All for linking to a website, paid for by her own tax dollars....
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Posted on 08/24/2008 1:07:39 PM PDT by sbMKE
Can a city stop people from posting a link to its Web site?
That’s the question at the center of a federal lawsuit brought by a Sheboygan woman against the mayor and other officials there, in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, according to an Internet law expert.
Jennifer Reisinger says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city’s police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit filed last week.
The city went further, the lawsuit claims, launching a criminal investigation of Reisinger for linking to the department on one of her sites.
The city’s actions torpedoed Reisinger’s Web site marketing business and led to death threats against her, according to the lawsuit.
“The mayor decided to use his office to get back at Jennifer for her efforts in the recall and picked this to do it,” said her attorney, Paul Bucher. “There is more than a mistake here. There have been repercussions.”
The mayor, City Attorney Stephen McLean, the police chief and city clerk are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Perez and McLean did not return calls for comment.
Reisinger alleges her First Amendment rights were violated by the city. She seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and unspecified declaratory relief. First of its kind
Bruce Boyden, an assistant law professor at Marquette University who specializes in Internet law and copyright, called the case novel.
“If this goes all the way to trial and produces a decision, I believe this would be a first in United States,” he said.
Boyden said some companies require other Web sites to get permission to link to them, but he knew of no companies, much less a government body, that have tried to enforce violations of that condition if the links didn’t infringe on a copyright or trademark.
Boyden said not all speech is protected, including links. For instance, someone might use a link to communicate a threat or violate a copyright, and that wouldn’t be protected.
The lawsuit doesn’t show how Reisinger used the link to Sheboygan police or the city’s cease-and-desist order, but Boyden said it appeared from the lawsuit to be protected speech.
“Linking to the Web site is no different than listing the street address of the Sheboygan police department,” he said.
Bucher also said the case was a first as far as he knows.
“I have never heard that you can’t link to a government Web site that, by the way, is paid for with taxpayer money,” he said. War over a link
Reisinger ran several Web sites and also was active in an unsuccessful recall effort against the mayor. A recall site she created later showed a Fourth of July parade photograph of Perez with a U.S. flag that had been digitally replaced with a Mexican flag and the caption, “Power to illegals?”
Reisinger told a Journal Sentinel reporter in July 2006 she did not know who put up the altered photo because the Web site allowed anyone to upload to the site.
According to her lawsuit:
Separate from the recall, Reisinger ran the Brat City Web Design site, which featured several links, including one to the Sheboygan police department.
On Oct. 18, 2007, the mayor’s secretary e-mailed McLean, the city attorney, asking if Reisinger could link to a city Web site. McLean answered, “Anyone can create a link to someone else’s Web site very easily without the knowledge or consent of the linked party.”
Nonetheless, McLean said he could issue a “cease and desist” order to Reisinger, and the mayor said to do it.
Reisinger said she felt intimidated by McLean’s letter and removed the link. Then a police lieutenant told Reisinger he was investigating her use of links to city government sites, the suit says.
That is when Reisinger hired Bucher, who told her to put the link back up. In November, the city withdrew its demand that Reisinger not link to city government sites.
Her attorney is a former DA - Paul Bucher.
And the link in question: http://www.sheboyganpolice.com/
Expect to see more of this happening if Obama gets elected.
“Expect to see more of this happening if Obama gets elected.”
naw, he’ll just declare non-govt websites to be unnecessary and order them shut down.
I’d just use an .htaccess file to redirect people to zombo.com
Good stuff, yes...but not Breaking News.
With McCain's penchant for CFR, I'm not so sure it wouldn't happen on either's watch.
I moved this to breaking news. A federal lawsuit regarding no links without permission could directly affect Free Republic.
The police dept link should be public knowledge, I worked for a city and all web sites are open for perusal.
I did a Google search for sheboygan police and the first site up was www.sheboyganpolice.com. Did the Police send a cease and desist to Google? And I certainly hope nobody is silly enough to give anybody the phone number for the Sheboygan Police. I would hate to see how they may react to that kind of craziness.
Big time...
Some other links that might be of interest... http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6158
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/city-sheboygan-v-reisinger
Mayor Juan Perez is,,,,, The Snoid From Sheboygan!
I’m missing your point — I fail to see any situation in which the city can refuse to authorize for a link. What’s next, an unlisted phone number?
From my pov, Badgerblogger is a very respectable site. If that’s her, then they’re really pushing it.
Should be thrown out of court. A web site address is public, not private knowledge and their is no violation of rights nor damage if it is published on another site.
They should be glad I am not the judge. She wins, and those responsible for the city all go to classes on the Constitution.
You decide.
When the police get mad and don’t know what to do, they do what they know best - arrest.
I see no basis on which any entity, especially a public entity, can legally stop anyone from linking to it.
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Well, I’ll be... and to think this is all happening in the city in which I live.
I won’t post the city attorney’s contact info, because they could be knocking on MY door, but here’s the website to browse for lots of info about this fine city, starting with the city departments. There just might be a way to contact the city attorney somewhere in that website....
http://ci.sheboygan.wi.us/Departments.html
“They should be glad I am not the judge. She wins, and those responsible for the city all go to classes on the Constitution.”
I think you missed sending them to jail for a while for exceeding their authority quite badly, before they go to the classes. I hereby volunteer to teach the class, if you’d like.
I was under the impression police can only issue LAWFUL orders like stop pooping in the street?
Ping.
“
I did a Google search for sheboygan police and the first site up was www.sheboyganpolice.com. Did the Police send a cease and desist to Google? “
Exactly. This is someone with a little power who thinks he’s above the rest of his community. Sounds a lot like my HOA. The board is disqualifying anyone as a member who even tries
to run against them. Retaliation is what small minds do best.
btt
(article from 04/16/2008)
The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the state's Revised Statutes in full, claiming that the statutes contain copyrighted information in the republication causes the state to lose money it needs to continue putting out the official version of the statutes.
Oregon's Legislative Counsel, Dexter Johnson, has therefore requested that legal information site Justia remove the information or (preferably) take out a paid license from the state.
-snip-
> Oregon: publishing our laws online is a copyright violation
What idiocy. If the government and its laws do not belong to the people, who do they belong to?
For the Oregon and Sheboygan cases, it is so obvious what is right that even the ultra lib ACLU would defend it.
They should go after this lieutenant and the mayor for abuse of office and intimidation. There should be criminal charges against them.
What? The abuse of police power?
From what I gather reading her website only a moron would assume the link was authorized by the city. Her position against the mayor and police department is pretty clear. The is a free speech issue and she has already won is the courts in WI follow the constitution.
“The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the state’s Revised Statutes in full...”
Am I missing something? What does that have to do with this thread?
Cheerful looking guy there. Sheesh! lol
http://www.bratcitywebdesign.com/ is her site, I think. I think she likely has http://sheboyganspirit.com/ now.
badgerblogger isn't her's.
I'm guessing that this is the page that caused the furor (followed by this).
If a web page is designed in a way to put an icon at the bottom with a link embedded in the icon, it might seem to imply sponsorship or ownership by the entity on the icon. But I don't know about the place where it's on the "Links" page.
By the Miranda decision, we can’t be expected to remember our rights at arrest, yet we are expected to know all these volume after volume of laws, regulations, guidance, etc. And not even available without a fee?!? Wow.
If they’re upset about her site, then their heads must be ready to explode over this one:
Rate my Cop
http://www.ratemycop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=148
Is that "brat" as in "bratwurst," or (as seems more likely) "brat" as in "spoiled?"
Braaat. The sausage. Johnsonville brats are heralded as being from Sheboygan even though they’re made a short jaunt out of town.
Sheboygan is also home to the Kohler Art Center and the Kohler company (toilets, faucets, sinkes, etc.) is right outside town in Kohler village.
All in all a nice city with a bad government problem. We haven’t even touched on its judge issues. Revolving door justice there, while “unauthorized” web links get the full force of the “law.”
This thread is about a government agency opposing a citizen's posting of public information about them.
Got ping?
“This thread is about a government agency opposing a citizen’s posting of public information about them.”
No, it’s about linking to a public web site. Linking to a web site that may contain public information is not the same as publishing that information.
Wisconsin Conservative Politics Ping!
“Her attorney is a former DA - Paul Bucher.”
She’s gonna kick their butts, LOL! You go, Girl!
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