by Paul Alan Levy A California Superior Court judge has issued a decision that threatens to blow a gaping hole in the protection that online hosts for critical speech have enjoyed under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and, therefore, in public’s ability to post critical speech. In Cross v. Facebook, Judge Donald Ayoob […]
Author Archives: Paul Levy
by Paul Alan Levy I blogged back in February about a small-claims act proceeding that a Dallas pet-sitting company called “Prestigious Pets” had filed against a couple named Michelle and Robert Duchouquette over the fact that Michelle Duchouquette had posted a Yelp review presenting some fairly mild criticisms of the company’s policies. The company claimed […]
by Paul Alan Levy The city of Mesa, Arizona, has threatened suit against a local businessman, Jeremy Whittaker, who is running for city council in opposition to a longtime city employee who enjoys endorsements from several current elected city officials. His offense? His lawn signs and campaign literature include a single-color version of the city’s logo […]
by Paul Alan Levy When I saw the Popehat Signal a few years ago, seeking counsel to help Todd DeShong fend off a lawsuit in federal court in Texas claiming that he defamed Clark Baker on his "HIV Innocence Group Truth blog, which criticizes Baker for profiting through charlatanism (Baker claims that HIV status is unrelated […]
What is it about presidential campaigns that brings out some of the worst examples of trademark bullying? Two years ago, we shot down bogus a trademark demand by the Ready for Hillary pre-campaign PAC, which tried to suppress Liberty Maniac's “Ready for Oligarchy” parody. (Readers of this blog may remember Liberty Maniacs (and its owner, […]
by Paul Alan Levy Ted Frank’s comment on my post yesterday about the y-y-yuge sanction imposed on Donald Trump for bringing a frivolous defamation claim hit the nail on the head – this was an April Fools Day prank. But as Eric Turkewitz, who created the concept and posted the first blog on the subject, explains […]
by Paul Alan Levy Could a $500,000,000 sanction for frivolous litigation be large enough that even Donald Trump would start taking the First Amendment seriously, and stop trying to use the courts to suppress lawful speech that he doesn’t like? In the final analysis, that is the issue raised by Erik Turkewitz’ blog post today. […]
by Paul Alan Levy Techdirt carries word of an ingenious scheme that two California lawyers have been running to get unflattering reviews removed from Google’s search results without ever proving defamation in an adversary proceeding and, indeed, without risk of an adversary proceeding. Opinion Corp., which hosts the consumer review site PissedConsumer.com, noticed a suspicious […]
Resolving an ambiguity in the District of Columbia's Anti-SLAPP law, the DC Court of Appeals held today in Doe No. 1 v. Burke that a defendant who succeeds in a special motion to quash a subpoena for the defendant's identifying information is presumptively entitled to have attorney fees awarded, absent special circumstances rendering such an […]
An article by Paul Farhi in this morning’s Washington Post discusses a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against the Timothy O'Brien, a financial author who wrote a book about Trump's business career. Among other things, the book questioned whether Trump is quite as wealthy as he claims; the author’s opinion was that Trump had exaggerated […]