Overlawyered » online speech

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:34:49 +0000

Boilermaker union president resorts to litigation against satirical site [Levy; another case on demands for disclosure of anonymous commenters] More on ghastly NY bill to strip protection from anonymous online speech [David Kravets/Wired, Daily Caller, my take]
Defending people like Aaron Worthing and Patterico shouldn’t be a left-right matter [Popehat, Tapscott/Examiner, earlier] Maryland and indeed all states need stronger statutory protection against vexatious litigants [Ace of Spades] And as a longtime Charles Schwab customer I was at first distressed to find the Schwab Charitable Fund on this list, but since the fund is billed as “donor-advised” I take it some Schwab customer rather than the company itself got to choose the beneficiary;
“Indonesia Prosecution for Posting ‘God Doesn’t Exist’ on Facebook” [Volokh] Curious to see an argument for Euro-style hate speech laws appearing on the Liberty and Law site [David Conway]
“Cyberbullying and Bullying Used As Pretexts for Censorship” [Bader]
“EEOC: Wearing Confederate Flag T-Shirts May Be ‘Hostile Work Environment Harassment’” [Volokh, more, Bader]
Video on new freedom of assembly book [FedSoc]
Maybe Citizens United turned out so badly for the speech-suppressive side because a government lawyer was imprudently candid before the Court [Jacob Sullum, earlier on Toobin New Yorker piece]

Tags: bullying, campaign regulation, EEOC, hate speech, hostile environment, libel slander and defamation, Maryland, online speech, serial litigants

Free speech roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Unclear on the First Amendment in Albany

Walter Olson — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:46:53 +0000

More than two dozen members of the New York state assembly, including nearly half its GOP members, have signed on to a flagrantly unconstitutional bill that would empower complainants to force the takedown of anonymous online speech by claiming to have been victimized by it. To avoid takedown, the website sponsor would have to disclose information about the authorship of the supposedly offensive post including the writer’s name and home address. Eugene Volokh:

Nor would this be limited to comments that allegedly libel someone, or even insult someone (though that would be bad enough), despite all the talk of preventing cyber-bullying by the bill’s backers. Rather, the law would apply any time anyone makes a “request” that a comment be removed, even if the comment doesn’t mention anyone by name but is simply religiously or politically offensive to the “request[er].” The same would apply to anonymous material added to Wikipedia, if Wikipedia were found to be subject to New York jurisdiction, anonymous videos posted to YouTube, and so on.

The sponsors of the bill claim that it is part of a legislative effort against “cyber-bullying.” Scott Greenfield’s post has the best headline: “New York to Publius: You’re Done, Bully-Boy.” Related on “cyber-bullying” here (& welcome Above the Law readers).

Tags: bullying, New York state, online speech

Unclear on the First Amendment in Albany is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:16:34 +0000

Keeping prosecutors busy? Georgia lawmaker files bill that would make Internet defamation a crime [Fulton County Daily Report]
Sarkozy calls for law banning visits to pro-terror websites [Ken Paulson, First Amendment Center]
“Ron Paul Campaign Drops Effort To Identify Anonymous Videographer” [Paul Alan Levy]
Playboy caused how many divorces? Junk science in the service of big-government conservatism [Andrew Stuttaford, NRO] How Santorum’s plans to get porn off internet go beyond GWB’s [Josh Barro] Contra Santorum, “arrival of Internet was associated with reduction in rape incidence” [Steve Chapman]
“Brian Deer and the British Medical Journal File An Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Andrew Wakefield” [Popehat]
Iowa passes law penalizing animal rightsers who spy on farms [Reuters, earlier] Illinois turns thumbs down on “ag-gag” proposal [Steve Chapman]
“What’s happened to free speech in Britain?” [Alex Massie, John O'Sullivan/NRO, earlier here and others]

Tags: animal rights, France, free speech, Iowa, libel slander and defamation, online speech, Ron Paul, terrorism, United Kingdom

Free speech roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Uncle Sam: If It Ends in .Com, It’s .Seizable”

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:49:10 +0000

Despite protests from online entities based abroad, “the U.S. government … says it has the right to seize any .com, .net and .org domain name because the companies that have the contracts to administer them are based on United States soil, according to Nicole Navas, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.” Unease abroad about aggressive use of such powers by the American government could heighten pressure for a U.N. takeover of the domain name system, potentially a frying-pan-into-fire move from the standpoint of web freedom and due process. [David Kravets, Wired "Threat Level"]

P.S. Extradition, too.

Tags: online speech, United Nations

“Uncle Sam: If It Ends in .Com, It’s .Seizable” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Posited “right to be forgotten online”

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:02:16 +0000

This idea, gaining some currency in Europe, would require government to get deeply into the control of privately published information content [Adam Thierer, Scott Greenfield, PC World]

Tags: Europe, online speech, privacy

Posited “right to be forgotten online” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Ron Paul campaign sues John Does over anti-Huntsman video

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:32:22 +0000

“Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s campaign committee sued the unidentified makers of a video attacking ex-Republican rival Jon Huntsman claiming it falsely implies it was made or endorsed by the Texas congressman.” [Bloomberg] Paul Alan Levy contends that Rep. Paul, a longtime civil liberties advocate, should know better than to advance arguments that would if accepted narrow the legal protections afforded to anonymous political speech.

Tags: campaign regulation, movies film and videos, online speech, Ron Paul

Ron Paul campaign sues John Does over anti-Huntsman video is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

SOPA fight heats up

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:54:34 +0000

Brad Plumer in the Washington Post summarizes the provisions of the bill as well as the state of play on it in Congress as of mid-month. Although much commentary has assumed that persons determined to visit blocked sites could readily find ways around the SOPA restrictions, David Post notes that the draft bill authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctions against persons who assist in circumventing the law, which might include websites that publish “here’s how to evade SOPA blocking” information. Timothy Lee at ArsTechnica notes growing opposition to the bill among conservatives, while Joshua Kopstein at Motherboard reviews a comic markup session. Meanwhile, “Gibson Guitar & Others On SOPA Supporters List Say They Never Supported The Bill” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt] Earlier here and here.

Tags: copyright, online speech, RIAA and file sharing

SOPA fight heats up is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“SOPA: An Architecture for Censorship”

Walter Olson — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:09:53 +0000

The proposed law is being promoted as a way of blocking piratical “rogue” sites, but once it’s up and working, and internet providers have begun automatically blocking sites from a list continually updated by the government, it won’t stop with copyright and trademark infringers. Extending the interdiction to other sorts of sites will be a relatively simple and straightforward matter:

With the legal framework in place, expanding it to cover other conduct — obscenity, defamation, “unfair competition,” patent infringement, publication of classified information, advocacy in support of terror groups — would be a matter of adding a few words to those paragraphs.

How long before a sentimental Congress yields to demands to block suicide- or anorexia-promotion sites, or perhaps those accused of glorifying the taking of illegal drugs or profiting from depictions of animal cruelty? [Julian Sanchez, Cato, more; earlier] More: Stephen DeMaura and David Segal, Roll Call (potential use against political candidates), Bill Wilson (ALG), The Hill, Stanford Law Review, “Don’t Break the Internet”.

Tags: copyright, free speech, online speech, trademarks

“SOPA: An Architecture for Censorship” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The case against SOPA/”Protect IP”

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:19:46 +0000

My Cato colleague Julian Sanchez argues that a bill rapidly moving through Congress would give far too much power to authorities to close down websites without due process, yet would be readily circumvented by actual IP pirates. More: Sanchez/Cato, BoingBoing, Declan McCullagh (software execs blast proposal), Derek Bambauer/Prawfs (“Six Things Wrong With SOPA”), Stewart Baker/Volokh.

Tags: copyright, online speech, RIAA and file sharing

The case against SOPA/”Protect IP” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Free speech and chilling effects roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:49:45 +0000

“Stamp Out Online Misogyny?” [Wendy Kaminer, Brendan O'Neill]
Jacob Mchangama of Danish think tank CEPOS on blasphemy laws and Islam-critical speech [Nov. 4 FedSoc., PDF]
Niall Ferguson to sue LRB scribe? “If he won’t apologise for calling me a racist, I will persecute him until he does” [Guardian; more, Atlantic Wire] New York judge quashes subpoena seeking to identify anonymous bloggers in rabbi-defamation suit [Paul Alan Levy]
“If bullying has gone down, how can it be a pandemic?” By broadening its definition to include such behaviors as “eye-rolling” and pointed non-invitation [Hans Bader/Examiner, Neal McCluskey/Cato]
“I strongly recommend an umbrella policy for all bloggers. Defending myself cost nearly $100,000, thankfully paid by insurance.” [@DianaHsieh]
Federal crime under CFAA to lie on the internet? [Kerr, more, yet more, Balko]
“Will Canada Repeal its Hate Speech Law?” [Peter Worthington, Frum Forum]

Tags: bullying, free speech, free speech in Canada, hate speech, libel slander and defamation, online speech

Free speech and chilling effects roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system