Google reports 68% jump in government takedown requests
photo: Flickr / Affiliate
A US government agency is yanking apps from Google Play — that’s just one finding from Google’s latest Transparency Report. Read more at GigaOM »
Repeat a horrible lie on Twitter, pay $25,000: is that fair?
photo: Thinkstock
People retweet lies and errors on Twitter all the time. Are there special cases where they should be punished for doing so? That’s what happened in the UK, raising questions again about how to regulate speech on not just Twitter, but other sites where you can slander with a single click. Read more at GigaOM »
Asiana vows to sue over racist crash report – but case is a longshot
Asiana Airlines says it will sue a TV station over a racist gaffe that allegedly injured its reputation; a media law expert says the suit will fail. Read more at GigaOM »
Google mobilizes users in fight for robots’ core values
photo: Shutterstock/Palto
Google exists because, by and large, it is allowed to excerpt web pages without being held liable as a publisher. Now moves in Germany and Australia threaten both of those core facts. Read more »
Is Twitter a publisher or a distributor? There’s a crucial difference
Twitter’s decision to suspend the account of a British journalist raises a host of questions about the company’s behavior, but one of the important ones is to what extent Twitter’s filtering and curation features could make it legally liable for the content flowing through the network. Read more at GigaOM »
Miami Heat owner sues Google, blogger over ‘unflattering’ photo
photo: Nina Malyna
In an act of childishness worthy of his championship players, a minority owner of the Miami Heat NBA team has filed a copyright suit against a blogger for posting a photo of him. He is also suing Google for refusing to take the photo down. Read more »
Calling someone ‘Gay’ no longer slander says New York court
photo: Elenaphotos21
For centuries, some insults have been considered so offensive that a plaintiff didn’t have to prove harm in a defamation lawsuit. Someone who falsely reports that a woman who is unchaste, for instance, is automatically liable in most courts. Read more »
Italy revolts over sneak return of ‘blog killer’ law
Italian bloggers are up in arms after ministers secretly resurrected their attempts to introduce a new law that could see them fined thousands of Euros for not responding quickly enough to request for corrections — an approach dubbed the “blog killer” by critics. Read more at GigaOM »
Ron Paul Fails Again To Identify YouTube, Twitter Impostors
A judge has once again rebuffed Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s efforts to unmask the people who used his name to launch racist… Read more »
Don’t Shoot The Messenger Over User Content, Courts Confirm
photo: Shutterstock / Oleksiy Mark
People are lining up to sue sites like Yelp and Ripoff Report over their users’ misbehavior, but courts continue to slam the door in their f… Read more »
Judge: Ron Paul Can’t Force Twitter, YouTube To Identify ‘Impostors’
Ron Paul’s campaign suffered a setback this week in its effort to identify who uploaded videos that appear to show the presidential candidat… Read more »
Ron Paul Campaign Sues To Stop Unauthorized Web Videos
In an unusual move, the campaign team for Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul has filed a trademark and defamation lawsuit against fo… Read more »
Gawker, Others Sued For Writing About New Yorker Art Con Story
A strange libel lawsuit that reads like a pulp version of the The Da Vinci Code just became a bit stranger — the controversial art world fi… Read more »
Chicago Doctors Sue Google Over Negative Online Reviews
photo: Fishing4Fun
An Illinois woman complained on the internet that her plastic surgery resulted in “facial lumps.” Now, two doctors who didn’t like her revie… Read more »
Court: Authors Can’t Be Sued For Linking To Libelous Material
photo: Corbis
Hyperlinking is fundamental to how information spreads on the web — it’s the reason why traffic spikes on some sites and also explains why… Read more »
Married Woman Whose Photo Was Used By Dating, Sex-Health Sites Sues Match.com
Anne Read Lattimore says she is not gay and has never been a member of the dating site Match.com. Yet, she has become a sort of public face… Read more »
