vagabond

This ought to be interesting. I have a former student who has gone home and practices in US District Court in Phoenix. Has anyone been to that website? What's in there anyway?

From Pacific Business News:

Mesa Air Group's lawsuit against Mike Uslan, a former Mesa pilot now flying for Aloha Airlines, is scheduled for a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Mesa operates the go! interisland air service.

The lawsuit, filed in Arizona in January, alleges that Uslan participated in a Web site -- www.dontflygo.com -- that Mesa claims is misleading, violates its trademark over the use of "metatags" and makes defamatory statements against the airline and its CEO, Jonathan Ornstein. Mesa, which operates the interisland airline go! in Hawaii, seeks an injunction to remove the site and to identify its authors.

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, filed March 14, Jeffrey Miller, Uslan's attorney, argued that Mesa filed the lawsuit in Arizona to make it expensive and inconvenient for Uslan to defend himself and to intimidate people from speaking out against Mesa's business practices in Hawaii.

Mesa's attorney, David Rogers of Phoenix-based Squire Sanders, did not respond to PBN's request for comment.

shaggieshapiro

whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Ewfflyer

I like this quote "Desperation is a smelly cologne"

vagabond

Constitutional law, and particularly the First Amendment, is a complex body of law that many law students never master even after one very intensive semester of it. I already have a poor reputation of posting indiscriminately about all things having nothing to do with aviation, so for fear of being banned outright, I guess I won't go into a long disquisition about this topic.

However, on the off chance that you are geniunely interested, I suggest you look up and read the case of Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., a 1974 case where the US Supreme Court discusses whether opinions can be defamatory. The newer case of Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. held that a statement must be provably false in a cause of action involving libel.

Note that Mesa's lawsuit is not limited to defamation, but apparently alleges trademark violations. Having not seen the pleading, I cannot tell what other allegations it makes and also do not know how the respondent answered.

Cubdriver

As as legal layman and being only vaguely familar with the parties involved in this I find Uslan's website a bit hard to understand. He needs to put a short summary of his position and allegations there so you see his point. It took 30 minutes for me to determine what he is angry about, that JO uses nasty business tactics to grab market share in Hawaii. This is indeed an obnoxious thing, like watching a snake ease into its throat a live mouse, but it is entirely legal until the Federal Trade Commission steps in. Of course, Uslan has a big problem with this lawsuit, and free speech is the question, but the gist of his website is just bellyaching about JO and the Go! project.

vagabond

I am going out of town and can't reply in a manner that I usually do. I also have not looked into Uslan's website to see what exactly he's been saying about JO. The Gertz case holds that opinions are not defamatory. Don't know what Uslan's opinions are about JO and more importantly, how he phrased them. Just like the Age 60 websites, I will bet my firstborn son that his website has copies of the Complaint and Answers and whatever else paperwork these types of cases generate.