A coastal Maine blogger who criticized the state’s tourism office has been socked with a $1 million lawsuit for allegedly making false statements and posting on his Web site images from proposed tourism ads prepared by a New York ad agency.
Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC, an agency hired by the Maine Department of Tourism, sued in federal court in Maine earlier this month, alleging the blogger, Lance Dutson of Searsmont, Maine, violated the agency’s copyright and defamed the agency in blog entries self-published at www.mainewebreport.com.
Dutson, an independent Web designer, launched his blog last fall to comment on technology and Maine tourism issues. He has written commentaries ridiculing the state’s tourism efforts and, last month, he posted a “rough draft” advertisement pulled from Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development Web site showing a collage of iconic images of the Maine seacoast, woodlands, and ski slopes, with a dummy phone number that turned out to connect to a line promoting a phone sex service. The agency had inadvertently placed the phone number on the draft advertisement for a presentation made to state tourism officials.
“This is supposed to be our biggest industry,” Dutson wrote on his blog, referring to tourism, “but it’s being run like a trailer park daycare on its 3rd notice from the Human Services people.”
The ad agency is suing Dutson for copyright infringement, defamation, and trade libel/injurious falsehood. It seeks statutory damages of $150,000 for each of six images it alleges were infringed. In the complaint, it claims Dutson’s blog “contains numerous defamatory statements designed to blacken” the agency’s reputation.
Significance: The case raises the issue of how free speech protection will be applied in the exploding blogosphere, and highlights the growing influence of bloggers. It also puts bloggers on notice that they are facing increased scrutiny and need to use their power responsibly.