Pennsylvania Court Says Bloggers Protected By Journalist Shield Law; Don't Have To Reveal Commenter IP Addresses

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Over the years, there have been plenty of debates about whether bloggers should be considered journalists and, specifically about if they should qualify to be protected by journalist shield laws. Court rulings on this have been something of a mixed bag with some courts saying that bloggers don't qualify for state shield laws, but over in Pennsylvania there's a recent ruling that went the other way.The case, filed in Beaver County Pennsylvania, and heard in the local state court, found that the blogger who runs BeaverCountian need not respond to a subpoena demanding IP addresses or other identifying info on various commenters. The lawsuit was brought by Connie Javens and Renee Javens Zuk against a bunch of John Does who they accused of posting defamatory comments on BeaverCountian.The court carefully reviewed Pennsylvania's journalist shield law and found that the operator of Beaver Countian is pretty clearly covered. It first notes there's no requirement that the publication be a print publication and further highlights that the operator of the site, John Paul Vranesevich, clearly does journalism with his posts to the site.

Mr. Vranesevich authorsarticles posted on the site. Further its publication online is available to anyone who wishes toaccess the website. In that sense, it constitutes a newspaper of general circulation. The factthat the content is published online rather than in a traditional format is inconsequentialconsidering the clear intent of the statute. There is no indication in the language of theShield Law that its provisions are limited to publications printed in a traditional "hard copy"print format. Further, it is apparent that Mr. Vranesevich operates the website for thepurpose of gathering, compiling and publishing news.

Here the record establishes that at this stage of the proceedings the persons postingcomments as "John Q Taxpayer" and "the bigdigger" were both sources of informationprovided to Mr. Vranesevich concerning his investigative reporting of Ms. Javens. ThePlaintiffs have argued that the comments of the posters were not news information for Mr.Vranesevich and therefore not protected. Such a conclusion would require a narrowinterpretation of the Shield Law which is an approach firmly rejected by our supreme court.The statute prohibits persons such as Mr. Vranesevich from being compelled to disclose "thesource of any information procured or obtained" by him so long as the information wasobtained "for purposes of gathering, procuring, compiling, editing or publishing news".Moreover, it is not the content per se that's protected, but rather the source.... Nor are there any restrictionson the form of the content or where the content was disseminated and how it came to theattention of the person protected by the Shield Law. It is obvious that "John Q Taxpayer"and "the bigdigger" intended that their true identities be confidential to all but thoseoperating BeaverCountian.com. Mr. Vranesevich used information provided by these twoindividuals to gather news to be published on the BeaverCountian.com. The Shield Lawprohibits compelling disclosure of these two identities in this litigation.

Ms. Javens is a public official whose actions as treasurer have been the target ofextensive press coverage. There have been a number of online articles reporting on herallegedly dishonest or improper conduct including reports of official investigations into herconduct in office. There were numerous online comments posted at the BeaverCountian.com,while only a portion of which have been identified in this action. It is not possible to gagethe extent to which the posts in question would have a defamatory impact or be responsiblefor the alleged injuries when compared to the entirety of media reports concerning much thesame assertions of misconduct. The nexus between the statements at issue and thegeneralized assertion of harm is not strong. This diminishes the strength of her case.Moreover Ms. Javens' factual record in support of her Motion seeking disclosure isthin at best. As noted above there are no specific evidence from which one could concludethat the allegedly defamatory statements are not true. The only factual averment in therecord in this regard is the general statement in the plaintiffs Motion that they are "innocentvictims of an offensive and scandalous attack on their reputation" without any delineationwith regard to the contents of the numerous comments they cite. This greatly diminishes thestrength Ms. Javens' case.

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Monster Energy Attempts To Run From Laughable Trademark Spat It Started With Thunder Beast Root Beer

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Readers here will hear the name "Monster Energy Corporation", makers of the Monster Energy beverage, and likely immediately roll their collective eyes. Monster Energy has truly been a monster when it comes to trademark bullying over some of the most frivolous claims imaginable. From threats against breweries over location-based puns, to threats against beverage review sites it doesn't like, and even threats against an actor that featured in a monster movie over a photo he tweeted holding a Monster Energy drink, the company is something of a joke in trademark circles.Which hasn't kept the company from continuing its bullying ways, of course. The latest version of its efforts concerns a startup root beer company in DC that dared to use the word "beast" in its name, with Monster Energy asserting that beast is too close to monster and oh my god why is this universe such a silly, silly place?

Thunder Beast, a small DC root beer company, is fighting trademark violation allegations from California-based Monster Energy Corporation. About a year ago, Thunder Beast, which operates out of the TasteLab food incubator in Northeast, received a cease-and-desist letter from Monster over the use of the word “beast” in the company name.In its letter, Monster argued customers might accidentally buy one of Thunder Beast’s bison-emblazoned beverages when they intended to buy an energy drink. Monster claims Thunder Beast infringes on its brand, which includes trademarked slogans such as “PUMP UP THE BEAST” and “UNLEASH THE ULTRA BEAST,” its petition for cancellation reads.

“At the end of this I’d already spent so much time and money and done so much discovery work … that when they finally got around to giving me a settlement offer that was reasonable I decided to reject it,” says Norberg. “I wanted to publicly defend so that when other small businesses get harassed by Monster Energy, they will be able to research this issue and see that they have a history of doing this and that it’s possible and fairly easy for the underdog to stand up to these big corporate bullies and defeat them if you’re in the right.”

Thunder Beast is raising money for legal fees on its website, advertising their struggle with funny graphics and proclaiming, “Forget being the underdog. We’re going full #UnderThunder.”“I really want to make it the DNA of my company to fight monsters, which is something I’m putting on all my new labels: Fight Monsters,” Norberg says. “I think that’s something that resonates with every human being, and it’s something I want to use my company to inspire people to do.”

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