Derek DeVries – Imprudent Loquaciousness

Recently I blogged about the potential legal threats that face bloggers (“Practice Safe Blogging – Legal Protection Against Zombie SLAPP Suits”).  I was contacted by Evan Mascagni, Legislative Assistant at the Public Participation Project which is working toward legal protections from SLAPP suits.  He described some of the progress the PPP has made toward fighting these sorts of suits:

“In the last session of Congress, this was embodied in HR 4364, the Citizen Participation Act of 2009, sponsored by Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9). We anticipate that revised federal anti-SLAPP legislation will be introduced shortly in the Senate and reintroduced in the House, with bipartisan support in both chambers.

[...] In your article, you mentioned a SLAPP filed against a member of our organization, Justin Kurtz, for starting a Facebook group. I have attached the article in the New York Times discussing federal anti-SLAPP legislation and the SLAPP filed against Justin, and an editorial in USA Today endorsing the bill. Additional information regarding the bill and our organization is at our website: www.anti-slapp.org“

As with all politics, this is local – so get involved if you can at anti-slapp.org; let your legislators know this is an important step toward protecting free speech online.