free speech rights
Why Facebook's Argument Against Privacy For Minors Is Doomed
www.readwriteweb.com
The Federal Trade Commission wants to protect the privacy of minors, but Facebook objects on First Amendment grounds. Here's why the social network's argument is weak, self-serving, and bound to fail. Known as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the proposed rules represent the biggest overhaul of US privacy policy with...
Court Blocks Controversial California Bill That Takes Away All Anonymity For Any Sex Offenders
www.techdirt.com
Back in the fall, we worried about proposed legislation in California designed to deal with "sex offenders" online. As we noted, the bill would almost inevitably pass -- as it did -- because most people think that increased punishment for sex offenders makes sense. But there are serious issues with...
High School Student Expelled For Tweeting Profanity; Principal Admits School Tracks All Tweets
www.techdirt.com
Tinker v. Des Moines is considered a key lawsuit in defining the free speech rights of students. While there have been a few cases that limited the ruling, it's still seen as the key case in establishing that students have First Amendment rights and that schools can't just arbitrarily shut...
Facebook to court: Likes are protected by First Amendment
news.cnet.com
The social network takes a big step in arguing for the free-speech rights of users who were fired for "liking" the Facebook page of a candidate for sheriff. [Read more]...
Facebook says 'Likes' are free speech in sheriff case
gigaom.com
Facebook is supporting the court appeal of a deputy sheriff who lost his job after he ‘Liked’ the Facebook campaign page of his boss’s rival. The case is helping to define the extent of free speech rights in the age of social media. The Virginia man at center of the case,...
Can Someone Explain When The Pirate Bay Was Actually Put On Trial In The UK?
www.techdirt.com
Last week we wrote about the UK High Court ordering ISPs to start blocking The Pirate Bay just about the same time that UK musician Dan Bull had successfully used TPB as a promotional platform to launch him onto the UK charts. The first comment on that post, by Duke...
UN internet regulation talks in Dubai threaten web freedom | Dan Gillmor
www.guardian.co.uk
Thanks to leaks, we have a good idea of the kind of control and censorship member states would like to impose on the internetIt's not surprising that some confusion surrounds a telecommunications meeting that started this week in Dubai. The gathering, under the auspices of the United Nations, is called...
State tries to ban online teacher torment
gigaom.com
Since cyber-bullying became part of the school landscape, states have tried to put in rules to protect students. Now North Carolina wants to do the same for its teachers. Under a proposed law, students who use the internet to “torment or intimated a school employee” can be convicted of a...
Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Law Banning Recording The Police
www.techdirt.com
You may recall that we've been following the ongoing saga of a poorly-written piece of state legislation in Illinois, which would strip citizens of their First Amendment rights if they were to film law enforcement performing their duties. One gentleman was facing a possible 75 years in jail for five...
Ridiculous: Vietnam Sentences Musicians To Jail For Songs That Protest Government Actions
www.techdirt.com
We talk a lot about the importance of free speech here in the US, and worry tremendously about any efforts to chip away at such free speech rights. Even as we worry about how free speech issues are dealt with at home, we're very aware that most other countries have...
EFF says FBI gag orders violate service providers' free speech rights
arstechnica.com
lewishamdreamer The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released redacted copies of key documents in a constitutional challenge to national security letters (NSLs). These controversial legal tools give the FBI warrantless access to private customer information held by businesses. The law gives the FBI the power to ban a business receiving...
Insanity: Romney's Ad Featuring Obama Singing Al Green Shut Down Via Copyright Claim
www.techdirt.com
YouTube campaign videos get pulled over bogus copyright claims with alarming regularity. And now, as we're entering silly season for the US Presidential campaign, it means we'll be seeing more high profile takedowns. Back during the 2008 campaign, the McCain campaign even sent YouTube a letter trying to explain fair...
Marine discharged for criticising Obama on Facebook
www.guardian.co.uk
Case calls into question Pentagon's policies about social media and its limits on the speech of military personnelA sergeant will be discharged for criticising President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that calls into question the Pentagon's policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active...
Judge can't order Yelp user to edit negative review
arstechnica.com
Jane Perez accused Christopher Dietz of improperly completing construction work on her property—then she gave him a negative Yelp review. Jane Perez The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit over a Virginia woman’s negative online review of a local contractor. The defendant’s attorneys say...
Awkward! ACLU Defends Pedophiles To Preserve Anonymous Free Speech
techcrunch.com
Rights groups were put an awkward position yesterday, after California passed an anti-human trafficking ballot proposition that deters anonymous speech from convicted sex offenders. Specifically, the law forces sex offenders to notify law enforcement everytime that adopt a new online identity, which could allow websites to selectively restrict their comments....
The 'New' Righthaven Offers Discount To Techdirt Readers Who Want 'Spineful' Hosting
www.techdirt.com
Remember Righthaven? No, not that Righthaven who sued tons of people and companies on questionable claims in order to get them to cough up settlements. We're talking about the other Righthaven... the Swiss company that bought the Righthaven.com domain that was auctioned off after the old Righthaven failed to pay...
Man who abused wife on Facebook escapes jail
www.guardian.co.uk
American man threatened with jail unless he posted daily apologies for a month on Facebook appeals, citing loss of free speechA man in the US who posted negative comments about his estranged wife on his Facebook page and was threatened with jail unless he posted daily apologies for a month...
Can a school get your kid's Facebook password? Judge says no
gigaom.com
How far can a school go in punishing students for what they do on Facebook? One Minnesota middle school crossed the line, leading a federal judge to say it violated one girl’s basic rights. The case involves a 12-year-old girl who used Facebook to diss the hall monitor, writing “[I hate]...
The Year In SLAPPs: From The Oatmeal To Pink Slime
www.techdirt.com
2012 has been yet another year filled with meritless lawsuits filed solely to chill First Amendment free speech rights -- so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). As websites relying on user-generated content continue to increase in popularity, we also see a rise in SLAPPs targeting online speech, from the...
Court blocks temporarily California's disclosure rules for sex offenders
www.computerworld.com
A federal court in the U.S. on Wednesday temporarily restrained law officials in California from enforcing new provisions that allegedly violate the free speech rights of sexual offenders....
Proposed California Bill Would Require Sites To Hand Over Private Info On Kids To Their Parents
www.techdirt.com
It really is stunning how rarely it appears that politicians who introduce bills "for the children" think through the obvious consequences of those bills. For years, we've discussed how COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, has had massive unintended consequences, mainly cutting off lots of useful sites from any...
Key Techdirt SOPA/PIPA Post Censored By Bogus DMCA Takedown Notice
www.techdirt.com
We've talked a lot about how copyright law and the DMCA can be abused to take down legitimate, non-infringing content, interfering with one's free speech rights. And we're always brushed off by copyright maximalists, who insist that any complaints about taking down legitimate speech are overblown. So isn't it interesting...
Verizon: net neutrality violates our free speech rights
arstechnica.com
"Can you hear me now?" Aurich Lawson Verizon pressed its argument against the Federal Communications Commission's new network neutrality rules on Monday; filing a legal brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The company argued the FCC's rules not only exceeded the agency's regulatory...
Do you lose free speech rights if you speak using a computer?
arstechnica.com
It took guts for the New York Times to publish an op-ed by Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor who coined the phrase "network neutrality," arguing that the First Amendment doesn't protect the contents of the New York Times website. A significant amount of the content on the Times...
Google will fight secretive national security letters in court
arstechnica.com
The FBI has sent out tens of thousands of "national security letters" (NSLs) in the years following the 9/11 attacks, under expanded authority given to the bureau by the PATRIOT Act. The letters nearly always come with a "gag order" preventing the recipient from even revealing the existence of...
US Judge rules school violated First Amendment by demanding Facebook password from 12-year-old girl
thenextweb.com
On September 6, US Judge Michael Davis ruled that the Minnewaska Area School District in Minnesota violated the First Amendment (freedom of speech) and Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure) rights of a 12-year-old student by forcing her to hand over her Facebook password to school officials who in turn...
Congressional Reps Question Feds Over Botched Domain Seizures
www.techdirt.com
The government's admission that it had (once again) mistakenly seized and censored a website for over a year when it dropped its case against Rojadirecta/Puerto80 has reminded everyone that Dajaz1 was not an isolate case. It was a part of a wider program where DHS (via ICE) and the DOJ...
Verizon Cites Free Speech Rights in Opposing Net Neutrality Rules
www.pcworld.com
Broadband providers have "editorial discretion" to give priority to their own Web content, and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules......
Justin Bieber Sued By App Maker 'Joustin Beaver'
paidcontent.org
What’s with Biebs and these lawsuits? Last year, a deranged woman took him to court, claiming she was his baby-moma. Now, the teenage celeb is being sued over claims that he must share his likeness with an iPhone beaver. In a case filed in Florida federal court, the maker...
Verizon cites free speech rights in opposing net neutrality rules
www.computerworld.com
Broadband providers have "editorial discretion" to give priority to their own Web content, and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules limiting that discretion is a violation of providers' free speech rights, two carriers said in a court brief filed Monday....
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