Lawsuit against blogger dropped
This entry is for the legal minds in class – Jill and Chris – but I thought it was interesting in light of our class conversations.
According to Advertising Age, an advertising agency in New York, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, dropped its suit against Lance Dutson, a blogger for Maine Web Report, for copyright infringement, defamation and trade libel and injurious falsehood.
Dutson started blogging about the work WKPA was doing for the Maine Office of Tourism in October of 2005, arguing the strategy the agency provided was misguided. WPKA had bid for broad search terms that also were the interest of some of Dutson’s clients. The blog took on a life of its own (where have we heard that before) and so WPKA decided to sue Dutson to protect their reputation and because their business had been hurt. As a note, I did a Google search for WKPA and they were listed number 17 behind all the blog listings for this issue.
It’s interesting to note the case was dropped the same day The Boston Globe published an editorial calling for the agency to drop the lawsuit and when a Maine state representative said he had asked the governor to suspend working with the agency.
I understand state agencies have a lot to consider when selecting agencies to complete their work – are they in the state and will it help total state revenue, will this be the best agency to complete the needed work, etc. But, I think the Maine Department of Tourism needs to more closely consider what kind of agency they want to work with. This issue and the way it was handled should be closely considered when the agency is up for review.