Judge Decides That Fake Giraffe Attack Story Is Protected Free Speech

from the good-move dept

A few weeks back, we were a bit concerned about a judge's decision to force offline a satirical "news story" about a fake giraffe attack at the Global Wildlife Center in Louisiana. Just because GWC was worried that some people might take the story seriously, it doesn't remove the First Amendment rights of the creators of the satirical site. Thankfully, the judge now agrees and has removed the injunction and ordered GWC to pay the legal costs of the site's creators. The judge noted that while the center had some concerns about how the article was viewed, it doesn't change the fact that the content is protected free speech as satire.
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Filed Under: free speech, giraffe, satire
Companies: global wildlife center


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  • identicon
    Aaron, 16 Mar 2010 @ 8:10pm

    The original

    The original article can be found here:
    http://www.hammondactionnews.com/post/411762027/giraffe0210

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 8:59pm

      Re: The original

      There is a disclosure disclosing the fact that it's not real. Not sure if it was there before.

      If the disclosure wasn't there before then perhaps the judge shouldn't have demanded that legal fees be paid. The site actually looks like it was intended to be factual to a casual reader, especially someone who didn't know any better, and perhaps instead of an injunction the judge could have demanded that some sort of disclosure be posted somewhere indicating that this was satire? Maybe in this situation it's obviously satire but even so a disclosure wouldn't hurt. I guess I just have mixed feelings about this.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 9:05pm

        Re: Re: The original

        err.. if the disclosure WAS there before ...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 9:07pm

          Re: Re: Re: The original

          oops, sorry. ignore the previous Mar 16th, 2010 @ 9:05pm post (and moderators, please delete it, it was a mistake and I don't want these posts to clutter up your forum).

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 10:12pm

        Re: Re: The original

        Don't need to disclose that something is satire to make it protected. That's just idiotic.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 9:38pm

    wow, score for the good guys

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bob Vila, 16 Mar 2010 @ 10:12pm

    Giraffes are vicious but rarely cause fatalities. I don't blame the relatives for wanting a second opinion.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ima Fish (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 5:58am

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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