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A New Hampshire state court has dismissed a defamation suit filed by a patent owner unhappy that it had been called a "patent troll". The court ruled [PDF] that the phrase "patent troll" and other rhetorical characterizations are not the type of factual statements that can be the basis of a defamation claim. While this is a fairly routine application of defamation law and the First Amendment, it is an important reminder that patent assertion entities--or "trolls"--are not shielded from criticism. Regardless of your view about the patent system, this is a victory for freedom of expression.
[...] The court went on to explain that "patent troll" is a term without a precise meaning that "doesn't enable the reader or hearer to know whether the label is true or false". The court notes that the term could encompass a broad range of activity (which some might see as beneficial, while others see it as harmful).
The court also ruled that challenged statements such as "shakedown" and comparisons to "blackmail" were non-actionable "rhetorical hyperbole". This is consistent with a long line of cases finding such language to be protected. Indeed, this is why John Oliver can call coal magnate Robert Murray a "geriatric Dr. Evil" and tell him to "eat shit". As the ACLU has put it, you can't sue people for being mean to you. Strongly expressed opinions, whether you find them childish or hilariously apt (or both), are part of living in a free society.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 16 2018, @12:04AM (1 child)
The box I'm talking about is on your right but my left, the audience's left.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday April 16 2018, @02:59AM
Kuro5hin's death was also tragic: its entire data center was decomissioned without Rusty Foster knowing about it ahead of time.
This because he's really bad about checking his email. In my experience with him he often took months before he responded to my own emails.
Rusty posted to Hacker News that he would set up a read-only archive, but it's been a couple years and k5 is still nothing but a Gandi parking page.
BUT US KURONS WERE SAVED BY A HEAVEN-SENT MIRACLE:
The Wayback Machine [archive.org].
Unfortunately, k5's robots.txt blocked robots from indexing /comments. That had the effect that all replies weren't archived. Top-level comments were preserved because they are all in /story - that is, on the same URL as stories and diaries.
I am overjoyed to find just now that /tags was archived.
So I'll revise all those spam links to point to the wayback machine, but probably not until tomorrow night as I am busy with some other work.
Here's just one shining example:
Kuro5hin tag "Supersonic Telephone Poles" [archive.org] at The Wayback Machine.
Despite that I regard "Supersonic Telephone Poles" to be the very finest phrase I have ever composed in nearly forty years of writing, every last Kuron regarded my use of this very, very fine phrase to be evidence of insanity, most likely bipolar mania.
I remain puzzled.
There are lots of other K5 links on my site. The ones I can save I'm steadily re-aiming at the wayback machine but's it's going to take months to fix them all.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]