STATUS: Complaint filed Feb 3rd, 2011
E.D. Mo.: Engineering Co. Seeks To Unmask Gossip Bloggers
MediaPost News
In the latest case aimed at unmasking Web users, a company that repairs turbine generators is asking a judge to order Google to disclose the identity of the author of a gossip blog. Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis, which has offices in St. Louis, alleges in court papers filed Thursday that the Sound Off blog defames current and former officers and also reveals company secrets. The court papers, filed with the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, seek "pre-case discovery" from Google.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=144388
--Complaint: Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis v. Google, Inc.; John Does (1-15)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48185099/Mechanical-Dynamics-v-Google-Complaint
Showing posts with label Discovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discovery. Show all posts
So Act Network v. Twitter, No. _____ (Ill. Cir. Ct., Cook County filed Nov. 16, 2009).
Status: Pending.
Social Action Network, operator of the social networking site SoAct!, filed a petition for pre-suit discovery naming Twitter, on order to obtain information to identify a tweeter who, using the pseudonym bobandscott, it alleges is sending defamatory messages about the company. (The tweets also appear on the Bob and Scott website.) According to the suit, the offending comments allege that So Act Network is involved in various financial frauds and stock manipulation.
Links and Court Documents:
SoAct wants Twitter to identify the users defaming it (Chicago Bar-Tender blog, Nov. 19, 2009).
>> Petition for pre-suit discovery
Status: Pending.
Social Action Network, operator of the social networking site SoAct!, filed a petition for pre-suit discovery naming Twitter, on order to obtain information to identify a tweeter who, using the pseudonym bobandscott, it alleges is sending defamatory messages about the company. (The tweets also appear on the Bob and Scott website.) According to the suit, the offending comments allege that So Act Network is involved in various financial frauds and stock manipulation.
Links and Court Documents:
SoAct wants Twitter to identify the users defaming it (Chicago Bar-Tender blog, Nov. 19, 2009).
>> Petition for pre-suit discovery
Cohen v. Google, No. 100012/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. County filed Jan. 2, 2009).
Status: Discovery motion (to reveal identity of blogger) granted.
Model Liskula Gentile Cohen sued over statements in the anonymous “Skanks in New York” blog (http://skanksnyc.blogspot.com/) that she was a “skank.”
In response to a court motion seeking to force Blogger to reveal the identitity of the anonymous blogger, the blogger responded (anonymously) with court papers arguing the posts are “rhetorical hyperbole,” and thus not libelous.
In March 2009 the blog was taken down.
In August 2009, the court ordered Blogger to reveal the blogger's identity. Cohen then contacted the blogger, who turned out to be someone she casually knew. She also dropped the underlying libel claim against her.
The outed blogger, Rosemary Port, then threatened to sue Google for revealing her identity.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/cohen-v-google-blogger
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101238
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=99112
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=97848
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1366627/skanks_in_new_york_and_liskula_cohen.html
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062009/news/regionalnews/model_snared_in_ugly_web_147440.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/01/05/2009-01-05_model_liskula_cohen_sues_google_over_blo.html
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102465
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=111783
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/08/23/2009-08-23_outted_blogger_rosemary_port_blames_model_liskula_cohen_for_skank_stink.html
Court order requiring disclosure: http://m.mediapost.com/pdf/Cohen_doc.pdf
Status: Discovery motion (to reveal identity of blogger) granted.
Model Liskula Gentile Cohen sued over statements in the anonymous “Skanks in New York” blog (http://skanksnyc.blogspot.com/) that she was a “skank.”
In response to a court motion seeking to force Blogger to reveal the identitity of the anonymous blogger, the blogger responded (anonymously) with court papers arguing the posts are “rhetorical hyperbole,” and thus not libelous.
In March 2009 the blog was taken down.
In August 2009, the court ordered Blogger to reveal the blogger's identity. Cohen then contacted the blogger, who turned out to be someone she casually knew. She also dropped the underlying libel claim against her.
The outed blogger, Rosemary Port, then threatened to sue Google for revealing her identity.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/cohen-v-google-blogger
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101238
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=99112
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=97848
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1366627/skanks_in_new_york_and_liskula_cohen.html
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062009/news/regionalnews/model_snared_in_ugly_web_147440.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/01/05/2009-01-05_model_liskula_cohen_sues_google_over_blo.html
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102465
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=111783
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/08/23/2009-08-23_outted_blogger_rosemary_port_blames_model_liskula_cohen_for_skank_stink.html
Court order requiring disclosure: http://m.mediapost.com/pdf/Cohen_doc.pdf
Tendler v. Doe, No. 1-06-cv-064507 (Cal. Super. filed 2006); also see Tendler v. Doe, No. ________ (Ohio C.P. filed Feb. 2006)
Status: Discovery order issued; denial of attempt to enforce order in California reversed and remanded for further proceedings (164 Cal.App.4th 802, 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 407, 36 Media L. Rep. 2025 (Cal.App., 6 Dist., June 10, 2008)).
Orthodox Jewish rabbi Mordechai Tendler of New Hempstead, N.Y., was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005 and dismissed by his congregation in 2006 after several women accused him of sexual abuse and harassment.
Various blogs, including www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com, www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com, www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com, anonymously reported on these developments.
Tendler filed a libel lawsuit in Ohio against the anonymous bloggers, and as a preliminary matter obtained a court order ordering Google, owner of blogspot.com, to reveal the bloggers’ identities.
The company refused to obey the Ohio order, so Tendler filed suit in California state court. In that court, the bloggers responded by filing a motion to strike under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute. Although Tendler then withdrew the suit, the California judge held that the suit would have been dismissed under the anti-SLAPP law and that Tendler must still pay the defendants’ legal expenses.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2233
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/tendler-v-does
California appeals decision: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF
Status: Discovery order issued; denial of attempt to enforce order in California reversed and remanded for further proceedings (164 Cal.App.4th 802, 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 407, 36 Media L. Rep. 2025 (Cal.App., 6 Dist., June 10, 2008)).
Orthodox Jewish rabbi Mordechai Tendler of New Hempstead, N.Y., was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005 and dismissed by his congregation in 2006 after several women accused him of sexual abuse and harassment.
Various blogs, including www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com, www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com, www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com, anonymously reported on these developments.
Tendler filed a libel lawsuit in Ohio against the anonymous bloggers, and as a preliminary matter obtained a court order ordering Google, owner of blogspot.com, to reveal the bloggers’ identities.
The company refused to obey the Ohio order, so Tendler filed suit in California state court. In that court, the bloggers responded by filing a motion to strike under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute. Although Tendler then withdrew the suit, the California judge held that the suit would have been dismissed under the anti-SLAPP law and that Tendler must still pay the defendants’ legal expenses.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2233
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/tendler-v-does
California appeals decision: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF
Apple Computer, Inc. v. Doe, No. 1-04-CV-032178, 20005 WL 578641, 33 Media L. Rep. 1449 (Cal. Ct. of Santa Clara County Cal.
Status: Discovery motion denied; lawsuit against alleged leakers withdrawn
Status: Discovery motion denied; lawsuit against alleged leakers withdrawn
In Dec. 2004, Apple Computer, Inc., filed suit against numerous unknown entities in connection with the leak of confidential information prior to the release of an Apple product codenamed "Asteroid." The information, which Apple claims are trade secrets, was posted on a number of websites, including AppleInsider (http://www.appleinsider.com/) and PowerPage (http://www.powerpage.org/). Apple sued the unknown people who leaked the information. In an attempt to determine who these people were, Apple subpoenaed Nfox, the e-mail service provider for PowerPage, seeking e-mail messages that could identify the source(s) of the leaked information. The trial court ruled that Apple is entitled to subpoena an e-mail provider to try and identify the source(s), but declined to determine whether the bloggers qualified as journalists under the
Links and Court Documents:
Docket available at: http://www.sccaseinfo.org/
Case information and updates: http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Apple_v_Does/
Cal. App. decision at http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Apple_v_Does/H028579.pdf
In re Petition of MP, No. 07-07934-H (Tex. Dist. Ct., Dallas County filed 2007).
Status: Discovery of anonymous blogger denied
The owner of a country club in Del Mar, Cal. filed a petition seeking on order to identify the operator and the authors of several anonymous comments on the Del Mar Country Club Sucks blog (dmccsucks.blogspot.com; no longer available). The blogger moved to quash the subpoena, and the court granted the motion.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/forms/cases/CaseDetails.cfm?cID=451
Order granting motion: http://www.citizen.org/documents/ACF428D.pdf
Status: Discovery of anonymous blogger denied
The owner of a country club in Del Mar, Cal. filed a petition seeking on order to identify the operator and the authors of several anonymous comments on the Del Mar Country Club Sucks blog (dmccsucks.blogspot.com; no longer available). The blogger moved to quash the subpoena, and the court granted the motion.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/forms/cases/CaseDetails.cfm?cID=451
Order granting motion: http://www.citizen.org/documents/ACF428D.pdf
Tendler v. Doe, No. ________ (Ohio C.P. filed Feb. 2006)
Status: Discovery order issued; attempt to enforce order in California denied.
see also Tendler v. Doe, No. 1-06-cv-064507 (Cal. Super. filed 2006)
Orthodox Jewish rabbi Mordechai Tendler of New Hempstead, N.Y., was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005 and dismissed by his congregation in 2006 after several women accused him of sexual abuse and harassment. Various blogs, including www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com, www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com, www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com, anonymously reported on these developments. Tendler filed a libel lawsuit in Ohio against the anonymous bloggers, and as a preliminary matter obtained a court order ordering Google, owner of blogspot.com, to reveal the identities of the bloggers.
The company refused to obey the Ohio order, so Tendler filed suit in California state court.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2292
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2235
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2233
California appeals decision: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF
Status: Discovery order issued; attempt to enforce order in California denied.
see also Tendler v. Doe, No. 1-06-cv-064507 (Cal. Super. filed 2006)
Orthodox Jewish rabbi Mordechai Tendler of New Hempstead, N.Y., was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005 and dismissed by his congregation in 2006 after several women accused him of sexual abuse and harassment. Various blogs, including www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com, www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com, www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com, anonymously reported on these developments. Tendler filed a libel lawsuit in Ohio against the anonymous bloggers, and as a preliminary matter obtained a court order ordering Google, owner of blogspot.com, to reveal the identities of the bloggers.
The company refused to obey the Ohio order, so Tendler filed suit in California state court.
Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2292
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2235
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2233
California appeals decision: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF
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