google bomb

Google Bomb: Internet lawyer John Dozier on Defamation Online

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googlebombThere’s a fine line between the First Amendment right to free speech and defamation, and this has become an increasingly larger problem online. What do you do if you’ve been careful with your reputation personally and professionally, but someone with a vendetta decides to attack you?

Internet lawyer John Dozier is one of the country’s leading experts on the issue of online defamation, and is the author of Google Bomb: The Untold Story of the $11.3M Verdict That Changed the Way We Use the Internet. The book details the Sue Scheff’s landmark internet defamation case that reminded the world that real people are the target of online harassment, cyberbulling, privacy invasion, and Google bombs. A “Google bomb” is an attempt to manipulate the Google rankings related to a particular search term to the detriment of a person or organization. Continue reading

Dozier Internet Law on Illegal Use of a Competitor’s Name

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Yesterday Dozier Internet Law, experts in litigation related to intellectual property and protection of reputations online , published a list of common issues in the battle over using a competitor’s name to get traffic to your website.

This area of law is certainly contentious. I am sure there are lawyers who would argue with the advice given in this article by Dozier, but that does nothing to diminish what I see as the main point of their article: If you’re using a competitor’s name to bring traffic to your site, be careful. There are a ton of pitfalls, and you could quickly find yourself in court. Continue reading