Chinese Police….wait, I mean Memphis Police file lawsuit to uncover identity of blogger that is critical of the department

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Police director sues for critical bloggers’ names
Site popular with citizens, officers
By Amos Maki Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department.

The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar.

“In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment,” the anonymous bloggers write on the site, “Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States.

“Some members of the Enforcer 2.0 have contacted their attorneys and we are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Larry and the City of Memphis. What’s wrong Larry? The truth hurt?”

It wasn’t clear if the lawsuit is aimed at shutting down the site or if it’s part of an effort to stop leaks that might affect investigations.

Many of the documents in the case, filed in Chancery Court on July 10, have been sealed by Chancellor Kenny Armstrong. Police officials would not discuss the action, citing pending litigation.

Whatever the reason, Internet and free-speech advocates said they had serious problems with the city’s actions.

“You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions,” said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based watchdog group. “I guess they’ve kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don’t want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way.”

AOL has been ordered to turn over similar records in the past.

In 2001, Japanese company Nam Tai filed a complaint in California state court against unknown Web posters claiming they committed libel and violated the state’s unfair business practices statute.

Nam Tai was able to obtain the e-mail address of one of the posters and then obtained a subpoena from a Virginia state court to AOL seeking the name behind the e-mail address.

AOL filed a motion to have the order quashed, but lost that bid in trial court and the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee said they will be watching the case closely and that anonymous speech is essential to the free flow of ideas in a democracy.

“We are quite interested in preserving the anonymity of the bloggers,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Anonymous speech has long been protected speech under the First Amendment.”

The bloggers, who operate under the name of Dirk Diggler — the name of the porn star in “Boogie Nights” — say their site provides an important service to officers and citizens.

“This is another attempt at disrupting an outlet for officers to gather and complain about the administration,” they said on the site.

“Further, this allows us unrestricted communication with the citizens of Memphis. The citizens should be made aware of the scandals that rock the administration and shudder the rocky foundation in which they operate today.”

The bloggers also said city attorneys earlier this year wrote a threatening letter on city letterhead to a company that produced T-shirts for the bloggers.

Irony: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sues Whirlpool for putting a parish in “unreasonable risk of harm.” No, unlike former priests, the Whirlpool man didn’t sexual abuse 100’s of children while Whirlpool officials did nothing.

Allegedly, a defective Whirlpool refrigerator causes a serious fire at a parish and Whirlpool knew about it, but didn’t prevent it. So, the Boston Archdiocese is suing for $10 million. They’re probably short on funds after having to kick out $150.8 million in sexual abuse lawsuits and related costs since 2002. More on that scandal here.

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston claims in a $10-million lawsuit filed against Whirlpool Corp. that a faulty refrigerator caused a fire that destroyed a Weymouth, Mass., church.

The complaint filed in Norfolk Superior Court alleges Sacred Heart Church was destroyed on June 9, 2005, because of Whirlpool’s negligence.

The complaint claims the Michigan company knew it subjected the 134-year-old church to an “unreasonable risk of harm.”

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Prince sues to stop distribution of tribute album covering his songs

That Prince is a confusing one. From Wired.com

Fifty artists who recorded Prince covers in honor of His Purpleness’ 50th birthday June 7 have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star. His lawyers now demand that all copies of the tribute be destroyed. Shockadelica had reached No. 8 on Norway’s album charts and received several popular reviews by the Norwegian press.

It’s perfectly legal to record and sell cover songs of someone else’s material, so long as you pay the compulsory licensing fee of about 10 cents per song. To sell their five-disc set of 81 Prince cover songs, they would have to remit around $8 per unit sold to Prince, under a compulsory mechanical license.

Norway’s C+C Records distributed 5,000 of the box sets starting earlier this month, plus digital versions, and claim that no one made any money from the project. As a result, they didn’t think they owed Prince anything except maybe a free copy.

C+C Records owner and Prince fan Christer Falck contacted the Purple One’s people to try to send one to Prince, and that’s when the trouble began, according to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (re-reported in Daily Swarm), one of many publications to post positive reviews of the collection.

For now, all 81 songs can be previewed free on C+C Records‘ website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form.

When this giveaway first began, there were 5,000 copies of the compilation in circulation. Thanks to Prince’s lawsuit and the publicity it will generate, we expect that number to balloon significantly in the coming weeks.

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Canadian court overrules father’s grounding of his daughter

First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
–William Shakespeare

First, the father banned his 12-year-old daughter from going online after she posted photos of herself on a dating site. Then she allegedly had a row with her stepmother, so the father said his girl couldn’t go on a school trip.

The girl took the matter to the court – and won what lawyers say was an unprecedented judgment.

Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled on Friday that the father couldn’t discipline his daughter by barring her from the school trip.

“She’s becoming a big girl. … It’s a unique event in her life,” Ms. Fortin said. (girl’s lawyer_

Read the rest of the lunacy

Woman sues Victoria’s Secret over defective thong

No, it wasn’t a her teeth that were hurt. It apparently injured her eye while she was trying it on. See full details of her suit at TheSmokingGun.com.

RIAA refiles case it had dropped so it can shop around for a more lawsuit friendly judge

The ongoing saga regarding the Recording Industry Association of America and what is classified as sharing music has taken another interesting twist as the group has refiled one particular lawsuit.

It was late last year when the RIAA got stricter about file-sharing, claiming the act of making files available for sharing (via a “shared” folder) breaks copyright laws and is available for prosecution.

The pending lawsuits about this unique file-distribution models were shut down after U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake said that making copyrighted material available via a shared folder does not warrant a copyright infringement lawsuit and that the RIAA must prove that the material actually changed hands.

The recent news is that the RIAA has dropped a case that strongly pertains to the “making available” clause, and refiled the case. Rather that directing the lawsuit at the same defendants as before, the RIAA directed it at John Doe (a defendant to be identified later), therefore obtaining a new judge … who may not be so strict about the “making available” clauses.

Nice move, RIAA.

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Chicago woman awarded $7.7 million for false arrest

A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer.

Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found against the city and several Chicago police officers, awarding Jackson $7.7 million for false arrest, malicious prosecution, coercive questioning and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“I’m going to go home and lie down for a little bit,” an ecstatic Jackson, 41, said after the verdict. “I feel relieved. I’m happy, and I’m thanking God.”

The case began in November 2002, when a car ran a stop sign in Jackson’s neighborhood, slamming into the squad car. Jackson was walking nearby and rushed to the scene. When she arrived, the officer behind the wheel was unconscious and the passenger, Officer Kelly Brogan, was dazed.

She pulled Brogan from the wreckage and helped her to a nearby stoop. Soon after, police approached Jackson and told her that the driver’s weapon had been stolen. When she was asked to go to the police station for questioning, she thought it was as a witness to the accident.

Instead, Jackson was accused of the theft. She was held for two days with little food and water and was threatened with violence until she agreed to sign a statement police had prepared for her. She was then charged and spent more than 10 months in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial.

Her case was later thrown out by a Circuit Court judge. Jackson sued the city, Brogan and the two interrogation officers in 2003.

Defense attorney Andrew Hale said the amount the jury awarded Jackson was “excessive” and that he would file post-trial motions to have the amount reduced.

He also questioned Jackson’s intentions when she pulled the officer from the car.

“The officer said [Jackson] came at her, tried to get her gun and put her in a full-Nelson hold,” Hale said. “I’m disappointed the jury could think that would be a legitimate rescue technique.”

But Jackson’s attorneys said it was clear she was trying to help the officer, not harm her.

“This was an innocent woman who saved a police officer from a burning car,” said Chris Smith, who tried the case with Dan Alexander. “There were many heroes out there who helped the police, but they all turned into suspects because some guy ran away with the gun.”

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Family of Autistic boy voted out of class by peers to file civil suit

The family of Alex Barton, a kindergarten student with Asperger’s syndrome will file a civil suit alleging discrimination and that Alex’s civil rights were violated.

Alex’s Morningside Elementary teacher, Wendy Portillo, allowed his classmates to tell him what they thought of his behavior, while he stood in front of the class, according to police reports of the incident. Portillo told investigators Alex had been misbehaving and had two disciplinary referrals that day.

The class then voted whether Alex should be allowed to stay in the class. Alex lost, 14 to 2.

Alex was officially diagnosed less than a week later with an autism-spectrum disorder, Barton said. He began the process of being tested for the disorder in February, at the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marcia Cully. Barton has said the teacher knew about the testing at the time of the vote.

Get ready to pay up, St. Lucie County School District.