Internet Law

Plaintiff Suing Facebook Hires New Lawyers Yet Again; This Time They Are from Milberg

The plaintiff who claims he owns 50 percent of Facebook continues to press his case, despite differences with a string of lawyers. In the latest development, plaintiff Paul Ceglia has hired five new lawyers, including three from the investor class action firm Milberg, according to Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires (sub.…

Mar 6, 2012 2:08 PM CST

Cops Can Obtain Number from Cellphone Without Warrant, Posner Opinion Says

A Chicago-based appeals court has ruled that police may search a cellphone for its number without obtaining a warrant. The number on the phone, seized during the defendant’s arrest at a drug bust, was used to subpoena the owner’s call history, revealing conversations with co-conspirators, according to the Wall Street…

Mar 1, 2012 3:48 PM CST

Pin with Caution, Says Lawyer Who Deleted All Her Pinterest Posts

Updated: Pinterest is a great place to find new ideas for almost every topic imaginable, but if you’re posting images of those ideas, you’d better have permission, says a lawyer who recently deleted all her posts. Pinterest, a social sharing website where users “pin” things they like on “boards,” launched…

Feb 29, 2012 9:29 PM CST

EFF Files Suit on Behalf of Lawyer Ratings Site After Law Firm Sends Cease-and-Desist Letters

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit on behalf of LawyerRatingz.com seeking a declaratory judgment that the website is not legally responsible for online ratings of a Florida law firm. The suit, filed last week in Northern California federal court, says LawyerRatingz.com is protected by the Communications Decency Act,…

Feb 28, 2012 11:30 AM CST

Man’s Facebook Rant Violated Protective Order; Judge Says He Can Post Apology or Go to Jail

Angry about a domestic relations court protective order that ordered him to stay away from his wife and affected his custody of his son, an Ohio man vented on his personal Facebook page. That got Mark Byron in a lot more trouble, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Ordered by a Hamilton…

Feb 24, 2012 8:06 PM CST

Justin Bieber’s Lawyers Are Eager to Stop Beaver App

Updated: A 99-cent app created to appeal to Justin Bieber fans has raised the ire of the pop star’s lawyers. The app is a game called Joustin’ Beaver. A press release says the app “is an homage to teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. Fans of the pop star can help guide…

Feb 24, 2012 7:42 PM CST

Fifth Amendment Protects Child Porn Suspect Who Refuses to Unlock Hard Drive, 11th Circuit Rules

A suspect in a child pornography investigation may assert his Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to unlock encrypted hard drives, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is apparently the first by a federal appeals court to protect a person…

Feb 24, 2012 1:44 PM CST

Soldier Bradley Manning Charged with Aiding Enemy in WikiLeaks Case, May Get Life If Convicted

Charges were formally brought today in a court-martial against a U.S. Army soldier accused of responsibility for the largest leak of American intelligence documents in history. Pfc. Bradley Manning, 24, is accused of providing hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks. He is charged with aiding the enemy, among other…

Feb 24, 2012 12:48 AM CST

Want to Delete Web History Before Google Gathering Takes Effect? EFF Shows How

If you’d like to thwart Google’s plans to combine your online browsing history with data gathered from the company’s other products, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is offering some help. Google plans to begin combining your data into a single cauldron on March 1. On that date, the search engine will…

Feb 22, 2012 2:48 PM CST

Judge Tosses Lawyer’s Suit Against Ex-Girlfriends for Posts at Liarscheatersrus.com

A federal judge has dismissed a lawyer’s suit against two ex-girlfriends that claims their online statements about him interfered with his legal career. Matthew Couloute Jr. had sued former roller derby queen Stacey Blitsch and another ex for their posts about him at liarscheatersrus.com. The online rants had claimed Couloute…

Feb 22, 2012 11:59 AM CST

UK’s High Court for the First Time OKs Service Via Facebook

In a United Kingdom first, the High Court there has agreed to allow a hard-to-locate individual to be served via Facebook in a civil case. Fabio de Biase has been granted 14 days to respond—much more than the norm—to be sure he has enough time to check his Facebook account,…

Feb 21, 2012 7:29 PM CST

Juror Who Sent Defendant Facebook Friend Request and Joked About Being Booted by Judge Gets 3 Days

A Florida juror who sent a friend request to the defendant in an auto negligence trial on Facebook in December was dismissed from hearing the case as a result. But what apparently really got Jacob Jock into trouble was a subsequent Facebook post. The message: “Score … I got dismissed!!…

Feb 17, 2012 10:41 PM CST

2nd Circuit Axes Espionage Conviction of Goldman Sachs Programmer Who Took Source Code to New Job

Apparently deciding that federal prosecutors overreached by charging a former Goldman Sachs Group computer programmer under a commercial espionage statute for taking source code he developed there with him to a new job, a federal appeals court in Manhattan has not only reversed the criminal conviction of Sergey Aleynikov but…

Feb 17, 2012 7:24 PM CST

Lawyer’s Defamation Suit Against Courtney Love over Tweet May Be Headed to Trial

A California judge has tentatively ruled against Courtney Love’s argument in a defamation suit that her Twitter posts are statements of opinion rather than fact. Love’s former lawyers, Frederic Gordon and Rhonda Holmes of San Diego, had sued the rocker over this tweet: “I was f—— devastated when Rhonda J…

Feb 17, 2012 4:00 PM CST

Ethics Complaint Claims Lawyer Tried to Sway Potential Jurors by Posting Discovery Video on YouTube

An ethics complaint alleges a downstate Illinois lawyer attempted to sway public opinion against the prosecution of his drug client by posting a discovery video online. Lawyer Jesse Raymond Gilsdorf hired a company to post the video of an undercover drug buy on YouTube in April 2011 and then linked…

Feb 16, 2012 4:29 PM CST