- Judge blocks California budget cuts re: in-home services for disabled [Mercury News]
- Media exploited her daughter for titillation, claims suit by mother of “Toddlers & Tiaras” star [Above the Law]
- Narrower definition of autism ahead? [Althouse]
- “Police Charge Canadian Blogger With Criminal Libel for Criticizing the Police” [Sullum, Popehat]
- Prince George’s County, Maryland, wants to ban liquor deliveries; no harm linked to them, but you can’t be too sure [Ben Giles, Washington Examiner] Centers for Disease Control’s curious definition of “binge” drinking [Sullum]
- The law of authors’ liability for inaccurate memoirs [Mark Fowler, Rights Of Writers; earlier here, etc.]
- “Diagnosing Liability: The Legal History of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” [Deirdre M. Smith, SSRN via TortsProf]
Tagged as:
alcohol,
autism,
Canada,
Maryland,
publishers
“The Village Voice is giving up on a scheme to force rivals to pay for permission to use the phrase ‘best of.’” [Paid Content]
Tagged as:
publishers,
trademarks
Alex Beam at the Boston Globe and Ian Crouch at the New Yorker write about the rise of lawsuits over unsatisfactory book contents, as with class actions filed over Greg Mortenson’s challenged memoirs and, before that, those of James Frey. Beam also brings up the outrageous lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter and his publisher by someone who disagrees with the views Carter expressed in a book on the Mideast conflict. I’m quoted in both pieces (and at especially generous length in Beam’s). [Boston Globe, New Yorker; earlier here, here, etc.] (& WSJ Law Blog)
Tagged as:
class actions,
publishers
“Finding that Google has no duty to provide accurate content on its website, a Utah judge has thrown out the novel case of a woman who claimed that faulty walking directions on Google Maps caused her to be hit by a car.” [OnPoint News, earlier here, etc.] The same post, updating another story we’ve noted, reports that a bill to make guidebook publishers liable for some injuries to tourists has died in the Hawaii legislature.
Tagged as:
Google,
Hawaii,
publishers,
roads and streets
Welcome Daily Beast readers: Newsweek reporter Mike Giglio quotes me on the class action lawsuits filed over Greg Mortenson’s book Three Cups of Tea. Earlier coverage here.
Tagged as:
class actions,
publishers
Evil Twin Comics:
Get ready for non-stop action, action, action — LEGAL action, that is! The incredible, insane true story of the American comic book industry continues with the ALL-LAWSUIT ISSUE! DC vs. Fawcett! Disney vs. the Air Pirates! Jack Kirby vs. Marvel over his stolen artwork! Steve Gerber over Howard the Duck! Don De Carlo over Josie and the Pussycats!
["Comic Book Comics #5" via THR Esq. and Lowering the Bar]
Tagged as:
art and artists,
publishers
According to Prof. Joseph Weiler’s website, a tribunal in France has not only dismissed the criminal libel complaint that Prof. Karin Calvo-Goller filed against him, but has imposed a monetary penalty on the complainant for abuse of process. The dispute arose over a negative book review in an academic journal Weiler edits (earlier here, here, etc.).
Tagged as:
France,
libel slander and defamation,
publishers
A new way to harass authors whose controversial message one disapproves of? The lawsuit, which demands $5 million, claims that the former President’s 2006 volume “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” contains “numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised.” Sanctions, please! [Washington Post "Political Bookworm"]
Tagged as:
Israel,
publishers
The intention of protecting American authors from overreaching foreign defamation suits certainly seems a good one. But what about the details? Howard Wasserman, who has raised various objections in the past, finds the bill that just passed the Senate “a dramatic improvement over earlier versions.” [Prawfsblawg]
Tagged as:
forum shopping,
libel slander and defamation,
publishers
- Math curriculum wars in Seattle school district head for court [Seattle Times]
- Stuart Taylor, Jr. reviews new Abigail Thernstrom book on the Voting Rights Act [New Republic]
- Gail Wilensky: Dems could’ve gotten GOP votes for health care reform if they’d compromised on medical liability [The Hill]
- Erin Brockovich swoops down on Florida cancer cluster [Fumento/CEI, more, also on Florida case]
- Barry Goldwater was right: right-leaning bloggers favor lifting military gay ban by 62-37 margin in National Journal bloggers poll;
- Jim Copland vs. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [Point of Law, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more]
- Why is there no iPod or iPhone equivalent for automobiles? Regulation might have something to do with it [Ryan Avent and more via Sullivan; McArdle and more (commenter: "Motorcycles would never, EVER be approved by NHTSA if they were invented today.")]
- So reassuring: for now FTC says it’s “unlikely to actually investigate individual bloggers” [Lewis, NYLJ] More from late last year on commission’s semi-retreat on blogger freebies [Publisher's Weekly, GalleySmith, GalleyCat, Reason "Hit and Run", William S. Galkin] Icons to make disclosure easy [Louis Gray]
Tagged as:
Arlen Specter,
Erin Brockovich,
FTC endorsement rules,
military,
NHTSA,
publishers,
schools,
Seattle,
Voting Rights Act
