Fortunately, I am covered since I carried insurance for defamation under my personal umbrella policy and my business policy.
I agree Bnesaladur, in the future I wish they would consider appointing independent private counsel to verify the source and represent to the court the validity of what was reported without giving up the person's identity.
What is missed completely here is the context of the posts TMM parsed out of a thread and claimed defamatory. A Class Action Law Suit had been filed against TMM tinyurl.com/3gkea2t, I reported it just after it hit Pacer.
The discussion on the forum followed a re-post of a portion of a piece I wrote and linked to the full article on my own website (see pages 2, 6 and 8 of the NJ Supreme Court opinion, they acknowledge this). The very issue they were asked to rule on they avoided, focusing on one venue but not the other. The source I am protecting was threatened and their safety was my concern.
I believe this will be debated for years. Since posting on a forum is personal and not part of my journalistic work and not protected by the Shield Law according to the NJ Supreme's don't you think I got SLAPP'ed by TMM now that you understand the context?
Remember they claim no monetary damages and their only complaint is I "hurt their feelings."
On July 22, 2009 we filed for a reconsideration. Hopefully the new Judge in this case (Lucasio has retired) will consider the legal arguments and facts presented.
You can read the reconsideration here:
http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-07-22-Hale's%20Motion%20for%20Reconsideration.pdf
I have enjoyed reading all of your comments and appreciate the time each of you have taken to weigh in on this case. I thank each of you for your interest and opinions.
This was an important issue for me to fight. To clarify, the security breach and the disclosure of it had been publicly discussed on several adult webmaster boards for over 5 months before I wrote my comments. It is easy to see the time-line by searching for the company + security breach. Thank you for writing this piece it has been really nice to have support.
Shellee Hale
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by shelleehale.
Fortunately, I am covered since I carried insurance for defamation under my personal umbrella policy and my business policy.
I agree Bnesaladur, in the future I wish they would consider appointing independent private counsel to verify the source and represent to the court the validity of what was reported without giving up the person's identity.
Let's add the context
What is missed completely here is the context of the posts TMM parsed out of a thread and claimed defamatory. A Class Action Law Suit had been filed against TMM tinyurl.com/3gkea2t, I reported it just after it hit Pacer.
The discussion on the forum followed a re-post of a portion of a piece I wrote and linked to the full article on my own website (see pages 2, 6 and 8 of the NJ Supreme Court opinion, they acknowledge this). The very issue they were asked to rule on they avoided, focusing on one venue but not the other. The source I am protecting was threatened and their safety was my concern.
I believe this will be debated for years. Since posting on a forum is personal and not part of my journalistic work and not protected by the Shield Law according to the NJ Supreme's don't you think I got SLAPP'ed by TMM now that you understand the context?
Remember they claim no monetary damages and their only complaint is I "hurt their feelings."
Reconsideration
On July 22, 2009 we filed for a reconsideration. Hopefully the new Judge in this case (Lucasio has retired) will consider the legal arguments and facts presented. You can read the reconsideration here: http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-07-22-Hale's%20Motion%20for%20Reconsideration.pdf
Journalistic Privilege
I have enjoyed reading all of your comments and appreciate the time each of you have taken to weigh in on this case. I thank each of you for your interest and opinions.
Shellee
Blogger's Rights
This was an important issue for me to fight. To clarify, the security breach and the disclosure of it had been publicly discussed on several adult webmaster boards for over 5 months before I wrote my comments. It is easy to see the time-line by searching for the company + security breach. Thank you for writing this piece it has been really nice to have support.
Shellee Hale