This is the kind of story bloggers dream about covering. Some bloggers may fear such a story ever being about them and their sites. Others bloggers may well see the inherent value of the controversy and wish it had been about them.
The story is: The popular tabloid Abovethelaw.com has been sued regarding alleged portrayal in an article of an academic in a false light, alleged invasion of privacy, and alleged infringement of copyright. The latter concerns the blog's alleged illegal publication of a photo from a website.
The plaintiff, a University of Miami School of Law professor, wants $22 million in damages and for ATL to also remove all posts from 2007 which refer to him. That plaintiff is Donald Marvin Jones, an African-American, whose law suit has been filed pro se. Yes, pro se. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on October 27th, 2009, reports Karen Sloan on THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. The defendants are:
- David Lat, ATL Managing Editor
- David Minkin, ATL Publisher
- Breaking Media, ATL parent company which had once been called Dead Horse Media.
The facts, explains Sloan, are that Jones had been arrested by Miami police on August 22, 2007 for allegedly trying to solicit an undercover officer for sex for $20. The charges were later dropped and the record expunged. Before that, ATL published three pieces, including a collage of photos submitted by a person claiming to be a University of Miami law student. Sloan points out
"On the site, Lat referred to the collage as 'irreverent, crass, and politically incorrect humor.' The same post contained the disclaimer: 'We acknowledge that he merely stands accused of wrongdoing; he hasn't been convicted of anything.'"
Lat is a lawyer. The issue in this case might turn out to not be so much about the medium of blogging but about the parameters of humor. What is the line between taking a hilarious angle on an event and between misleading coverage. Could this become another Lenny Bruce type litigation? I doubt it, based on the strange development that Jones filed the suit pro se. We all know that adage: The man who defends himself has a fool for a client. To me it's irrelevant that the man is himself a law professor.
Since I realized that there are undercover officers everywhere you go, I always behave well all the time.
If that guy is a Law professor, he had ought now that he was breaking the law.
Posted by: viagra online | July 07, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Point is he was arrested and yes the charges were dropped and his record was expunged. An arrest is a public record unless the person is a minor. Papers print that all the time.
An attorney will do this all the time. They write whatever they want all the time and believe it is protected. They don't care if what they write could seem prejudice or libel. I know the ARDC of Illinois calls it their opinion. An attorney will post his or her's opinion in a public document it could be the worst thing anyone could write about another person. But because it maybe in a legal document it is considered their "opinion".
No one is supposed to argue the point sit back and let it happen. I believe what you write in document or any place you have to be able to legally prove it. But when it is posted as comments on the Internet and as long as they have a disclaimer it seems to be protected.
I may not agree with the laws of what you can and cannot post. They seem to only protect certain individuals or companies. I believe their needs to be a law requiring companies to monitor their computers. There is no law, larger companies due to protect themselves but even companies that are contractors or work directly with US Government offices do not have to monitor their computers. Think about it 45% of child molesters are college educated so figure half may work in offices with computers.
Yes we have freedom speech. But remember the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights were adopted on December 15, 1791 before electricity was even invented. So at that time other than newspapers that is how information was given out. Should there be better laws that explains what you can and cannot post and what is legally protected. Yes
Posted by: Jan | November 07, 2009 at 01:01 PM