How Appealing



Saturday, April 12, 2014

“Newport Beach hires Citizens United attorney; Theodore Olson, who also worked on Bush vs. Gore, will represent the city in sober-living case”: The Daily Pilot of Costa Mesa, California has this report.

Posted at 11:42 AM by Howard Bashman



“Authors Guild asks US court to rule against Google”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Saying Google Inc. is stealing business from online book retailers, the Authors Guild asked a federal appeals court Friday to reinstate its lawsuit contending that the Internet giant is violating copyright laws with its massive book digitization project.”

You can view a redacted copy of the Brief for Appellants, filed yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, at this link.

Posted at 9:50 AM by Howard Bashman



Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal yesterday issued a ruling in a case described as “SLAPP Happy Dog-Shooter”: The “Siouxsie Law” blog had this post about the case back in March 2010.

And in July 2011, “Siouxsie Law” had a related post titled “Court rules in favor of blogger — Comins v. VanVoorhis.”

Yesterday, an intermediate state appellate court located in Daytona Beach, Florida issued a decision affirming the entry of judgment in favor of the blogger. Thanks much to a reader who forwarded a copy of yesterday’s ruling in an email stating: “F.Y.I., Florida’s 5th DCA opined that a blog was a type of media defendant for the purposes of Florida’s defamation laws.”

Posted at 9:45 AM by Howard Bashman



“Andrew Auernheimer’s computer hacking conviction is overturned by appeals court”: Jerry Markon of The Washington Post has this report. In addition, at the newspaper’s “The Switch” blog, Andrea Peterson has a post titled “Hacker/troll ‘weev’ will walk free; But the court didn’t rule on the main issue.”

At the “Bits” blog of The New York Times, Nick Bilton has a post titled “Appeals Court Overturns Conviction of AT&T Hacker Known as ‘Weev.’

Brendan Sasso of National Journal reports that “This Hacker Is Getting Out of Jail — But Not For the Reason His Supporters Hoped; Prosecutors claim ‘Weev’ stole thousands of email addresses from iPad users.”

Russell Brandom of The Verge reports that “The internet’s biggest troll just beat his conviction.”

At Slate’s “Future Tense” blog, Joshua Kopstein has a post titled “Court Overturns Controversial Hacker’s Conviction, but Dodges the Hard Question.”

And at Forbes.com, Kashmir Hill has a post titled “Weev Freed, But Court Punts On Bigger ‘Hacking vs. Security Research’ Question.”

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s Third Circuit ruling appears here and here.

Posted at 9:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“California’s POM Wonderful takes on Coke over pomegranate juice”: Michael Doyle of McClatchy Washington Bureau has this report.

Posted at 9:22 AM by Howard Bashman