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National anti-SLAPP law under consideration in Congress

donal brown June 1, 2010

Congress is considering a national law to protect citizens against baseless defamation suits filed by business or governments to prevent criticism. The stakes are higher in the Internet era when a critical comment about an individual or business posted online can garner widespread attention. -db The New York Times May 31, 2010 By Dan Frosch After a towing company hauled Justin Kurtz’s car from his apartment complex parking lot, despite his permit to park there,

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Orange County court denies Sierra Club low cost access to parcel map system

donal brown May 27, 2010

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club  that the California Public Records Act (CPRA)  did not require the county to provide its Landbase parcel map system at little or no cost. In a ruling last year a state appeals court ruled in a First Amendment Coalition lawsuit that Santa Clara County had to release its parcel map system under the CPRA. -db The Orange County Register May

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Civil liberties groups tell Congress Internet censorship no solution to curbing terrorism

donal brown May 27, 2010

Civil liberties advocates testified to a House committee on terrorism that the government should use the Internet to track terrorist threats but that to censor websites would be counterproductive. -db NextGov May 26, 2010 By Jill R. Aitoro Federal authorities should rely on the Internet to identify and track terrorist threats and to launch counterterrorism campaigns, but not censor websites as a means to quell online recruitment by extremist groups, civil liberty advocates told a

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Open government movement seen as way to engage private sector companies to improve government services

donal brown May 25, 2010

Tech book publisher Tim O’Reilly thinks that with greater openness in government, private sector companies will deliver software, services and applications to provide new and improved services at a lower cost to the public and in the process shrink the size of government. -db InformationWeek Opinion May 24, 2010 By John Foley Tim O’Reilly is raising the bar on what he envisions for the open government movement. At this week’s Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington,

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Investment bank loses fight to keep criticism off website

donal brown May 25, 2010

A federal judge rejected an investment firm’s claim that remarks posted online critical of their business and in particular their telemarketing calls were not only defamatory but were also trademark dilutions. The judge ruled that the remarks were protected by the First Amendment and that the firm could not hold the website operators, 800Notes and WhoCallsMe, responsible for comments posted by the public on its sites. -db Consumer Law & Policy Blog Commentary May 10,

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