Category Archives: Discovery
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
Texas Court: Internet Not Just for Voodoo Anymore
A Texan appellate court affirmed a murder conviction in a 2007 freeway shootout after finding that postings to the defendant Ronnie Tienda Jr.’s MySpace page were properly admitted against him during the trial. The case shows how far Texas judges … Continue reading
Could Book Privacy Law Apply to Blogs?
MediaPost spoke to several law professors regarding whether California’s new Reader Privacy Act, a law barring online book services from disclosing reader information to authorities absent a court order, could apply to bloggers. We tend to agree that such application … Continue reading
Plaintiff Ordered to Turn Over Social Media Passwords
A Pennsylvania court pointed to Facebook’s history of privacy controversies in holding that a litigant had no expectation of privacy for Facebook posts and ordering him to turn over his password. Photos posted to social media sites by the plaintiff … Continue reading
Courts Shield ISPs from Liability
A federal court in California held that ISPs are immune from liability for complying with subpoenas seeking user-identifying information. The plaintiff in Sams v. Yahoo! argued that Yahoo! violated federal and California computer privacy statutes by handing over “personal and … Continue reading
Court: Attorney Emails From Work Computer Not Privileged
A California appellate court held (.pdf) that emails a plaintiff sent to her attorney from her work computer and email account were not protected by the attorney client privilege because company policies prohibited use of its computers for personal emailing … Continue reading
Formerly Known as Privileged
The court in the infamous “Dancing Baby Case” ruled that the plaintiff waived the attorney-client privilege by discussing the case in emails, chat sessions, and blogs. Plaintiff Stephanie Lenz filed the suit after Universal Music demanded that YouTube take … Continue reading
Courts Mull Identifying Anonymous Commenters
Two recent cases deal with the protection of website commenters’ identities, one in a traditional media context and the other dealing with pseudonymous Tweets sought by a grand jury. In re: Indiana Newspapers Inc. involved a comment to a story … Continue reading →