by Paul Alan Levy Responding to an outpouring of popular outrage as well as legal filings (including one from Public Citizen as well as an amicus brief from Avaaz) showing that the First Amendment protects the right to read anonymously and can be used to limit the enforcement of criminal discovery demands seeking to identify […]
Author Archives: Paul Levy
by Paul Alan Levy This morning we filed a motion for leave to intervene in the proceeding, now assigned to Chief Judge Robert Morin of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, in which DreamHost has been opposing the implementation of a warrant for all files connected with the DisruptJ20 web site that carried […]
by Paul Alan Levy On Friday morning, a panel at the annual meeting in New York of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers will be discussing an issue dear to the heart of blawgers who discuss subjects that make powerful figures in their own areas uncomfortable – to what extent should lawyers be subject to […]
by Paul Alan Levy This past spring, Twitter garnered significant attention, and widespread praise, for a lawsuit it brought against the Trump Administration this past spring to block enforcement of an administrative summons seeking to identify the owners of a Twitter account purporting to reflect criticisms by current employees in Customs and Border Control. The […]
by Paul Alan Levy Two decisions were issued late yesterday in cases involving the procedures for adjudicating subpoenas seeking to identify anonymous Internet speakers who are accused of actionable speech. An appeals court in California embraced most elements of the Dendrite / Cahill test for deciding whether the plaintiff in such a case should be […]
by Paul Alan Levy The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued an order signed only by the Clerk declaring that a significant free speech issue bearing on the rights of anonymous Internet users will be decided in a totally secret proceeding, involving sealed briefs, a sealed record, and without any […]
by Paul Alan Levy An important appeal is pending in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals – the highest appellate court in D.C. The federal government served D.C. warrants on Facebook, demanding access to the entirety of 90 days worth of communications in three separate Facebook accounts, including identifying information. (Presumably, the reason why […]
by Paul Alan Levy Ever since Eugene Volokh and I started writing last year about the phenomenon of “fake defamation litigation” — lawsuits filed to suppress online criticism while ensuring that the person whose speech is to be suppressed never has a chance to persuade the court not to issue an injunction — the greatest […]
This article at Think Progress points to some worrisome waivers in the terms of service for the DNA testing service at Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com argues in response that the some of the concerns are overstated but that in any event it has revised its terms to meet some of the concerns.
by Paul Alan Levy Last year I discussed an attorney fee application that I prepared on behalf of a small company making canvas totes that poke fun of such high-fashion royalty as Louis Vuitton by scrawling the words “My Other Bag” on one side of the totes and placing parody versions of various luxury brands […]