted sex offender,…
A federal judge in Kentucky has allowed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and others stemming from the following incident at a March 1 rally in Louisville: The lawsuit charges Trump with incitement to riot, vicarious liability, and negligence on the part of Trump and his campaign for calling on the crowd to “get ’em out of here”. As…
A California appellate court handed Glassdoor, the website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management, a major victory by upholding its standing to challenge subpoenas for reviews submitted by its users. Online game developer MZ, initiated a Doe action alleging that reviews posted on Glassdoor violated their company nondisclosure agreement (“NDA”). It…
As stated by Ars Technica, Techdirt’s founder, Mike Masnick, is famous for taking ” no prisoners when it comes to his writings about intellectual property, net neutrality, the law, and everything in between.” Masnick was especially dismissive of Shiva Ayyadurai’s claim to have invented email as a fourteen-year old in 1978. Dr. Ayyadurai, hired Charles Harder of…
On Monday, First Lady Melania Trump filed a defamation action against London’s Daily Mail over a story that alleged that she once worked as an “elite escort” in the “sex business”. The story was later retracted and was little noticed until Charles Harder (of Hulk Hogan v Gawker fame) files this complaint less than a month after…
Senate Committee Releases Report Condemning Backpage Last week, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing to discuss the findings of its report titled “Backpage.com’s Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking.” The report found that: Backpage knowingly covered up evidence of criminal activity by systematically editing its so-called adult ads. Backpage knows that it facilitates prostitution…
In February, Donald Trump declared war on the First Amendment by saying that if he wins: We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we…
Ninth Circuit Finds First Amendment Bars Right of Publicity Claim re Hurt Locker An Iraq war veteran’s right of publicity claim against the director and producers of the Academy Award-winning film, “The Hurt Locker,” asserting that the depiction in the movie was based on his experiences in Iraq and thereby violated his right of publicity…
9th Circuit Reverses “Innocence of Muslims” Ban In July 2012 a trailer for the film, “The Innocence of Muslims” was released on YouTube and sparked outrage in the Islamic community that included protests that resulted in over 50 deaths and Fatwas and death threats for movie participants. It was banned in a number of Islamic…
Cyber Report 