libel

I once dated a Filipina.

On her fridge were the words: "Believe in the miracle of the Blessed Virgin."

I mention this because what was written there was not quite what I experienced. There was a certain recondite, draconian, and rather unforgiving aspect to the miracle of meeting her, which undercut my initially blessed beliefs.

Naturally, not for a moment would I suggest she is representative of everyone -- or even anyone else -- in the Philippines. However, some citizens there are worried that there might be one or two difficult revelations in a miraculous new law that … Read more

People know how to upset people.

These days, perhaps the most natural method is to reach for one's laptop and say bad things about those people to all the world.

It is quite some power, one that was exercised to its fullest by one in Ottawa against another.

The first, Elayna Katz, posted two unhappy reviews of the Mambo Nuevo Latino restaurant. The Mambo's owner, Marisol Simoes, didn't react in an entirely sanguine manner.

As the Daily Mail tells it, Simoes decided to publicly besmirch Katz's sexual proclivities.

Why she went this route many might speculate. … Read more

A Japanese man discovered that if he typed his name into Google search, more than 10,000 different suggestions popped up in the autocomplete feature allegedly relating his name to criminal acts. After Google reportedly refused his request to delete some of these words, the man decided to seek a court injunction against the Web giant in Japan.

The Tokyo District Court approved his petition last week, which demanded Google remove certain terms from autocomplete, according to a Kyodo News story published on the Japan Times Web site.

Apparently, the man (whose name was not made public) figured out the … Read more

One of the fun aspects of Twitter is that you can pretend to be someone else--or just make a name up for yourself--and express your true feelings about so very many things.

However, if your feelings happen to be seen as libelous, you might now have a problem.

For the Guardian reports that Twitter has revealed the name, e-mail address, and telephone number of a person who tweeted some rather critical notions about a local council in the U.K.

The council of South Tyneside, in the rather chilly north of England, decided to petition a court in California in … Read more

Google has lost a case in Italy over the defamatory nature of autocomplete suggestions, according to a lawyer for the complainant.

Lead counsel Carlo Piana wrote on his blog today that the Court of Milan has upheld its earlier decision to order Google to filter out libelous search suggestions. These are the suggestions that pop up in Google's search input bar, proposing what the user might be wanting to search for.

People searching via Google for Piana's client, who remains publicly unnamed, were apparently presented with autocomplete suggestions including truffatore ("con man") and truffa ("fraud&… Read more

Everyone in Austin, Texas always seems unusually charming to me.

The people in Starbucks always have time for a chat. And the staff at the wildly gothic Mansion at Judges Hill (which, I am told, used to be a very fine rehab facility) can induce a smile by merely looking at you.

However, it appears that when certain citizens of Austin get behind their computers, they turn into monstrous villains.

This, at least, appears to be the view of Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the chief is considering pursuing commenters on blogs who have either … Read more

Last week, a judge ordered Google to reveal the name of a blogger who may have defamed Vogue model Liskula Cohen. Now Rosemary Port, whose "Skanks in NYC" blog suggested Cohen was a "skank" and a "ho" among other potentially negative descriptions, is now turning a little of her "frank in NYC" wrath on Google.

You may be moved a little by Port's logic. Firstly, she told the New York Daily News that it was Cohen who caused all the fuss: "Before her suit, there were probably two hits on … Read more

I know that some people have pleasures that are not entirely innocent.

They go to sites such as What Would Tyler Durden Do? or Dlisted to read the occasionally besmirching remark aimed at those more famous, wealthy, and beautiful than themselves.

Sometimes, the bloggers behind these bastions of moral sure-footedness prefer to remain anonymous. However, a court ruling on Monday in New York might change that.

Liskula Cohen, a Vogue cover model, won an interesting case against the nameless blogger behind the erudite site Skanks in NYC.

Judge Joan Madden ruled that Cohen is entitled to know the identity of … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest post. See Michael Songer's bio below.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, we have seen a number of well-known legal disputes: legality of peer-to-peer services such as Napster and Grokster, cybersquatting, laws (trying) to regulate porn, even "veejay" Adam Curry trying to use the MTV domain name.

As we head into 2010 and beyond, here are some legal issues that are likely to careen through cyberspace in the next few years.

1. Lawsuits related to stupid/silly conduct shown on the Internet. The assimilation of broadband brought with it those "viral videos": … Read more