Google sued for bloggers negative comments

Four unknown bloggers using Google’s Knol and Blogspot, allegedly defamed the owner of a group called the National Association of Professional Women because they called it a scam.

The author of this article believe the suit won’t go anywhere because courts have judged the word, “scam” as an opinion not a fact.  Also the suit doesn’t provide the context for the word usage and courts have been unable to judge a word defamatory without understanding the context.

Facebook wins defamation suit

Back in March Denise Finkel’s defamation suit against Facebook and high school friends received considerable publicity.  She claimed in her suit that the social networking giant and her friends had harassed her by creating a Facebook group spreading nasty rumors about her.  Of course by filing the suit against Facebook, her friends’ mean taunts were given even more publicity but I guess the prospect of receiving $3 million papered over that pain.

Anyway, the judge hearing the case dismissed Facebook from the lawsuit based on the fact that the website was shielded from liability by the Communications Decency Act.

Your hotel rant could get you sued

Publishing untrue statements on the Internet via your Twitter feed etc. even as “anonymous” could get you sued.  So it might feel good to vent about an unpleasant experience at a hotel but beware it not without risks.  And to make matters worse, its possible to get sued in a foreign country if the statement is downloaded in that country.

To put this in perspective, to write about the lumpy mattress is probably okay but have some proof before publishing a claim on Yelp that a hotel is infested with bedbugs.

Beauty school suing over Facebook page

“An Elgin beauty school is suing an Algonquin man and an unknown co-defendant, claiming they created a Facebook page defaming the institution and its directors.

The Salon Professional Academy of Elgin, along with admissions director Gwendolyn Nelson and dean Aaron Aven, are seeking $50,000 in damages in the lawsuit filed in Kane County Circuit Court.”

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Councilman’s Facebook post draws libel threat

“…Christopher J. O’Brien, a first-term councilman who represents the town’s third district, wrote a lengthy explanation of the town’s budget proposals and posted it on Facebook, using the Web site’s “notes” feature, hours before a public hearing on the budget May 19.

In the note, he criticized the school board for not asking its unions to accept a wage freeze. All of the town’s unions, except for those associated with the school system, agreed to forgo wage increases for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

O’Brien attributed quotes to three members of the board, which an attorney said he made up to besmirch their reputations.

“The board is shocked that you would include comments in quotation marks and attribute them to individual members without verifying if each member made such a statement,” according to a letter the board’s attorney, Craig S. Meuser of Avon, wrote to O’Brien.

In the letter, dated June 10, Meuser wrote the board does not plan to file a lawsuit “at this time.” However, he demands that O’Brien remove the posting and retract five of his statements.”

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Defamation suits double because of social media

“But I was just reading in the current National Law Journal that 258 defamation cases are currently being tracked. The primary driver was blog content. That’s 258, compared with 110 last year. On Twitter, people are limited to 140 characters. On a blog, you can go on and on. There’s a lot of ranting. I can’t tell you of a situation that directly led to someone’s home being burglarized. If people are going away and their teenage daughter has 200 friends on Facebook and she tells them all about the family’s vacation, are all those people really friends? The likelihood definitely exists that the information could be co-opted or misused. It all seems safe enough in that kind of virtual community, but there are bad actors out there and the bad actors are always going to be out there. People need to be vigilant.”

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Suit against Yelp reviewer still alive

I posted about this case when it was filed back in January.  Now Judge William Elving of the Santa Clara Superior Court has ruled that the case, Y. Wong v. T. Jing,  has a probability of success on its merits.  This doesn’t mean the plaintiff has won only that the case wasn’t dismissed early on in the litigation process.  The facts alleged are that the couple (The Jings) defamed her by complaining on Yelp about the treatment their son received when he was 4 years old. The post said that the boy was lightheaded from laughing gas and that he received a filling containing mercury.

I hope this case goes to trial and then up on appeal.  This could establish new defamation law.

$3 million Facebook libel case

Long Island teens harassed Denis Finkel on a Facebook site and now she is suing not just them but also Facebook for defamation in Manahattan Supreme Court.

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Vile comments on Facebook leads to lawsuit

Plaintiff is suing the University of Portland for violations of civil rights involving a sexual battery.  She is also suing University students for writing profanity in a comments section of Facebook related to the battery incident.

Complaint courtesy Courthousenews

Another Yelp suit

This time it Yelp is named as a party because they didn’t take down the offending ad in a situation where a pediatric dentist received a negative comment claiming a pediatric patient  was dizzy after having a cavity filled because she used laughing gas and the Yelp post also claimed her fillings contain mercury.

The case was filed on Dec. 11th 2008 in Santa Clara Superior Court and is titled Y. Wong vs. T. Jing, Et Al. case number 1-08-CV-129971.

It will be interesting to see if this one goes to court.  

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