Champagne Maker Wants Web Critics' Names

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Feb 27, 2009 | Legal Issue: Freedom of Speech | 0 |

FREE SPEECH — In the latest twist in a case that could test the limits of free speech on the Internet,
Korbel Champagne Cellars will ask a Sonoma County judge next week to
make Comcast Corp. identify its customers who criticized the wine
company in a Web forum, reports the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

Korbel sued the anonymous critics last year for defamation, saying their comments damaged the century-old business.

The
postings in a Craigslist forum last year accused Korbel of punishing
employees who reported sexual harassment. They also contended the
winery was plotting to cut down redwood forests on its Guerneville
property. Other posts alleged Korbel bribed law enforcement and court
authorities to keep the company out of trouble.

The charges are
false, said Korbel spokesman Terry Fahn. Theyve damaged Korbels
reputation, according to its lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior
Court.

The suit seeks an injunction and unspecified damages.

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers. Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution. Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.

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