Two Steps Back for Free Speech in Nevada
Until now, Nevada has had one of the strongest anti-SLAPP protection laws in the US. As a reminder, SLAPP suits are ones aimed at silencing speech by intimidating it with legal threats and overwhelming it with legal defense costs. Anti-SLAPP laws provide legal protection to speech through a variety of means, including the ability to get quick dismissals of suits whose sole intention is to quash legal speech and in the best cases reimbursement of attorneys fees.
As you can imagine, politicials, the wealthy, and the powerful don't like these suits. Nevada is in the process of gutting these protections. Ken White has the story.
I have a new-found interest in such matters, as I was threatened by a major corporation this week with a libel suit if I did not remove my negative reviews of them on Yelp and on this blog. More on that in the next post.
Mike Fritz:
I've seen what you speak of. I'm an aircooled VW fan. Back in the late 90s when people started putting up Geocities type web sites featuring their old VWs, they started getting legal threats from VWoA to take down any reference to "VW, Bug, Beetle, Super Beetle, and Volkswagen", including text and images of the VW logo on their cars. Imagine you post a picture of your bride and joy and it happens to have the "Volkswagen" emblem on the rear decklid. Boom! Instant threat of trademark infringement! Write about your trip up the PCH in your Bug? Boom! Again, another threat. Apparently, the concern was people would confuse your Geocities site with an official VWoA site! Really! That was their rationalization!
April 19, 2015, 4:50 pmRegards,
Mike