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Author Archives: Post or Perish
Two Setbacks for Online Review Victims
Faced with a unjustifiably hostile online review, the first impulse of many small businesses is to sue either the author or the website for defamation or some similar tort. Two recent court decisions, however, demonstrate just how difficult it may … Continue reading
Posted in Anonymity, Defamation, Fraud
Tagged algorithm, Angie's List, Anonymity, Brompton, Consumer Fraud, Defamation, Demetriades, False Advertising, Reviews, Yelp
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Instagram Reverses Revised Privacy Policy; Court Sides With Twitpic Photog
The Chicago Sun-Times explains Instagram’s recent revisions to its privacy policy, which the popular photo-sharing service scaled back after last month’s changes led to user backlash, prominently featuring Kim Kardashian and her loyal followers. After Instagram was acquired by Facebook, … Continue reading
Court Orders Customer to Stop Yelping
A Virginia judge has issued an injunction ordering a woman to stop posting critical reviews on websites Yelp and Angie’s List regarding a contractor’s work on her home. The customer, Jane Perez, allegedly failed to pay the company, Dietz Development, … Continue reading
Posted in Defamation, First Amendment
Tagged Angie's List, Dietz, First Amendment, Perez, prior restraint, Virginia, Yelp
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Texting’s 20th Birthday: Time to Update your Company’s Policies?
When Canadian engineer Neil Papworth sent the first text message 20 years ago, he had no way of knowing that texting would evolve into one of the world’s most prominent means of communication. He also had no way of knowing … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Damon Dunn, FVLD, Jon Vegosen, Texting, Texting while Driving
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NLRB: Nice Companies Finish Last
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has decided that a policy encouraging employees of an Illinois BMW dealership to be courteous to one another violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA prohibits punishing employees for discussing working conditions … Continue reading
Plug or Perish
For FVLD’s September Legal Update, Jon Vegosen writes about the NLRB’s controversial stance on some common social media policies. As Jon explains, these developments raise concerns for employers. For example, many employers have trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary … Continue reading
Lawsuit: Smartphone and Memory Card Seized from Man Recording Police
A Washington D.C. man has sued two police officers for seizing his smartphone with which he photographed a police officer engaging in allegedly “aggressive conduct toward members of the public” after another officer hit a man on a motorbike with … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, First Amendment
Tagged ACLU, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, law enforcement, memory card, photograph, police, smartphone, Social Media, Staley, Washington D.C.
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Online Discussion Sites as Public Forums
Two recent cases deal with whether online discussion sites constitute “public forums” qualifying for additional speech protections. In Backlund v. Stone, Stone, a website host, first allegedly posted lewd pictures of a teenage girl who he falsely claimed was Backlund. … Continue reading
Posted in Defamation, First Amendment
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New Illinois Laws Affect Online Privacy
Recently enacted Illinois laws are intended to protect the online privacy of both public and private employees in the state. The Judicial Privacy Improvement Act (JPIA) is a legislative response to the 2005 shootings of relatives of a federal judge … Continue reading
Music Publisher Seeks Removal of Campaign Ads
Music publisher BMG Rights Management has reportedly filed a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) leading YouTube to remove video of a Mitt Romney campaign ad featuring President Obama’s rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”. BMG is … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Intellectual Property
Tagged Al Green, BMG, Copyright, DMCA, Obama, Romney, YouTube
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IL High Court Shoots Down “Deadwood” Fraud Claim Based on Chat Room Romance
A woman who frequented a chat room devoted to the HBO show Deadwood claimed she found herself caught up in her own fictional western drama when another female fan drew her into a long distance relationship while posing as a … Continue reading
Posted in Defamation, Fraud, Privacy
Tagged Bonhomme, Deadwood, Defamation, E-Personation, Fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, James
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Plug or Perish
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Daily Dose recently spoke with Damon Dunn about two recent cases on First Amendment protection for public employees’ Facebook “likes”. We previously discussed the cases here. Should a “Like” be protected as freedom of speech? Damon E. Dunn, … Continue reading
Posted in Employment, First Amendment
Tagged Bland, Damon Dunn, Facebook, First Amendment, FVLD, NLRB, TerVeer
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Public Employees Sue After Being Fired for Facebook “Likes”
A federal judge in Virginia recently held that “liking” a Facebook post is not sufficiently expressive to warrant First Amendment protection. One of the plaintiffs in Bobby Bland et al. v. B.J. Roberts alleged he lost his job with a … Continue reading
Prosecutors Entitled to Occupy Protester’s Twitter Account
In a hashtag-heavy opinion, a New York judge “#denied” an Occupy Wall Street protester’s motion to quash a subpoena to Twitter for his account records. Twitter informed the protester, Malcolm Harris, upon receiving the subpoena and, once he filed his … Continue reading
Posted in Discovery, Privacy
Tagged Malcolm Harris, Occupy, Privacy, protest, Subpoena, terms of service, Twitter
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Toll of “Facebook Victims” Mounts
Although social media is no longer a new phenomenon, evidently even people who should know better still have not grasped that nothing on the Internet is confidential. What’s more, there is no sure demarcation between private postings and those that … Continue reading
Posted in Employment, First Amendment
Tagged Chaney, Cicero, Colombia, Employment Law, Facebook, First Amendment, GSA, Iniquez, Morton, Neely, NLRB, policies, Social Media
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