Beat Me, Whip Me, Take My Book Contract Away
There are many wonderful things about Jessica Cutler's motion to dismiss Robert Steinbuch's invasion of privacy suit, chief among them the contention that because Cutler only gave the URL of the blog to three friends, she didn't mean for the blog to be public. In fact, the whole opening anecdote of the motion reads like a "Bridgette-Jones-tries-to-program-the-VCR" set piece:
Cutler visited the “Basic Settings” area of Blogger. There, Cutler entered a “Description” of the Blog, which Cutler simply defined to be the same as the “Blog title” — “Washingtonienne” (Ex. 1 [Cutler Decl. ¶ 5]). Next, the “Basic Settings” area asked Cutler whether she wanted to “Add your Blog to our listings?” Answering “yes” here would have displayed the Blog’s URL on Blogger’s public Internet site, thus advertising its existence to the world of cyberspace. Importantly, Cutler answered this question “no”! She did that in an effort to limit access to the Blog only to those close personal friends (and one friend of one of those friends) with whom she wanted to share the contents of the Blog. Cutler could not find in the “Basic Settings” area or any other area of Blogger the option of making a blog password protected. And thus, by not adding the Blog to Blogger’s listings, Cutler took all opportunities Blogger offered to restrict access to the Blog to a few individuals.
Except, of course, the whole putting-it-on-the-internet thing.
Also? Steinbuchreallylikes spanking. If he wasn't embarrassed before, he is now. Hey, Bobby, you've been a bad boy... Let Wonkette teach you a lesson!
Steinbuch v. Cutler Update--Cutler's Motion to Dismiss [Technology and Marketing Law Blog]