John Doe A v. Penn State
First Penn State scandal lawsuit says Coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a boy more than 100 times and the abuse was enabled by the school's "negligent oversight."
Bradley v. Lohan
Former Betty Ford Center employee sues Lindsay Lohan for assault, alleging the actress threw a phone at her and yanked her wrist while refusing to be breathalzyed.
N.D. v. New York Post
Hotel maid allegedly raped by French politician sues the New York Post for falsely reporting that she is a prostitute who "routinely traded sex for money" with male guests.
Reinhart v. Mortenson
Two Montana residents allege the author of "Three Cups of Tea" "fabricated material about his activities and work in Pakistan and Afghanistan" to sell the book.
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• Roommate referral website does not discriminate by allowing users to list their preferences for roommate characteristics. "Holding that the [Fair Housing Act] applies inside a home or apartment ... would be a serious invasion of privacy, autonomy and security."
Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com

• Student alleges a prank involving a bottle rocket and another student's anus backfired, causing him to fall off the deck of a frat house.
Helmburg v. Alpha Tau Omega

• 5th Circuit reinstates a jury verdict finding a man employed by an engineering firm was sexually harassed by a male supervisor. "The text message 'I want cock' could be taken as an explicit sexual proposition." 
Cherry v. Shaw Coastal

• The ex-wife of a man who fatally shot himself with a gun he had stolen cannot sue the gun's owner for wrongful death. "We conclude that public policy dictates that [Charles] Milot's criminal conduct acts as a bar to recovery."
Ryan v. Hughes-Ortiz

• Pennsylvania woman alleges her former employer discriminated against her because she wore a fake penis to assist her in her female-to-male transition. "Plaintiff's use of the prosthetic device was concealed and in no way interfered with the ability of Plaintiff to do her job." Davis v. J&J Snack Foods

• Son of a woman charged with murdering her husband cannot use the proceeds from the victim's life insurance policy to fund his mother's criminal defense. "[A]llowing the distribution of these proceeds to a third party who has clear intentions to transfer part of these proceeds to her, undermines the principles underlying the Slayer’s Act and federal common law."
In Re: Estate of Michael Burkland

• Seattle judge says an actress cannot proceed anonymously in her suit against the IMDb.com website for publishing her age. "[W]hile Plaintiff may face public ridicule and embarrassment if she elects to go forward under her real name, the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously."
Doe v. Amazon.com

• Family of an 11-year-old girl who was crushed by a boulder of ice says forest ranger negligence caused her death. Rangers "did not warn users of the risk of harm associated with the dangerous, unstable snow and ice" at the Big Four Ice Caves in Snohomish County, Wash. Tam v. U.S.

• 3rd Circuit dismisses a breach of data security case against a payroll-processing company. "Appellants' allegations of an increased risk of identity theft as a result of the security breach are hypothetical, future injuries."
Reilly v. Ceridian Corp.

• Oregon judge denies First Amendment protections to a blogger. "Defendant cites no cases indicating that a self-proclaimed 'investigative blogger' is considered 'media' for the purposes of applying a negligence standard in a defamation claim."
Obsidian Finance v. Cox

• A transsexual who was fired from her government job while she was in the process of becoming a woman wins her sex discrimination suit. "[A] government agent violates the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination when he or she fires a transgender or transsexual employee because of his or her gender non-conformity."
Glenn v. Brumby

• New York man sues a Texas fertility clinic for wrongful insemination, alleging it failed to obtain his consent before using a sample of his sperm to impregnate his ex-girlfriend.
Pressil v. Advanced Fertility

• Nebraska judge rules that school officials may have illegally disciplined students for wearing t-shirts in honor of a slain friend suspected of gang membership. "[Q]uestions of fact remain whether Plaintiffs’ speech occurred in a context likely to provoke gang violence or other disruptions of school activities."
Kuhr v. Millard Public Sch. Dist.




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Florida A&M Rattlers Rattled by Dorm Room Porn Video Print

A trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Florida A&M University pits the venerable, historically black school against the publisher of a “reality porn” website that features “wild sex parties” in college dorm rooms.

Daredorm.com is part of a network of sites published by RK Netmedia of Miami that also includes the popular BangBus.com. In a complaint filed last week, Florida A&M alleges the site posted a video on March 1 that is a “transparent attempt to trade on [its] good name and identity.”

The video, entitled “Big Rattler77,” depicts “no less than eight individuals engaging in multiple acts of sexual intercourse in what is intended to appear to be a dorm room on the campus of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University,” the suit says.

Participating colleges are not specifically identified by Daredorm and stills from the videos on the site's home page suggest many of them are filmed in the same location, one furnished with pine bunk beds. The Bang Bus videos, in which women supposedly “picked up on the street” have sex in the back of a van, are in fact staged using paid actresses.

But Florida A&M says the “BigRattler77” video “is likely to deceive, confuse and mislead prospective purchasers and viewers of the video into believing that the video was produced, authorized or is in some manner associated with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.”

Among other things, the Rattler is the school's mascot and the caption for the video states that it was filmed “at a a historically black college in Florida.” The video also displays Florida A&M's orange and green color scheme “in connection with the 'FAMU' and 'Rattlers' marks,” the suit says.

None of the performers in “BigRattler77” are in fact Rattler students and the video was not filmed on its campus, the school says, but the video “wrongly insinuat[es] that its students routinely engage in the debasing and degrading behavior depicted therein.”

This isn't the first time that RK Netmedia has been accused of taking indecent liberties with porn shoots. In October, a property owner in an exclusive South Florida resort community sued its BangBros.com site for using one of his apartments for a shoot featuring porn star Devon Lee without his permission.

The RK Netmedia porn empire was founded by two friends from the University of Florida. Daredorm.com invites coeds to make $10,000 by “submitting your college dorm action” for Internet publication and requires “models” to sign a release.

The Florida A&M suit is potentially far more serious for the company because the school's claims under the federal Lanham Act and Florida trademark infringement law provide for treble damages. The school, founded in 1887, is also defending its “strong reputation and tradition as one of the nation's oldest and most distinguished public universities.”

A Lanham Act plaintiff can recover damages by showing that a “reasonable consumer” would be confused as to the source of a product based on the use of a trademark.

RK Netmedia could argue that no reasonable consumer would believe Florida A&M had authorized or was associated with the filming of “BigRattler77.” But in what may be an admission of sorts, the video no longer appears to be available on Daredorm and, in the latest addition to the site captioned “College in: Colorado,” the logo on a performer's t-shirt is blurred out.

UPDATE

  • Florida A&M announced April 7, 2010 that it had reached a settlement with RK Netmedia. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to pay the school $105,000 to fully fund two scholarships and make a good faith effort to stop any publication of the video.


  • This story linked by:


    By Matthew Heller
    3/24/10


     
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