Eric the Red

Should a government be able to sue its citizen-critics for copyright or trademark infringement? The University of Maryland, College Park did it at least once. Then, “Terp-Idiots.com” was shut down.

Now, an advertising agency hired by Maine is suing a blogger over a similar issue.

Can a citizen be sued for criticising the apparently inept actions of a government agency, even he uses trademarked material? I don’t think so. Good for Lance Dutson that Maine has an Anit-SLAPP law.

Lance sums the matter as an evolving policy issue quite nicely:

… is attempting to inoculate his department from public criticism. This is terrifying. If this were to work, every state department could simply subcontract a majority of their tasks, and public dissent would effectively end. Then these same subcontractors would be allowed to harass anyone who dared criticize the policy, and the government could stand back and say ‘That’s just our subcontractor, we can’t control them’.

Yikes!