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Top 10 Lawsuits of 2007~2008 (5-1)
5. 1st Court Martial of U.S. vs. First Lt. Ehren Watada
Ehren Watada, a soldier who refused to be deployed to Iraq because he felt the war was immoral. To some, he was the symbol of conscience, courage, and integrity. To others, he was treasonous scum, a coward, and unpatriotic.
Like how America was torn between the war, the American people were torn between seeing this hero prevail, or this coward jailed. As the public watched with anxiety, the lawsuit disappeared in the shadows of its bureaucracy. Lieutenant Watada was charged with 2 specifications of ‘Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman’, and 1 specification for ‘Missing Movement’. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison. Watada pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Result
The trial ended in a mistrial as the judge rejected one of the pretrial agreements. The judge interpreted Watada’s admission of refusal for deployment as an admission of guilt on the crime of ‘Missing Movement’. However, both the prosecutor and defense agreed that the agreement did not constitute as a confession. The prosecutor motioned for a mistrial and it was granted.
As a new trial date was being set, the defense indicated a problem. Since the judge issued a mistrial under the request of the prosecutor (and against the defense’s opposition no less), it constitutes as ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ and any retrials on the individual are barred under the constitutional right preventing an individual from being tried twice for the same offense (resulted from faults or failures of the prosecutor). An injunction on retrial was declared and the Army is currently preparing a claim to challenge it.
Watada is working in the army until the case is officially over.
4. Don’t Tase Me, Bro!
During the Q&A period of one of U.S. Senator John Kerry’s talks at the University of Florida, student Andrew Meyer stepped up to the microphone and began stating his questions. Whatever the reason may be, the campus police decided Mr. Meyer needed to be removed. Meyer struggled as five or so officers tried to expel him. In the midst of chaos, the officers found no alternatives but to tase Mr. Meyer, but not before he hollered the classic catchphrase “Don’t tase me, bro!”.
He was arrested and detained. This case raised serious questions regarding freedom of speech and police brutality.
Results
The outcome was perhaps the most anticlimactic part of the whole ordeal and there was a very good reason why many people didn’t know what happened to Don’t-Tase-Me bro. I cheated by including this case on the list because the affair never got as far as a lawsuit. The government agreed to not press charges if the outspoken Mr. Meyer agreed to issue a voluntary public apology, (which he issued) and to stay out of trouble during an 18-month probation, (which he is currently serving).
3. ConnectU vs. Facebook
To say Facebook is best invention of the 20th century to young adults may be an understatement. It is reported that Facebook has now over 80 million active users and growing at more than 200,000 users a day. The success does have some skeletons in the closet. It was haunted with a lawsuit in 2004, merely seven months after Facebook was launched, which trailed on to 2008. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was accused by his former classmates of stealing the idea, source code, and business plan in creating this now billion-dollar enterprise. They sued Facebook for copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud, and breach of contract and asked for all of the company’s assets and an injunction to prohibit Facebook from operating.
Despite the immense negative publicity the lawsuit has generated, it didn’t seem to impede Facebook’s ridiculous growth nor devalue its prospects to investors. While the lawsuit was still pending, Facebook was presented with purchase offers, the most famous one being a $900 million deal from Yahoo. All of which were declined.
Results
The two parties agreed to settle the case with Facebook giving the plaintiffs an undisclosed sum of cash and stock. Shortly after the settlement seemed to be finalized, the plaintiffs filed yet another lawsuit claiming that Facebook lied about its stock value. That lawsuit concluded with a court order maintaining the two parties must honour the original settlement conditions. Two wins for Facebook!
2. Viacom Vs. YouTube
Viacom (the corporation that owns Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, MTV, Comedy Central) sued the online video site YouTube for $1 billion dollars for copyright infringement and an injunction prohibiting it from further copyright infringements.
It was the clash of the titans (Viacom and YouTube’s parent corporation Google). Netizens paid close attention as the verdict may drastically change the nature of sharing information on the net. As one blogger headlined “Viacom Sues YouTube for $1 Billion… The End of the Tube?”
Result
Contrary to the anticlimactic “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” case, the proceeding of this case has detonated more controversies than the accusations.
In the suit, the court has ordered YouTube to hand-over all of its user information. The transfer of user information fueled a new debate on privacy violations. The data in question contains ‘… for each instance a video is watched, the unique “login ID” of the user who watched it, the time when the user started to watch the video, the internet protocol address other devices connected to the internet use to identify the user’s computer (“IP address”), and the identifier for the video.’ After negotiations, Google was allowed to mask the user ids before handing over the 12 TeraByte of data to Viacom. While users were concerned that their privacies have been violated, another question arose.
Why was Google storing all this data in the first place? If you have ever accessed a video on YouTube in your lifetime, Google knows from what location, at what time, you watched the video. And using the IP address, can easily identify who YOU are.
Further negotiations resulted in YouTube removing over 100,000 unauthorized clips from the site. This again, triggered a new crisis of inadvertent removal of clips that were not infringing copyrights, stemming a lawsuit by EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) against Viacom on behalf of all video posters who have had their videos unduly removed.
The lawsuit is ongoing and we can expect to see more issues stemming from this case. Some critics go as far as claiming the end of Internet TV altogether. We will have to see.
1. Mahmoudiya Case
Otherwise, known as the “14 year-old Iraqi Girl Gang-Raped By American Soldiers Case”. When the allegations surfaced, recounting how a group of US soldiers killed the father, mother and 5-year old sister of an Iraqi girl; took turns raping her; shot her, and set her body on fire, the American public was outraged. The image of the troops was tarnished, the virtue of the war smeared.
Many were in disbelief waiting for confirmations hoping it was not true. We waited for confirmation as the investigation faded from the media’s spotlight.
Results
6 US soldiers were charged with the heinous crime, with the ‘ringleader’ being tried in a federal court and the rest court-martialed.
Steven Dale Green, (the ringleader who allegedly fired the shots that killed all four family members, and participated in the rape): indicted with 16 charges including premeditated murder and aggravated sexual assault. His trial begins April 27, 2009.
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James Barker (participated in the rape, doused victim’s body with kerosene): convicted of rape, conspiracy to rape and murder, sentenced to 90 years of prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
Paul E. Cortez (participated in the rape): convicted of rape, conspiracy to rape, and four counts of murder, sentenced to 100 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years.
Jesse V. Spielman (the lookout guy): convicted of rape, conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with intent to rape and four counts of felony murder, sentenced to 110 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 10 years.
Brian L. Howard (knew about and failed to report the crime but did not participate): convicted of obstruction of justice and being an accessory, sentenced to 27 months in prison.
Anthony W. Yribe (knew about and failed to report the crime but did not participate): avoided a conviction.
A society is largely defined by its judicial system. It dictates how you behave and interact and separates a free nation from an oppressive regime. Lawsuits identify ambiguities and loopholes in the system and it is interesting to see the verdicts that define some of the most intriguing philosophical questions.
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