Saturday, March 23, 2013

Online publication of court records is privileged under the 1st Amendment: Nieman v VersusLaw

Hat tip to Prof. Eric Goldman's Technology & Marketing Law Blog:

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has dismissed a case against a group of search engine companies for linking to public judicial records, in Nieman v. VersusLaw Inc. The Court ruled that publicly available judicial records are privileged under the 1st Amendment, noting that that judicial "[o]pinions are not the litigants' property. They belong to the public, which underwrites the judicial system that produces them".

March 19, 2013, Decision, Affirming Dismissal of Complaint

Monday, March 18, 2013

Cert denied in Capitol Records v Thomas-Rasset

Hat tip to Phil Usher and Wired.com

The United States Supreme Court has denied certiorari in Jammie Thomas's case, Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. This means that the award of $222,000, for downloading 24 files, stands.

US Supreme Court order list, March 18, 2013

Commentary & discussion:

Jon Newton
Copmputer World

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

Prenda law firm sues bloggers for criticizing them; EFF represents bloggers

Prenda Law Firm, one of the "copyright troll" law firms bringing mass "John Doe" cases for alleged BitTorrent downloading copyright infringements, and its principal, have sued two bloggers who have been critical of Prenda and the other "troll" lawyers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has entered the fray to defend the bloggers.

Ray Beckerman, PC