Liability for Posting Information Obtained by Others

Scope

 * Use this page to list sources related to potential liability or lack thereof for redistribution online of material, content, or information obtained (typically illegally) by someone else.

News / Editorial

 * Shira Ovide, Gawker Says FBI Seeks Documents, Wall Street Journal (June 11, 2010).
 * Jacqui Cheng, Attack on Hitler parodies now newest front in copyright wars, Ars Technica (Apr. 21, 2010).
 * Rachel Donadio, Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case, New York Times (Feb. 24, 2010).
 * Sam Bayard, First Amendment Protects TechCrunch's Publication of (Some) Hacked Twitter Documents, Citizen Media Law Project Blog (Jul. 16, 2009).

Wikileaks

 * Glenn Greenwald, What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010. Salon.com (Dec. 24, 2010).
 * Jean-François Julliard, Open letter to President Obama and General Attorney Holder regarding possible criminal prosecution against Julian Assange, Reporters Without Borders (Dec. 17, 2010).
 * Curt Hopkins, House Judiciary Committee Conducts Hearing on Wikileaks - Watch the Video, ReadWriteWeb (Dec. 16, 2010).
 * Kenneth Roth, US: WikiLeaks Publishers Should Not Face Prosecution Human Rights Watch (Dec. 15, 2010).
 * Glenn Greenwald, Joe Lieberman emulates Chinese dictators, Salon.com (Dec. 2, 2010).

Legal Briefs / Opinions / Statutes

 * Eli Lilly & Co. v. Gottstein, (2d Cir. Aug. 12, 2010) (affirming In re Zyprexa Litig. injunction).
 * Salmeron v. Enter. Recovery Sys., Inc., No. 08-3375 (7th Cir. Aug. 27, 2009) (affirming district court's dismissal of plaintiff's case as sanction for counsel's disclosure of document subject to oral agreement to treat as "attorneys' eyes only").
 * Mary T. Jean v. Massachusetts State Police, 492 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. 2007) (First Amendment barred criminal prosecution for posting illegally recorded video online when recording made by third party, even if knowing receipt of the recording constituted a crime under Massachusetts law).
 * In re Zyprexa Litig., 474 F. Supp. 2d 385 (E.D.N.Y. 2007).
 * Boehner v. McDermott, 484 F.3d 573 (D.C. Cir. 2007) (en banc).
 * Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001).
 * Pavlovich v. Superior Court, 29 Cal. 4th 262 (2002).
 * Religious Tech. Ctr. v. Lerma, 908 F. Supp. 1362 (E.D. Va. 1995).
 * CBS Inc. v. Davis, 510 U.S. 1315 (1994).
 * The Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524 (1989).
 * New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
 * New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) (holding that, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, damages cannot be awarded to a public official for defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves “actual malice” - that the statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false).

Wikileaks

 * Jennifer K. Elsea, Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information, Congressional Research Service (Dec. 6, 2010).

Scholarship

 * Rodney A. Smolla, Information as Contraband: The First Amendment and Liability for Trafficking in Speech, 96 NW. U. L. Rev. 1099 (2002).