Recent Threats Added to the CMLP Database

Bloggers Joy and Tom Okon, operators of North Center Neighbors, a blog that covers happenings in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago, were sued by James Jaeger and his development company for defamation. Jaeger's complaint alleges that the Okons ...  read more »

In March 2007, Thomas Evans, a deputy sheriff in the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, sued his his former wife, Linda Evans, and her mother, Shirley Preddy, for defamation, harassment, invasion of privacy, and other claims. After Thomas and Linda Evans divorced in 2002, they engaged in a bitter dispute in family court...  read more »

In June 2006, blogger Stephen Ward wrote a post criticizing Tiny Details, LLC, a company that produces doll-making kits that users can assemble at home and sell as a work-from-home-business. The post described Ward's negative experience with the company and directed readers to customer complaints, a Better Business Bureau...  read more »

USMLEWORLD, LLC, a company providing online courses to prepare for the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam, sent a cease-and-decease letter to Digg complaining that users were using, posting, and distributing its copyrighted material through Digg links. USMLEWORLD demanded that Digg remove the allegedly infringing material and terminate the...  read more »

Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc. and LL NJ, Inc. are in the business of performing facelifts and other cosmetic surgery. In September 2006, they sued NBC-Subsidiary (WCAU-TV) (a.k.a. NBC 10), NBC Universal and certain of its affiliates, NBC reporter Lu Ann Cahn, and Dr. Louis Bucky over a television news...  read more »

In October 2007, Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc. sued Justin Leonard and his company Leonard Fitness, Inc. for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising. Leonard runs the forum website infomercialscams.com, which gives consumers the opportunity to voice their criticisms and defenses of various products and services, including...  read more »

BoroughVENT.com, an online forum to discuss the Borough of Gettysburg, PA and surrounding region, and one of its adminstrators, Deborah Golden, were the recipients of a complaint filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The complaint, brought by two Maryland residents, alleges that the administrators and...  read more »

In October 2006, Ampersand Publishing LLC, the company that owns the Santa Barbara News-Press, filed a lawsuit against Santa Barabara Independent, Inc., publisher of the Santa Barbara Independent, another local newspaper. The case arose out of Independent editor Nick Welsh's posting of a draft News-Press article in connection with a...  read more »

Dr. Marion Nestle, who publishes the blog What To Eat, criticized the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) in a blog post, accusing the CCF of, among other things, receiving its funding from and serving as a mouthpiece for the tuna industry. CCF's director...  read more »

In August 2007, 2Clix Australia sued Simon Wright, the founder of Australian broadband discussion forum Whirlpool, for alleged "injurious falsehood." According to 2Clix, Wright permitted anonymous users of the forum to post unmediated comments, and two threads contained "false and malicious" comments about 2Clix and its softward products. According to...  read more »

Lending company CEO and homeowner Cary Burch sent a cease-and-desist email to "ocrenter," the pseudonymous operator of Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking, a realty blog. The blog had published a post criticizing Burch's purchase of a home. Ocrenter did not mention Burch by name in the post, but...  read more »

In January 2008, literary agent Barbara Bauer and her company Barbara Bauer Literary Agency, Inc. filed a lawsuit in New Jersey State court against twenty-two defendants, including the Wikimedia Foundation. The complaint includes claims for defamation, tortious interference with prospective business advantage, and conspiracy. According to court documents,...  read more »

Steve Marshall, an English travel agent operating out of Spain, had approximately 80 of his websites shut down as a result of the U.S. Treasury Department's placing them on its blacklist. Many of the sites discussed Cuba, some offering commentary about Cuba, and others offered...  read more »

Eclipse Aviation, a manufacturer of "affordable" jets, recently sent a subpoena to Google seeking to uncover the identities of 28 users who posted on the blog Eclipse Aviation Critic NG, which Google hosts on its Blogger service. The subpoena, which includes a colorful...  read more »

In February 2000, Northland Insurance Companies (Northland) sued Patrick Blaylock in federal court in Minnesota, claiming trademark infringement, trademark...  read more »

In September 2007, Creation Science Evangelism (CSE), a creationist group founded by Kent Hovind, recently sent a raft of DMCA takedown notices to YouTube complaining that various user-posted videos infringed its copyrights in videos of its seminars. Among those users whose videos were taken down was the Rational...  read more »

Anonymous users posted negative comments about Matrixx Initiatives on the Yahoo! Finance and Silicon Investor message boards. Matrixx filed a lawsuit against the anonymous "John Doe" posters in an Arizona court alleging defamation and other claims. Matrixx received information from Yahoo! that some of the postings could be traced to...  read more »

Benjamin Cole, writer for SBCOutpost.com, a collaborative "Southern Baptist news & commentary" blog, received a cease and desist letter from counsel representing Dr. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Cole had criticized Patterson in a blog post for allegedly refusing to take...  read more »

Nemet Chevrolet and its owner Tom Nemet filed a lawsuit against ConsumerAffairs.com, a consumer ratings site run by former reporter James Hood, for publishing user complaints against his company. Nemet claims the postings published on the site constitute defamation, tortious interference with business expectations and violations of the...  read more »

Amy Ancel, a local politician in Connecticut, posted a comment on WestportNow.com, a community news site in Westport Connecticut, in which she accused two users of the site of libeling her. The disputed comments occurred in a series of comments relating to the relocation of...  read more »