A federal judge yesterday tentatively acquitted Lori Drew, the Missouri woman convicted for her involvement in a MySpace “cyberbullying” hoax that allegedly resulted in a young girl’s suicide.  If it sticks, the acquittal will help reverse the momentous change in online liability that Drew’s earlier guilty verdict threatened to set in motion.

Tony La Russa's lawsuit against Twitter, which we first published in the Legal Threats Database back on May 29, seems to have hit the mainstream over the past week. Following the path of the case through the Internet and into the mainstream media provides a fascinating case study in the the possibilities of Twitter and other social media platforms for disseminating and amplifying a message.

Shortly after the election last November, a call went out within the conservative blogosphere to use Twitter to organize conservatives online.  Not long thereafter, Michael Patrick Leahy and Rob Neppell started the website Top Conservatives on Twitter and pushed like-minded conservatives to use the Twitter hashtag #TCOT (the # allows twitterers to

Courtesy of counsel for Newt Gingrich and Saul Anuzis.

1.  Demonstrate a complete failure to understand how the relevant technology works.

The Associated Press is reporting that craigslist has decided to replace the "erotic services" section of its site with a new adult category that will be reviewed by craigslist staff (craigslist just issued a statement confirming the change).  The decision follows several months of pressure from officials in a number of states who have been trying to force the onlin

As noted in the Documenting Your Vote section of CMLP's Legal Guide, several states have laws prohibiting voters from displaying their ballots to someone else.

Back in November 2006, the New England Patriots went on the offense and filed a lawsuit against StubHub Inc., one of the largest online ticket resellers, claiming that the company encourages fans to violate Massachusetts' anti-scalping laws and the team's prohibition against reselling tickets.  The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, also named as defendants two local residents and 50 "John Does," who allegedly resold the

In what appears to be the first lawsuit related to debt collection activities on a social network, a Michigan woman is suing two debt collection agencies and their principals for violating the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for, among other things, posting information about her indebtedness on her MySpace page.  The laws

Last Thursday, Thomas Dart, the Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, filed a lawsuit against online classified site Craigslist, claiming that the site is a "public nuisance" because its users post ads in the "erotic services" category that facilitate prostitution.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The top law enforcement officer in Cook County is using a civil lawsuit to go after Craigslist because he believes users of the si

The Associated Press is reporting that two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.