University of San Francisco Legal Issues in Communication Discussion

A1: Libel Case Study: Twibel

Do you tweet? In the age of Twitter, posting potentially defamatory content has become much easier.

In 2010, musician Courtney Love, widow of the band Nirvana’s front man Kurt Cobain, posted a tweet after her attorney Rhonda Holmes declined to file a fraud case against the people managing Cobain’s estate. In the tweet, Love accused Holmes of bribery, tweeting, “I was f—devestated [sic] when Rhonda J. Holmes esq. of san diego was bought off @FairNewsSpears perhaps you can get a quote.” Attorney Holmes sued Love for defamation.

Love argued that the tweet should be considered an opinion and therefore was not defamatory and testified that the tweet had been intended as a private message and that it was accidentally published. A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles rejected Love’s argument, leaving it to a jury to determine how defamation should be applied to Twitter communications and other online media.

Based on your understanding of defamation law, what are the issues the jury had to take into consideration to determine if Love indeed was liable for defamation? (1 paragraph)

A2: First Amendment Rights and Photography

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that “to achieve First Amendment protection, a plaintiff must show that they possessed: 1) a message to be communicated; and 2) an audience to receive that message, regardless of the medium in which the message is to be expressed.”

With this ruling in mind, consider the following case involving a photographer and private security guards:

In 2003, Ram Z. Porat was photographing a group of New York City residential buildings known as Lincoln Towers when he was approached by a security guard who told him that management policy didn’t allow nonresidents to photograph the buildings. Porat continued taking pictures and entered a public courtyard on the premises of the buildings. When the guard questioned him, Porat said that “he was taking pictures for aesthetic and recreational reasons.” The guard demanded identification and also to see the pictures. Porat refused. Another guard informed Porat he was under civilian arrest and called police, who ticketed Porat for trespassing.

Porat filed suit in federal district court, stating that the guards and police had violated his First Amendment rights when they ticketed him for protected conduct.

What do you think? Based on the facts presented and considering the Supreme Court definition of protected behavior, did Porat prevail in his lawsuit? (1 paragraph)