Bloggers are protected just like journalists

OR at least so says a South Carolina judge.

Philip Smith blogged to describe his bad experience of working with an eBay listing company. He ended up representing himself in a federal defamation and trademark dilution lawsuit. To add insult to injury the plantiff's lawyer turned to dirty tricks like hindering the sale of his condo by clouding his title to the property.

The Federal judge Henry Hurlong Jr, ruling pretty much says that bloggers are journalists. "It's not about the title, it's about the content, a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the real journalists."

Elwell, the ass hole attorney for the plaintiffs,was sanctioned for his actions. The court found that he should have known that what he had done was totally inappropraite. The case in question was not about the title to any real estate, lawyers can't simply go clouding up the title to people's homes to ensure they get paid at the end of a case.

Elwell was forced to pay $1,000 in fines direct to Smith for his actions.I think it should have been much more.

Duluth jury decides Brainerd woman must pay $222,000 for downloaded music files

Sorry for the long absence, but work is consuming all my time now.I plan to update at least weekly from now on. Promise!

Well the first RIAA case that went to trial ended in a judgement for the plantiff. There was quite a bit of evidence that is really hard to prove without the hard drive forensics. Unfortunatly the defendant's drive had to be replaced two weeks after Media Sentry logged her ip address.

Too bad as it seems she was a avid music fan and legally purchaced hundreds of cds. I hope this doesn't discourage those who are wrongly accused of file sharing to fight back against these boiler plate lawsuits.