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By Dale Campbell

When can you knowingly republish defamatory statements without risk of liability? When you do so on the Internet. 

The California Supreme Court, in Barrett v. Rosenthal (November 2006) 40 Cal.App.4th 33, followed the line of federal cases interpreting the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) to find broad immunity for both Internet service providers and users of an interactive computer service for republishing defamatory statements. Continue Reading California Supreme Court Affirms Broad Immunity for Defamatory Republication on the Internet

By James Kachmar

          A California appellate court affirmed last month that an employer is entitled to immunity from tort liability for threatening emails sent on or through the employer’s internet/email system by one of its employees. On December 14, 2006, the Sixth Appellate District in the case Delfino v. Agilent Technologies, Inc., 2006 WL3635399, affirmed summary judgment in Agilent’s favor finding that Agilent, as an employer, was immune from tort liability under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“CDA”) for threatening emails sent and posted by one of its employees. This case, apparently one of first impression, extended the immunity protections of the CDA to cover corporate employers who provide their employees with internet access through internal computer systems. Employers thus have additional protection from claims that their employees have used the employer’s computer system to commit torts against third persons.Continue Reading Employers: You May Be Eligible for Immunity Under the Communications Decency Act

By Scott Cameron

Here’s the next step Big Brother is taking toward an Orwellian 1984: Your cellular telephone can pinpoint your location any time it’s turned on. That’s right. Any time your cell phone is turned on and within range of a cellular tower, it is communicating with that tower to broadcast your location. It has to. Otherwise you couldn’t get your incoming calls. Federal law enforcement agencies have figured this out, and if you are someone a federal law enforcement agency is looking for, they are using that to track you.
Continue Reading Your Cell Phone Is A Homing Beacon -Should The Government Be Allowed To Use It Without Showing Probable Cause?

By Scott Cameron

It was just a simple discovery tool, used by the Department of Justice in defense of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. It hasn’t gotten much attention. In fact, for several months, it got no attention at all. But it’s starting to. So, what is “it?”

On August 25, 2005, Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General, issued a subpoena to Google, Inc., the online search engine used by millions every day to navigate the Internet. In this subpoena, the Attorney General demanded that Google, who was not a party in the case, produce “1. All URL’s that are available to be located through a query on your company’s search engine as of July 31, 2005,” and “2. All queries that have been entered on your company’s search engine between June 1, 2005, and July 31, 2005.” In essence, the Department of Justice was asking Google to produce the Internet, and a list of all searches on the Internet for two months.
Continue Reading The Attorney General’s Google Search Comes Up Empty – So Far…Is Your Online Privacy At Stake?