Free Republic

Copyright lawsuits filed by Nevada's Righthaven LLC on behalf of the Denver Post against chronically ill, autistic blogger Brian Hill and others have thrown a scare into plenty of local website operators. Like the man behind Rocky Mountain Right, Sean Harrington, overseer of KnowYourCourts.com, which features court documents that could contain Post materials, has chosen to pull his site offline temporarily rather than risk litigation. ... Righthaven, which obtains the rights to Post material before suing, typically asks for an allegedly offending party's Internet domain and a cash payment to prevent the case from preceding to court. According to Hill's...

The Las Vegas Review-Journal online copyright infringement lawsuit campaign sustained a setback Tuesday when a judge granted a real estate agent's motion for dismissal, ruling his posting of part of a Review-Journal story on his website amounted to fair use under copyright law.

Six Islamic leaders who were removed from a US Airways flight say they'll sue the airline for discrimination. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it will provide details on the lawsuit tomorrow at a Washington news conference. Six imams returning to Phoenix from a religious conference in November were taken off a plane in Minneapolis, handcuffed, and questioned. They had prayed in the airport before the flight, and after they boarded, a passenger who considered them suspicious passed a note to a flight attendant.

SEATTLE (AP) — The Association of Trial Lawyers of America voted during its convention this week to change its name to the American Association for Justice. Spokeswoman Chris Mather said there was overwhelming support for the change, and that the new name "reflects whose side we're on in the fight for justice." The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a critic of the trial lawyers group, called it "an astounding admission of the unpopularity of trial lawyers in America." The 60-year-old association has 65,000 members.

Attempt to criminalize free speech fails Jim Kouri August 1, 2005 With so much violent crime in America, and a serious terrorist threat with which to contend, the leaders of the Democrat National Committee decided to crack down on criminal behavior: they filed charges with the Federal Election Commission against television stations that dared to air a documentary considered harmful to their candidate for President of the United States during the 2004 election cycle. The DNC filed charges against Sinclair Broadcast Group, their news commentator Mark Hyman, and one of Sinclair's vice presidents, Frederick Smith, alleging they violated FEC regulations....

U.S. Supreme Court says cities have broad powers to take property.

Not content with class action lawsuits, some California trial lawyers specialize in demanding cash settlements from thousands of businesses in exchange for not suing them. These shakedown suits don't require allegations of injury -- or even the inconvenience of clients: just the threat of a lawyer armed with California's bizarre consumer protection laws.

A group of Florida-based porn peddlers, penis enlargement and Viagra spammers has united to file suit against anti-spam organisations. Under the newly-registered name EmarketersAmerica.org, a front set up by notorious spammer Eddy Marin's lawyer Mark E. Felstein, the suit seeks to force prominent anti-spam organisations to stop blocking their spam.... Steve Linford, of The Spamhaus Project, told us the law suit was without merit and purely motivated by an attempt to waste the time and energy of those fighting against the spam menace. "Spammers will try anything. These lawsuits are intended to tie you up in defending it, wasting time...