Discovery Rule for Libel Doesn’t Apply to Blogs, Says Federal Judge

Aviation lawyer and seasoned pilot Arthur Alan Wolk knows quite a bit about the stratosphere and the troposphere, but he may have learned something new this week about the blogosphere when a federal judge tossed out his libel suit against the bloggers at Overlawyered.com.
The National Law Journal
August 6, 2010
By Shannon P. Duffy

As [...]

Olympic athletes allowed to twitter

Despite the International Olympic Committee’s confusion about blogs and journalism, it appears that Olympic athletes will be allowed much greater freedom to tweet from the games than previously thought. -db
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
February 9, 2010
By Arthur Bright
Rejoice, all ye Olympian fans, the International Olympic Committee (”IOC”) has said that its athletes can use Twitter!
Apparently there’s been [...]

Stifling criticism: Ralph Lauren concedes on attempted copyright takedown

A blog called Boing Boing won a battle against Ralph Lauren that began when it attacked a Ralph Lauren ad that it felt presented distorted images of women’s bodies, reprinting the ad at issue. Lauren countered with accusations that the blog violated copyright in printing the ad which contained a  photo and sent DMCA a [...]

New Defense Department policy may allow troops to tweet and blog

In the face of a raft of military prohibitions against social networks. a new draft policy recognizes the power of the networks and seeks to balance the risks with the gains. -DB
Wired
Commentary
September 29, 2009
By Noah Shachtman
The Defense Department may allow troops and military employees to freely access social networks — if a draft policy circulating around [...]

California case: Middle way may create burdens for those trying to unmask anonymous commenters

The Assistant Director of the Citizen Media Law Project writes that it’s difficult to decide whether a judge’s creative solution in a case involving anonymous commenters is praiseworthy and likens the ruling to Solomon’s “splitting the baby.” -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
Analysis
September 16, 2009
By Sam Bayard
It’s amazing how many times you can hear a phrase [...]

Iran gains edge in diet wars as blogger loses weight in jail

According to the Iranian government, a leading cleric-blogger has attained self-improvement by slimming down in prison. Says CMLP blogger Andrew Moshirnia, this success may cause a stampede in the U.S. to emulate Iranian weight-loss practices. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
September 15, 2009
By Andrew Moshirnia
A little while back, I wrote about the Iranian persecution of bloggers and [...]

UC Davis case: Judge suggests avenue to determine identity of anonymous bloggers

Although a Sacramento judge ruled substantially in favor of a blog operator who was trying to keep secret the identities of his bloggers, she also said the plaintiff in the case could hire someone to conduct a search for the identities. -DB
The Sacramento Bee
September 14, 2009
By Hudson Sangree
Those anonymous comments you’ve been posting online might [...]

Student’s blogs prove unpalatable at Stanford’s education school

While professing to adhere to standards of intellectual freedom, Stanford’s School of Education found it difficult to work with one of their older students who is outspoken in opposing the school’s progressive policies. -DB
The Washington Post
Commentary
July 22, 2009
By Jay Mathews
Michele Kerr (she tells me it is pronounced “cur”) is a hard-working educator and Web surfer who [...]

Associated Press taking hard line on use of its content

A.P. is adding new software to each of its articles to track how the article is used in an aggressive move to gain more profit from its stories. -DB
The New York Times
July 24, 2009
By Richard Perez-Pena
Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, The [...]