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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

District Court Upholds Order for Discovery Into Lenz Communications

by Thomas O'Toole

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A few weeks back I wrote about a magistrate judge's ruling that a woman who sued Universal Music Corp. for filing an allegedly fraudulent DMCA takedown notice had waived her attorney client privilege by blogging and e-chatting and talking to news media about the case -- particularly about discussions she had with her counsel, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Lenz objected to the ruling, and now the district court has weighed in, agreeing with the magistrate that Lenz waived attorney-client privilege by conducting her own personal public relations campaign about the case. Judge Jeremy Fogel's Nov. 17 ruling will allow Universal Music's attorneys to make potentially embarrassing inquiries into Lenz's reasons for filing suit and potentially useful inquiries into how EFF went about building its case against Universal Music.

Irrelevant, some might say. But, since this case is about money damages for injuries allegedly suffered by Lenz as a result of the takedown notice, evidence that Lenz has an axe to grind against Universal Music or that she is merely a pawn in a larger public policy battle could diminish the dollar value of her claim. At a minimum, it gives Universal Music an opportunity to cast itself as a victim here, ironic as that may seem.
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