Tweeter served injunction through Twitter
Oct 8th, 2009 | By Han Lee Yen | Category: Business Law
A High Court in London has granted an order allowing service of an injunction* via popular microblogging site Twitter. In what has been dubbed “Blaney’s Blarney Order”, an anonymous Tweeter posting under the same name as blogger and solicitor Donal Blaney (donalblaney.com) is accused of impersonating Mr Blaney and infringing on his copyright and intellectual property rights, and was ordered to identify himself and stop the postings. The injunction was served via Twitter, the first for the popular social networking site, as lawyers were not able to track down the anonymous user.
According to donalblaney.com, the annonymous Tweeter has complied with the order and Mr Blaney intends to donate the damages awarded for the case to charity. He is inviting readers to vote which of the listed four (British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Help for Heroes or Royal British Legion) should benefit.
As reported in The Guardian, Matthew Richardson, the barrister who obtained the injunction remarked, “People have to learn that they can no longer hide behind the cloak of anonymity the Internet provides and break the law with impunity.”
*injunction – in general, a court order or judgment requiring a party to refrain from doing or continuing to do a particular act or activity. An injunction can be preliminary in the form of a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction or final injunction if the issue involved has been decided by the Court (West’s Tax Law Dictionary § I1070).
Further reading:
1) News coverage on the subject from LexisNexis Academic, Lexis.com or Factiva.com
2) Definition of Legal Terms from Black’s Law Dictionary or West’s Tax Law Dictionary accessible from Westlaw International
3) Securing intellectual property : protecting trade secrets and other information assets (Call No. KF2979.S446)
4) Lessons from the identity trail : anonymity, privacy and identity in a networked society (Call No. K3264.C65L641)
5) A practical guide to digital copyright law (Call No. K1420.5.A315)
6) International IP issues and strategies : leading lawyers on managing intellectual property protection and enforcement efforts across multiple jurisdictions (Call No. K1401.I61R)
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