Universal Music Group v. Lindor, Civil No. 05-1095 (E.D.N.Y. motion filed Sept. 2008).
Status: Sanctions motion denied

In the course of a long-running, acrimonious case alleging that Brooklyn home health aide Marie Lindor had downloaded various copyrighted songs from the Kazaa pirate music website, in September 2008 the plaintiffs moved for dismissal, arguing that much of the evidence in the case had been destroyed.  Plaintiffs also sought sanctions against the defendant and her attorney, Ray Beckerman: although the sanctions were primarily for the alleged evidence destruction and alleged evasive statements in court papers by the defendant and Beckerman, the motion also cited comments on Beckerman's "Recording Industry vs. The People" blog.

The motion was referred to a magistrate judge, who recommended denial the motion in an Oct. 9, 2009 ruling.


Case Information and Links:
Magistrate denies RIAA motion for discovery sanctions in UMG v Lindor
Request To Sanction Attorney-Blogger Rejected

Brandon v. Wizeman, No. 2008CP2602845 (S.C. Cir. Ct. default bench verdict Jan. 20, 2009).
Status: Settled (appeal of $1.8 million award to plaintiff after default judgment dismissed).

Defendant Donald Wizeman operates the Myrtle Beach Insider blog (myrtlebeachinsider.blogspot.com), which comments on local news and politics. In June 2007, a post on the blog referred to Scott Brandon, the head of a local advertising agency, as a “failed lawyer” and criticized one of his firm’s advertising campaigns. Circuit Court Judge Diane S. Goodstein entered summary judgment on liability against Wizeman after he did not appear at a Sept. 2008 hearing. Wizeman sought to have the ruling vacated in December, claiming that he had not received notice of the hearing; Goodstein refused, and Wizeman has appealed. Meanwhile, a special referee appointed by Goodstein awarded Brandon $800,000 in compensatory damages and $1.0 million in punitives.

Wizeman appealed, but before the appeal was heard the parties reached a settlement.

Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/brandon-v-wizeman
http://www.thesunnews.com/business/story/856883.html

Bible & Gospel Trust v. Twinam, Civil No. 2:07-CV-17 (D. Vt. filed Jan. 25, 2007).
Status: Defense motion to dismiss pending, July 18, 2008

The Exclusive Brethren religious group sued Timothy Twinam, the formerly anonymous owner of the www.peebs.net website, which calls the group a cult. The religious group alleges that the site threatened to publish documents in which the group claims exclusive copyright, causing “tortous interference” of the pre-trial settlement of a prior suit brought against blogger Richard Wyman of another site, www.exclusivebrethren.com. Twinam filed a motion to dismiss under Vermont’s anti-SLAPP statute. A federal magistrate recommended that the court deny the motion, 2008 WL 5216845 (D. Vt. July 18, 2008), but the district judge rejected the recommendation, and the motion is still pending.

Links and Court Documents:
Court documents: http://peebs.net/ExclusiveBrethrenNews/Press/Backgrounder-20080220.pdf

UMG Recordings v. Lindor, Civil 05-1095 (E.D.N.Y. relevant motion filed Sept. 12, 2008).

Status: Motion pending

In a case brought by a music company against a defendant who allegedly downloaded large amounts of copyrighted music, the plaintiff asked the court to declare the defendant and her attorney Ray Beckerman, who blogs about this and similar cases at recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com, “vexatious litigators” and impose sanctions for filing frivolous motions and posting them on the blog “to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass Plaintiffs.” On Dec. 30, the district court judge referred that motion to a magistrate judge.

Links and Court Documents:

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/09/plaintiffs-move-to-voluntarily-dismiss.html

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/riaa-decries-at.html

Motion: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/files/vexatious.pdf

Silver v. Lavandeira, Civil No. 08-6522 (S.D.N.Y. filed July 22, 2008).

Status: Injunction denied; suit dismissed by plaintiff.

Blogger Mario Lavandeira, who operates the perezhilton.com celebrity news blog, sued the owners and contributors to the similarly-looking and named perezrevenge.com blog site, for trademark infringement and unfair competition in California. The blogger behind the perezrevenge.com site, Elizabeth Silver, then filed her own suit in New York, alleging that Perez had posted stories on his site based on items that appeared first on her site. The trial court referred the case to a magistrate judge, who recommended that the plaintiff’s request for an injunction against Lavandeira barring him from copying items for the perezrevenge.com site, should be denied. The court agreed, and the plaintiff subsequently dropped the case.

Links and Court Documents:

Magistrate's report and recommendation (adopted by court) at http:/www.medialaw.org/MLDattachments/SilvervLavandeiramagisorder.pdf

NXIVM Corporation and First Principles, Inc. v. The Ross Institute, Civil No. 06-01051 (D. N.J. transferred March 7, 2006) (transfer from N.D.N.Y.),

Status: Pending

The organization NXIVM sued a "cult de-programmer" and two writers who authored and posted on the Internet a report on plaintiff’s program using quotes from their copyrighted seminar manual. A federal court in New York denied a preliminary injunction barring the defendants from using the materials, which was affirmed (see below). In February 2006, the case was transferred to federal court in New Jersey, where the case is pending. On June 27, the judge granted defendants’ motions to dismiss some of the claims, leaving the trade secret and contractual claims against all defendants, and the copyright claims against the Ross Institute.
In late February 2007, a magistrate judge in another case held that Ross could obtain a report that a lawyer hired by NXIVM prepared as part of an effort to discredit Ross, holding that it was not protected by attorney-client privilege because it had been given to third parties (see NXIVM Corp. v. O'Hara, Civil No. 05-1546 (N.D.N.Y. order Feb. 23, 2007)).

Links and Court Documents:
mentioned in http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1136838328818
article on discovery ruling: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1173101906318