Recent Articles

FourCast 112: The Nanobots Made My Brain Do It

March 13, 2012 21:05

A little bit off topic — hope you don’t mind… I had a great time being on FourCast yesterday (video embedded below) with hosts Tom Merrit and Scott Johnson, and with Shannon Morse. We talked about encountering rogue planets with subterranean life, nanobots affecting thoughts and...

Website operators not liable for third party comments

March 12, 2012 02:29

Spreadbury v. Bitterroot Public Library, 2012 WL 734163 (D. Montana, March 6, 2012) Plaintiff was upset at some local government officials, and ended up getting arrested for allegedly trespassing at the public library. Local newspapers covered the story, including on their websites. Some online...

School district has to stop filtering web content

February 27, 2012 20:00

PFLAG v. Camdenton R–III School Dist., 2012 WL 510877 (W.D.Mo. Feb. 16, 2012) Several website publishers that provide supportive resources directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth filed a First Amendment lawsuit against a school district over the district’s use of...

Video: This Week in Law Episode 150

February 25, 2012 22:56

Had a great time hosting This Week in Law Episode 150, which we recorded on February 24. (Thanks to Denise Howell for handing over the hosting reins while she was off for the week.) It was a really fun conversation with three very smart panelists — Mike Godwin, Greg Sergienko and Jonathan...

No restraining order against uncle posting family photos on Facebook

February 15, 2012 00:20

Court refuses to consider common law invasion of privacy tort to support restraining order under Minnesota statute. Olson v. LaBrie, 2012 WL 426585 (Minn. App. February 13, 2012) Appellant sought a restraining order against his uncle, saying that his uncle engaged in harassment by posting family...

Teacher fired over Facebook post gets her job back

February 10, 2012 02:20

Court invokes notion of “contextual integrity” to evaluate social media user’s online behavior. Rubino v. City of New York, 2012 WL 373101 (N.Y. Sup. February 1, 2012) The day after a student drowned at the beach while on a field trip, a fifth grade teacher updated her Facebook...

Six interesting technology law issues raised in the Facebook IPO

February 02, 2012 04:55

Patent trolls, open source, do not track, SOPA, PIPA and much, much more: Facebook’s IPO filing has a real zoo of issues. The securities laws require that companies going public identify risk factors that could adversely affect the company’s stock. Facebook’s S-1 filing, which it...

On the radio: Mobile devices and the Fourth Amendment

February 01, 2012 02:44

I was honored to be a guest on this morning’s episode of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s show Listen Out Loud, talking with host Dave Miller about the recent case of Schlossberg v. Solesbee. Listen to the interview here: MP3 We talked about the Fourth Amendment and, more specifically, the...

Fair use, the DMCA, and presidential politics

January 31, 2012 01:31

The 2012 presidential election cycle is already giving internet law enthusiasts things to talk about. Last week it was Ron Paul’s grumblings about an unauthorized campaign ad on YouTube. Now NBC is moaning about a Mitt Romney ad comprised almost entirely of Tom Brokaw on the Nightly News in...

Are nonpirate Megaupload users entitled to compensation from the government?

January 28, 2012 05:01

If I left my coat in a taxi that was later impounded because, unknown to me, the driver was transporting heroin in the trunk, would I be left out in the cold? People who used Megaupload to lawfully store and transfer files are rightfully upset that their stuff is unavailable after last week’s...