Judge Decides That Fake Giraffe Attack Story Is Protected Free Speech

from the good-move dept

Tue, Mar 16th 2010 7:42pm — Mike Masnick

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

8 Comments

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Aaron, 16 Mar 2010 @ 8:10pm

The original
The original article can be found here:
http://www.hammondactionnews.com/post/411762027/giraffe0210
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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.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 9:05pm

Re: Re: The original
err.. if the disclosure WAS there before ...
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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).
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2010 @ 9:38pm

wow, score for the good guys
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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.
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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.
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Ima Fish (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 5:58am

Obligatory SNL link.
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