Student sues school for violating freedom of speech

Logan Glover filed a lawsuit against Lafayette High School on Tuesday after he was disciplined for posting photos of 1 of his teachers on Facebook. On Nov. 20th, the sophomore took 7 photos of Jessica Hauser in her classroom while two of his friends distracted her. He posted the photos on Facebook but removed them on Dec. 6, when school officials confronted him about them.

Glover got a three-day, out-of-school suspension and was permanently barred from Hauser's classroom. The other boys involved each got three days of in-school suspension. They are not parties to the suit. "The taking of photographs and posting them on the Internet is not necessarily wrong," said Rockwood Superintendent Craig Larson. "It's the disruption that this caused that prompted us to act."

Mark Sableman, a prominent First Amendment attorney, said the photographs were taken during a free-time period and did not disrupt instruction. He also said, "The First Amendment and prior cases are clear that school officials do not have the right to discipline students for content they post on the Internet outside of school."

Sources:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/5799DD323B013
97E862573B10012D942?OpenDocument

Thanks.

Evel Knievel, Kanye West Settle Lawsuit

In December 06 Evel Knievel sued Kanye West for trademark infringement when West created a music video in which he takes on the persona of “Evel Kanyevel.” In the video "Evel Kanyevel" tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon. Knievel failed in his attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974.

In the lawsuit, Knievel claimed the "vulgar and offensive" images depicted in the video damaged his reputation. West's attorneys argued the video amounted to satire, covered under the First Amendment.

West and Knievel have amicably resolved their dispute and dismissed the lawsuit.

Sources:

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/story/_a/evel-knievel-kanye-west-

settle-lawsuit/n20071127212709990002

Dell’s Christmas ad campaign

Dell is launching a website called www.YoursIsHere.com that will use celebrities like Burt Reynolds, Ice T and Estelle Harris, George Costanza's mom from Seinfeld, to basically ask your friends and family to give you money to buy Dell products. All of the celebs will use different pitches such as Estelle Harris’ guilt sell; "Not that it's any of my business, but you usually get them a thoughtless gift every year anyway," she groans. "Would it kill you to get them something nice this holiday season?" Ideally the person who sees the pitch would deposit money into the senders PayPay account and the money may or may not be used to purchase Dell products.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/16/dell.celebrity.ap/index.html

Thanks

MySpace Tragedy may spawn new legislation

Last May 13-year-old Meagan Meier hanged herself after being bullied on MySpace by a fictitious 16 year-old-boy. The boy's account was actually created by classmate of Megan and her mother.

According to a St. Charles County Sheriff's Department report, the mother and her daughter typed, read and monitored Megan's exchanges with "Josh." The mother told deputies she "aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people."

Wednesday night, the Dardenne Prairie City Council will vote on a proposed ordinance to make Internet harassment a Class B misdemeanor.

Mayor Pam Forgarty hopes this will spur further legislation at the state and federal level.

Sources:
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=134657
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=134574

Thanks

What, no more cival rights? Part 2

In this installment of a series on freedom of expression, I will discuss the lawsuit, Greenberg v. the City of Ballwin. Lewis Greenberg, a local home owner created a piece of art in his front yard called The Holocaust Revisited. Greenberg began this piece 3 years ago to honor the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Greenberg's neighbors call the six-foot Star of David, aluminum globes, and Israeli flags covering Greenberg's property a safety hazard and an eyesore that is draining the property value of the neighborhood.

After several months of fighting this battle in local courts, Greenberg is now going to the Supreme court to fight for the right to keep his art just the way it is.

Source:
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2007-08-22/news/holocaust-revisited/

Thanks

What, no more cival rights? Part 1

This is part 1 of a series of blogs involving the freedom of expression. According to "Pine Lawn bans 'saggy pants'" by Bill Reker, as of yesterday there is a little less freedom of expression in Pine Lawn, MO. Mayor Sylvester Caldwell and other city officials have passed a law banning sagging pants in Pine Lawn. Breaking this law could result in fines of one-hundred dollars for the offender and up to 500-dollars and jail time for parents who let their children break the saggy pants rule.

According to KMOV-TV news, business developers suggested that the law will improve Pine Lawn's “sagging” image, and will encourage businesses to move in and keep children out of trouble.

This story brings out conflicting feelings for me because I HATE, HATE, HATE seeing people with their pants hanging off of their behinds! I think it says that you have no respect for yourself or anyone else. It also reflects badly on African-American men in general. But, if someone wants to look like a jackass, who is the mayor to stop them? Why does the government get to step in on someone else's personal rights?

Sources
http://www.kmox.com/Pine-Lawn-bans--saggy-pants-/1204195
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/kmsb-20071113-kmovjc-saggypantsupdate.178b0ee.html

Thanks

Another Lawsuit Pending for the Gossip Queen

Now Perez Hilton is being sued for $7.5 million by X17, one of the most popular celebrity photo agencies in the business. The complaint is for copyright infringement and claims that Perez used their images on his website "without permission from the agency, thereby violating federal law."

According to TMZ.com, X17 wants “damages from Perez for what they say is a loss of profits and injury to their reputation. The photo agency believes their pics have played a large part in the success and profitability of perezhilton.com, which reportedly charges between $9,000 and $16,000 a week for ad space.” According to The Hollywood Gossip, X17 co-owner Brandy Navarre said, “We’ve had trouble with a lot of bloggers. But he’s the biggest, and the most arrogant and pigheaded about it, frankly.

Hilton’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said Hilton has a legal right to make satirical or humorous use of newsworthy photographs.

If the copyright lawsuit succeeds, “the effect would be to eliminate the ability to comment on and transform photographs under the fair-use exception to the Copyright Act,” Freedman said.

Sources: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2006/12/more-on-perez-hilton-lawsuit-papers-served-he-still-sucks/

http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/30/perez-hilton-sued-for-7-5-million/

Thanks