Alleging e-defamation, ex-mayor sues blogsCourt quashed earlier action by ManalapanBYLINE: KELLY HEYBOER, STAR-LEDGER STAFFSECTION: NEW JERSEY; Pg. 23LENGTH: 514 words
Last year, Manalapan officials tried - and failed - to get a subpoena to find out the identity of "daTruthSquad," a blogger critical of the local government.
Now the town's former mayor is suing to learn the name of the mystery blogger and dozens of other people who have commented about him online.
George Spodak, a three-time Manalapan mayor, filed a libel lawsuit in Monmouth County Superior Court alleging that critics have been hiding behind screen names to call him a liar, a crook, a bum, a pedophile, an alcoholic, a wife beater - and worse.
The commenters used the names daTruthSquad, Fontina, Bribed Spodak, MyrGreenMeat and others in forums on nj.com, The Star-Ledger's website, according to the lawsuit.
"I'm going to find out who these very astute people are," said Spodak, 68. "They got the wrong tiger by the tail. They thought they could get away with it."
Although he has been out of office for 24 years, Spodak is still active in town politics and frequently speaks at township meetings.
Last fall, Manalapan attorneys subpoenaed Google, insisting that the internet company reveal the name and computer behind daTruthSquad's blogging account. A state Superior Court judge eventually quashed the subpoena, calling the request "an unjust infringement on the blogger's First Amendment rights."
Lawrence Kleiner, Spodak's attorney, said the new lawsuit has a better chance of succeeding because the former mayor has been out of office for more than two decades and is a private citizen, not a public official. The attorney is seeking subpoenas to require internet service providers to disclose the identities of up to 100 of the former mayor's anonymous critics.
"Anonymity is fine," Kleiner said. "But I don't think you can accuse someone of being a pedophile . . . and hide behind the Constitution."
The case has, once again, attracted the attention of national First Amendment groups. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California nonprofit group that helped defend daTruthSquad in the previous lawsuit, said it will continue to work to keep the blogger's identity secret.
"You have the constitutional right to speak anonymously," said Matt Zimmerman, an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney. "You can't use the court as an investigatory tool simply to out critics."
Spodak, who is retired after 40 years in the meat business, said he does not know how to use a computer and only learned that people had been talking about him online through friends. He said he was shocked by what people had written about him, including fanciful allegations that he plotted to kill his wife, and that his meat business had been investigated by the FBI.
Spodak said he suspects the commenters are political enemies trying to keep him from criticizing the local government.
"They were abusing my First Amendment right. What they are trying to do is quiet me," Spodak said.
Meanwhile, daTruthSquad has been mum about the new lawsuit on his blog. In his latest post, he credited the earlier lawsuit with bringing worldwide attention to his site and dramatically increasing his readership.
A couple of questions are there any truth to time frame limits to going from public official to private citizen. I would think that once a public official; one is always a public official.
My next question is any thoughts on how libel law is going to change because of technology. The Internet has brought so many issues about libel. Such as disgruntled former and existing employees’ blogging about company policies or people within the company, or people saying horrible things about another person on social sites (some of the comments can harm future employment for people. I have seen this in the elections as well, with people posting some slanderous comments about the candidates. Do you think the laws need to be changed or have new definitions for what is libel and slander? I think the above story suggest a possible yes, but what are some of your thoughts.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Perfect Pushup Files Suit Against Iron Gym and Pushup Pro Makers
Perfect Pushup Files Suit Against Iron Gym and Pushup Pro MakersLENGTH: 210 wordsDATELINE: MILL VALLEY, Calif. Oct. 8
MILL VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Perfect Pushup LLC, designer and distributor of the well-known Perfect Pushup and Perfect Pullup fitness products ( http://www.perfectpullup.com/ ), announced that it has filed suit against Ontel Products Corporation ( http://www.ontelproducts.com/ ) for claims involving trademark and copyright infringement. Ontel recently launched the Iron Gym pull up product on television. The lawsuit alleges eight causes of action and claims that Ontel has systematically copied Perfect Pushup's products and advertising in an effort to confuse consumers. Perfect Pushup previously brought an action against Ontel alleging that the company infringed the Perfect Pushup trademarks with its Pushup Pro product. The new lawsuit includes claims relating to Ontel's alleged failure to perform under an agreement between the parties in the first lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for copyright and trademark infringement and requests an injunction to prevent all resellers of the Iron Gym from, "further distributing, selling, causing or authorizing sales and distribution of," the Iron Gym.
CONTACT: Joseph P. Costa, +1-310-576-6161, joseph.costa@costalaw.com
Web site: http://www.perfectpullup.com/
SOURCE Perfect Pushup LLC
Hello Everyone,
The interesting piece of this suit is that the two companies look very similar. It seems that Ontel promotes the perfect pull up on its website. Even though both products are similar; it seems strange to host two different websites to sell similar items. The perfect pull up is on the Ontel website and the Iron Gym is promoted on a totally different website. My thoughts are that the two products are in direct competition, but I wonder if it is indeed a trademark infringement. I am posting the news article and the links plus a blogger comment. It doesn’t appear that the customer is confused by the two products. Although with the name Pushup Pro from Ontel this is awlfully confusing to distinguish the difference between the two companies. Can any of you tell the difference?
http://www.ontelproducts.com/about.html
http://www.buypushuppro.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1
http://store.perfectpushup.com/category.php?cat=10&site=pl
Iron Gym October 12, 2008
Filed under: Uncategorized — eng1020 @ 5:55 pm
For my post I decided to analyze a commercial instead of a scene in the movie. The commercial I choose to analyze was Iron Gym which is a pull up bar that turns any door into a gym. The bar is pretty convenient because it doesn’t require any assembly you just hook it to the door and start your workout. The commercial is more like those infomercials you see its longer than a normal commercial running at about a minute long. The commercial features a built man doing pull ups on a normal looking door he does a set of the pull ups and then shows his muscles. The man in the commercial is white and about 6 ft tall he has no shirt on so you can see all the muscles the product will help you strengthen. The man is the only person in the commercial there is no people of color included but I don’t think that it matters because this product is targeted towards anyone that would want to get in shape and look better. I think people are getting sick of these type of infomercials because they see a different one everyday claiming its better than the one before it. The product claims it will give you rock hard abs and oblique’s also it claims that if you use the iron gym just minutes a day you will see real results in 30 days. The problem with that claim is what are real results you could say you are un happy with the results the iron gym has produced but they can still claim you have made some results no matter how big or small they are so the 30 guarantee doesn’t really have any true meaning behind it. The iron gym is just like any other workout machine you see advertised on tv claiming it will make you stronger and help you get bigger even if you only use it just minutes a day. I don’t think many people are buying into those type of commercials because anyone with common sense knows if you want to get in shape its going to take more than just a couple minutes of pull ups a
MILL VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Perfect Pushup LLC, designer and distributor of the well-known Perfect Pushup and Perfect Pullup fitness products ( http://www.perfectpullup.com/ ), announced that it has filed suit against Ontel Products Corporation ( http://www.ontelproducts.com/ ) for claims involving trademark and copyright infringement. Ontel recently launched the Iron Gym pull up product on television. The lawsuit alleges eight causes of action and claims that Ontel has systematically copied Perfect Pushup's products and advertising in an effort to confuse consumers. Perfect Pushup previously brought an action against Ontel alleging that the company infringed the Perfect Pushup trademarks with its Pushup Pro product. The new lawsuit includes claims relating to Ontel's alleged failure to perform under an agreement between the parties in the first lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for copyright and trademark infringement and requests an injunction to prevent all resellers of the Iron Gym from, "further distributing, selling, causing or authorizing sales and distribution of," the Iron Gym.
CONTACT: Joseph P. Costa, +1-310-576-6161, joseph.costa@costalaw.com
Web site: http://www.perfectpullup.com/
SOURCE Perfect Pushup LLC
Hello Everyone,
The interesting piece of this suit is that the two companies look very similar. It seems that Ontel promotes the perfect pull up on its website. Even though both products are similar; it seems strange to host two different websites to sell similar items. The perfect pull up is on the Ontel website and the Iron Gym is promoted on a totally different website. My thoughts are that the two products are in direct competition, but I wonder if it is indeed a trademark infringement. I am posting the news article and the links plus a blogger comment. It doesn’t appear that the customer is confused by the two products. Although with the name Pushup Pro from Ontel this is awlfully confusing to distinguish the difference between the two companies. Can any of you tell the difference?
http://www.ontelproducts.com/about.html
http://www.buypushuppro.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1
http://store.perfectpushup.com/category.php?cat=10&site=pl
Iron Gym October 12, 2008
Filed under: Uncategorized — eng1020 @ 5:55 pm
For my post I decided to analyze a commercial instead of a scene in the movie. The commercial I choose to analyze was Iron Gym which is a pull up bar that turns any door into a gym. The bar is pretty convenient because it doesn’t require any assembly you just hook it to the door and start your workout. The commercial is more like those infomercials you see its longer than a normal commercial running at about a minute long. The commercial features a built man doing pull ups on a normal looking door he does a set of the pull ups and then shows his muscles. The man in the commercial is white and about 6 ft tall he has no shirt on so you can see all the muscles the product will help you strengthen. The man is the only person in the commercial there is no people of color included but I don’t think that it matters because this product is targeted towards anyone that would want to get in shape and look better. I think people are getting sick of these type of infomercials because they see a different one everyday claiming its better than the one before it. The product claims it will give you rock hard abs and oblique’s also it claims that if you use the iron gym just minutes a day you will see real results in 30 days. The problem with that claim is what are real results you could say you are un happy with the results the iron gym has produced but they can still claim you have made some results no matter how big or small they are so the 30 guarantee doesn’t really have any true meaning behind it. The iron gym is just like any other workout machine you see advertised on tv claiming it will make you stronger and help you get bigger even if you only use it just minutes a day. I don’t think many people are buying into those type of commercials because anyone with common sense knows if you want to get in shape its going to take more than just a couple minutes of pull ups a
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