News & Media
9th Circuit rules – Righthaven is dead, finally. Righthaven v. Hoehn
The order speaks for itself – and here it is.
The New Victorians Strike Campus Yet Again (VIDEO)
By Greg Lukianoff While they are rightfully accused of being hyper-politically correct, college campuses these days sometimes seem downright Victorian. Take, for example, the case of Isaac Rosenbloom, a student whose quest to complete college so he could become a paramedic was nearly ended after he complained to another student about an assignment after class. Rosenbloom told his classmate that the grade he got on the assignment was “going to fuck up my entire GPA.” When his professor overheard him, she threatened the 29-year-old father of two with (I kid you not) “detention.” Rosenbloom was brought up under the charge of “flagrant disrespect of any person”—an actual offense at Hinds Community College in Mississippi. Check out Isaac’s story in this
Fiddler's Creek suits become latest in libel, slander cases involving bloggers
Naples News reports on the latest defamation case filed against a blogger by Fiddler’s Creek Foundation. Attorney Marc Randazza represents the blogger defendant in the case. Randazza said of his client: He has a right to speak out about matters of public concern. Read More…
Phoenix Forum Hums With Activity on Day 2
XBiz Newswire reports on Phoenix Forum 2013, a yearly forum for the adult entertainment industry. Attorney Marc Randazza spoke on a panel about adult industry ethics. Read More…
Reversal of Fortune? Alan Dershowitz Loses in Las Vegas
In its Quote of the Day feature, legal blog AbovetheLaw.com quotes attorney Marc Randazza in his recent success in arguing for cameras in the courtroom against opposing counsel, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Randazza said: Without access to information, there is no free press. While it was a privilege to argue against Mr. Dershowitz, it was more of an honor to secure a First Amendment win for the press and public. Read More…
Accusations of child porn and extortion fail to stop revenge porn site operator
Venture Beat discusses the latest threatened lawsuit filings against revenge porn site IsAnybodyDown.com. As reported in the article, attorney Marc Randazza has been building a case against the website. Randazza says he’s not a savior, but: I’m just a lawyer doing my job. Read More…
Adult Industry Attorney Marc Randazza Bests Dershowitz, Wins Right to Broadcast Trial
XBiz Newswire reports on attorney Marc Randazza’s recent victory arguing that cameras should be allowed in a courtroom in Las Vegas. Of the victory, which pitted him against opposing counsel Alan Dershowitz, Randazza said: Without access to information, there is no free press. Read More…
U.S. Supreme Court passes on Thomas-Rasset Case
The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman famously sued by the RIAA (sub nom Capitol Records) in 2006 during its multi-year litigation campaign. Thomas-Rasset has already gone through three trials and numerous appeals in this matter, and currently faces a judgment of $220,000 held by the RIAA. While the RIAA claims it has been willing to settle this matter from its inception, Thomas-Rasset has protested throughout the proceedings that she is unable to pay what the RIAA demands. Thomas-Rasset contends there is no way the RIAA can collect on its judgment.
A Jesuit Named Francis
By J. DeVoy The new pope is something of a mind-bender for products of Catholic education. Explaining why takes some time, though. Jorge Bergoglio is a member of the Jesuit order, commonly known as the “Society of Jesus,” which came into existence in the late 1500’s. (The term “Society of Jesus” previously referred to a military order established by Pope Pius II in 1450 to fight the Turks and spread Catholicism, but was eventually de-militarized and reappropriated to the Jesuits.) Founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuits generally are the academic wing of Catholicism and run many of its prominent universities, including Georgetown and the numerous Loyola Universities. While being academics, Jesuits are also something of the flower-children of Catholicism;
Revenge Porn's Hunter Moore Hit With $250K Defamation Judgment
XBiz Newswire reports that revenge porn site operator was hit with a $250,000 judgment related to comments he made about Bullyville.com founder James McGibney. Randazza Legal Group represented McGibney in the defamation lawsuit. Of this case, which was the first plaintiff’s side defamation case filed by Randazza Legal Group, Marc Randazza said: While Randazza Legal Group is more well known for defending defamation cases, we take plaintiff’s side defamation cases when we think the cause is just. This was one such case. Read More…
Alleged Copyright Troll's Day in Court
No matter your opinion on U.S. copyright law, it is the law of the land. Copying a work without consent may be unlawful and subject the copier to damages. On this blog, and others, we’ve seen instances of legitimate and illegitimate copyright claims. An entirely separate issue is the manner by which copyright claims are enforced. In the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, there have been concerns raised regarding certain attorneys, their firms, and (as the judge termed it) their “shell” companies. Yesterday, a hearing was held at which certain non-appearing attorneys affiliated with Prenda Law were invited to attend, as well as an attorney formerly associated with that firm. Ken White at Popehat attended and
Revenge porn site founder loses $250k defamation suit
ArsTechnica published an article about a Clark County Court judgment against IsAnyoneUp site founder Hunter Moore for comments he made about Bullyville.com founder James McGibney. Randazza Legal Group represented McGibney in the lawsuit, which resulted in a $250,000 judgment against Moore. Of the judgment, attorney Marc Randazza said, As you can see in the judgment, this was not just a situation where the plaintiff was merely upset by the defendant’s words. We were required to put on evidence of damages, which we did. Read More….
Alleged Copyright Troll Sues Critics
By Jay Wolman In a page out of Rakofsky vs. The Internet, it appears that one of the law firms and attorney groups frequently criticized as representing copyright trolls, Paul Duffy, John Steele, and Prenda Law, has gone on the offense against its critics. More details here: Prenda Law, John Steele, and Paul Duffy file suit against Alan Cooper, his lawyer Paul Godfread, and anonymous John Does Here: Copyright trolls Prenda Law, Paul Duffy, and John Steele commence three lawsuits v. Paul Godfread, Alan Cooper and our community and here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130303/23353022182/prenda-law-sues-critics-defamation.shtml copies of the complaints are linked by Jordan Rushie (1st Link). I have not read the entirety of the complaints, but I believe I saw quite a few protected statements that
Drones and Privacy Rights
By Jay Wolman Shameless plug: I appeared on Fox 25 Boston last night discussing issues relating to privacy rights and personal use drones that take surveillance video. Link to the article, with video, is here: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/21202581/2013/02/14/privacy-concerns-rise-as-personal-drone-market-expands And a companion piece I wrote: http://www.bostonbusinesslitigation.com/technology/unmanned-drones-and-the-right-to-privacy/
The American Conservative on Copyright Reform
By J. DeVoy Following up on the leaked Republican Study Committee report on copyright law reform from a few months ago, The American Conservative offers this analysis on the political right’s flirtation with scaling back certain copyright protections, such as the duration of copyright and statutory damages of up to $150,000 that can be wielded like a cudgel against small-time infringers. From the piece: Today’s copyright law exhibits a pattern typical of crony capitalism—regulations restrict new entrants and creators (DJs and other remix artists in the music field, for instance) to shore up the market position of current players (record labels). But there are now powerful business interests in favor of weakening copyright as well. Opposition to the Chamber of
The de-fanging of 17 U.S.C. § 512(f)
When a university student performed fellatio in a photobooth at her sorority’s formal ball, she probably wasn’t thinking about copyright issues. When the images were, unbeknownst to her, uploaded onto facebook, she probably wasn’t thinking about the fact that the person who captured the images took the rights, or the complexity of who may own the images, depending on how they were created, as we’ve seen before. (The automatic upload of these images to facebook is very common for these services, and may be governed by their contracts with the entities holding the events where they provide services.) She was probably embarrassed, and thinking about the fastest way to remove the images from the Internet, rather than the legally proper
Revenge porn website operator accused of 'catfishing' to trick woman into sending him nude photos so he upload to site
Daily Mail reports on Randazza Legal Group’s efforts to combat revenge porn websites. IsAnybodyDown.com operator Craig Brittain was accused by two women of impersonating an online identity in order to get nude photos from them and post them on the website. Attorney Marc Randazza has been suing the operators of the websites for copyright infringement on behalf of the victims. Th article says: Randazza has been in touch with several women whose photos were posted on the website. Read More…
Score Another One for Porn
By J. DeVoy Pubic lice (better known as “crabs”) aren’t necessarily going extinct, but reported cases are way down due to brazilian waxing and the pubic grooming trends staked out by the porn industry.
Marc Randazza on Steubenville Rape, Defamation, and the Limits to Free Speech
Attorney Marc Randazza recently appeared on Reason.tv to discuss the Steubenville rape case, in which Randazza acted as consulting attorney. Randazza says: The law needs to look at journalism as a thing you do, not journalists as a thing you are. Watch More…
Reason TV Interview
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv_CGlzRPhw]
