• 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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Virtual Land Dispute Spills into Real Court |
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Second Life "property"
A Pennsylvania attorney has further blurred the lines between reality and cyberspace by filing a first-of-its-kind property rights lawsuit that alleges a multiplayer online gaming company illegally seized his “virtual real estate.”
Marc S. Bragg of West Chester, Pa., is seeking relief in a real-world court for an alleged “conversion” or theft of property from the 3-D virtual world of Second Life, a “massively multiplayer role-playing game” (MMPORG) that boasts some 200,000 “residents” and 12,000 “profitable in-world business owners.”
Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based creator of Second Life, “intentionally, without Plaintiff's consent and without lawful justification, interfered with and destroyed Plaintiff's right of property,” the complaint says.
Bragg, who joined Second Life in late 2005 and uses the online name “Marc Woebegone,” had accumulated about $2,000 worth of virtual land, goods and currency when Linden canceled his account in May and effectively, he argues, converted his virtual property.
The company, however, claims Bragg breached Second Life’s terms of service agreement by using an “exploit” in the game –- that is, he had discovered how to hold an unauthorized auction of a property that was not yet for sale.
“Plaintiff knowingly violated the rules governing the purchase of computer services simulating 'real estate' use in Second Life,” Linden Labs founder Philip Rosedale says in a court brief.
Second Life's three-dimensional platform allows a player to create a persona or “avatar,” who can then explore the digital world and take part in everything from adult encounters to commercial transactions. The virtual commerce is conducted in “linden” dollars, which can be converted into U.S. dollars at online currency exchanges.
There are no virtual courts in Second Life, however, so Bragg filed suit in Chester County Court of Common Pleas. The case was recently transferred to federal court in Philadelphia.
"Plaintiff held all title, interest and possessory rights to the virtual land ... that was acquired from Defendants," the suit says.
But one potential problem for Bragg is he does not appear to have a contract of sale confirming what property rights he actually had. Absent such a contract, he relies primarily on statements by Rosedale hyping Second Life property ownership to the media.
The property owned in Second Life, moreover, exists only in Linden's code and would therefore cease to exist if the company discontinued the game or went out of business.
If anything, Bragg blurs the lines between reality and cyberspace too much, at one point claiming that “no fine print provided by Defendants could possibly operate to suspend the laws of the United States inside of Second Life.” Does that mean those laws would apply in other MMPORGs like Ultima and World of Warcraft or, for that matter, in a game of Monopoly?
Whatever happens to Bragg’s complaint, the issue of property ownership within these games will likely surface again. Business Week recently featured a Second Life “real estate developer” who has already accumulated $250,000 worth of virtual property and makes her living from her virtual real estate business. If investors are going to keep buying into the game, they’re going to want to know exactly what they’re buying.
By Josh Saltzman
11/28/06
 A New York doctor is now free to poke fun at “Barney” on his Web site without fear of being sued for copyright infringement by the owner of the children's dinosaur character.
Dr. Stuart Frankel responded to Lyons Partnerships' legal threats by filing a declaratory relief action seeking judicial confirmation that his Barney parodies qualify as fair use. The dustyfeet.com site describes Barney as an evil merchandising scheme and features a picture of the purple dinosaur under the heading, “This is the enemy.”
As part of a settlement filed Nov. 27, Lyons has agreed not to sue Frankel and to pay his legal fees. "Hopefully Lyons Partnership has learned its lesson and will have more respect for fair use in the future," Frankel attorney Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement.
Frankel tells On Point he would have removed the "Barney" material from his site "if the 'Barney' people had asked me nicely in the first place ... It's nothing I care very much about. I was just practicing HTML coding and put up something that popped into my head that I thought would be mildly amusing for about two seconds."
"I will continue to maintain a fully 100% legal website," he adds, "but don't know whether 'Barney' will feature in it."
A settlement had been in the works since Lyons filed a motion to dismiss in September, arguing the case was essentially moot because it promised not to “make any claim directly or indirectly against Stuart Frankel ... for infringing any copyright.”
As recently as June, a Lyons attorney told Frankel in an e-mail that the materials he was using “are the intellectual property of Lyons Partnership” and it was “unlawful” to use them without Lyons' permission.
Frankel would almost certainly have won injunctive relief from a judge because parodies such as his usually qualify as fair use. Lyons now has effectively enjoined itself.
By Matthew Heller
11/28/06
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Jurors' Comments Fuel New Trial Bid in Bullying Case
Jurors may have opened the door to a new trial in a Maryland school bullying case by saying they returned a verdict for the defense because they were afraid of setting a bad precedent for school systems throughout the country.
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Abuse Victim Can Sue Ex-DA Over 'Sexting' Messages
A Wisconsin judge has protected a domestic violence victim from a rogue prosecutor, finding that she can sue him for sending her text messages in which he pressured her to have sex with him.
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Four Loko Maker Says Users Knew of Health Dangers
The maker of Four Loko has previewed its defense of a slew of product liability lawsuits, arguing that the physical effects of the energy drink's mixture of alcohol and caffeine — far from being an undisclosed risk to consumers — are precisely what made it so popular.
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Mortician Sued for Speaking Ill of the Dead
In a first-of-its-kind unprofessional conduct lawsuit, a woman has sued her former boss at a Michigan funeral home for making an indecent comment about the body of a dead man in front of her.
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'Next Friends' of Orcas Bid to Stop SeaWorld Slavery
An animal rights lawsuit against SeaWorld for enslaving five killer whales at its aquatic theme parks in San Diego and Orlando may sink even though humans are representing the orcas as their “next friends.”
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Jury Finds No Harm to Boy From Wrongful Circumcision
In a blow to supporters of male “genital integrity,” an Indiana jury has ruled that a doctor did not injure a boy by circumcising him when he was an infant even though his mother wanted him to be left intact.
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Guest Can Sue Motel 6 Over Attack by Woman's Pimp
A guest who paid for sex with a prostitute at a Motel 6 did not assume the risk of being attacked several hours later by the prostitute's pimp, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled in an unusual premises liability lawsuit against the motel operator.
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Marsh v. Air Tran Airways
Subject: Roaches on a plane
Document: Complaint
Classic Media v. J.G. Wentworth
Subject: "Lassie" copyright
Document: Complaint
Kardashian v. Old Navy
Subject: Publicity rights
Document: Complaint
McKee v. Laurion
Subject: Doctor defamation
Document: Opinion
Francis v. U.S.
Subject: Bear attack
Document: Decision
more
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Doe v. Discovery Day Care
Court: Miami-Dade Circuit
Subject: Child molestation
Verdict: $3,000,000
Hoback v. City of Chattanooga
Court: USDC, E. Tenn.
Subject: PTSD discrimination
Verdict: $680,000
more
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Brown v. Herbert
Date: 12/16/11
Court: USDC, Utah
Hearing: Motion to dismiss polygamy case
more
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