Friday, January 11, 2008

Bullies, bloggers and free speech: Warren Kremer Paino Advertising drops libel suit

The article below is from:

Simple Thoughts of a Complex Mind
Click HERE to see the original article.



Friday, May 05, 2006
Blogger's Freedom of Speech lawsuit is dropped.

I found this story on Instapundit.com. It links over to the Media Bloggers Association web page. One of their members, Lance Dutson, had been very critical of Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, who contracts with the state of Maine. WKP decided that he was being too critical and sued him for libel. They dropped the lawsuit today after receiving a lot of pressure from bloggers and some state representatives. Freedom of Speech won out.

"Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKP) has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit for defamation against Lance Dutson, a Maine blogger, for publishing criticism of agency and publishing an image of a sample ad prepared by the firm which contained a phone number directing callers to a phone sex line."- according to Media Bloggers Association

"The decision to withdraw the lawsuit comes on the heels of a withering media campaign orchestrated by the Media Bloggers Association on behalf of MBA Member Lance Dutson. Hundreds of bloggers responded to the MBA's call to arms and were joined by media outlets around the world in highlighting the heavy-handed tactics of the state contractor." --MBA

A big round of thanks is in order for the lawyers who volunteered their time on Lance's behalf including MBA General Counsel, Ronald Coleman of the Coleman Law Firm, Greg Herbert of Greenberg Traurig and private attorney Jon Stanley. --MBA

"This demonstrates precisely what we have said all along," said Coleman, "Suits like this are premised solely on the anticpation that there will be no push back from the little guy. Here, there was." --MBA

These have been some freedom of simple thoughts of my complex mind.

Posted by Larry Litle

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