While the materials on this website were different, I thought this case involving free speech was interesting. Actually it makes me think of how much less merit the Church of $cientology has to hang on to regarding Andreas' website, http://www.xenu.net .

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life

-- Henry Ford

=== http://www.auto.com/industry/qlane19.htm

Internet maverick sues Ford

Web publisher says carmaker's forces invaded his privacy October 19, 1999

BY RACHEL KONRAD
DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Internet publisher Robert Lane has sued Ford Motor Co. for at least $15 million, alleging the company's attorneys and computer gurus have invaded his privacy and attempted to silence his rogue Web site.

In a far-reaching suit filed Oct. 1 in federal court in Detroit, Lane also claims Ford profited by colluding with competitors, resulting in cars and trucks that aren't as fuel-efficient as they should be. The vintage Mustang collector and Ford truck enthusiast seeks unspecified damages for Ford's alleged antitrust violations.

Five days after Lane filed his suit, Ford appealed the embarrassing loss of a suit against the Internet publisher in September. Ford requested that a new judge hear the case, which has become a rallying point for free-speech advocates concerned that Corporate America might trample rights of Internet publishers.

Ford spokesman Jim Cain said Ford's appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati had nothing to do with Lane's $15-million lawsuit, which Cain called "a series of fabrications, some ranging from fatuous to flatulent."

No court dates have been scheduled in Lane's lawsuit or Ford's appeal.

People on both sides of the case say rulings could take years.

The case started in August, after Ford attorneys had studied Lane's site, www.blueovalnews.com., for nearly a year. The site published trade secrets, such as specifications for future engines and vehicles, plant blueprints and business plans through 2010, which Lane said were leaked to him by discontented Ford workers.

Lane refused to comply with Ford's repeated requests to stop publishing internal documents about manufacturing glitches. Ford sued the Dearborn nursing student and secured a temporary restraining order.

Sept. 8, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds refused to issue a permanent injunction, ruling that corporations could not stifle independent Web sites -- even those that criticize a company or its products or divulge proprietary information.

Edmunds forbade Lane from using the Ford logo or violating copyright law.

She ordered him to preserve 112 confidential documents he said he had. Ford officials said they were happy about the ruling, which allowed Lane to use only those documents of concern to consumers.

Since the September ruling, Lane has posted articles on future Ford engines, including specs for diesel truck engines.

C. Mark Pickrell, the Nashville attorney representing Lane, says one part of his three-part case is based on a legal technique called SLAPP -- a strategic lawsuit against public participation. He argues that Ford silenced Lane's site in August, when it secured the temporary restraining order, and it should pay $15 million for continued attempts to shut him up.

Secondly, Pickrell says Ford agents have tried to hack into Lane's e-mail and Web site, which receives 70,000 hits per week. Pickrell says criminal investigators from the New York Attorney General's Office and the Environmental Protection Agency have alerted him to the alleged hacking -- which would be a violation of the 1996 Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

"Criminal prosecutors are involved at this stage," Pickrell said of that claim.

Finally, the lawsuit alleges that Ford and domestic competitors colluded on fuel economy standards to give consumers vehicles that use more gasoline than they should. To that extent, Lane is suing as a consumer who believes he has paid more for gasoline than he should have been paying. On that claim, he is suing for unspecified damages.

Although there is little precedent for lawsuits about invasions of privacy in cyberspace and for silencing an Internet publication, there is antitrust precedent.

An independent attorney says Lane and Pickrell face an uphill battle.

"It sounds kind of bizarre to me," said Michael E. DeBow, a law professor and antitrust expert at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. "Normally individual customers' claims have to do with being overcharged. If there had been a price collusion, and he paid too much for a car because there was no competition, he could recover three times what he was overcharged. But in this case, there doesn't seem to be any precedent."

RACHEL KONRAD can be reached via e-mail at konrad@freepress.com or 313-222-5394.

==

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-346847.html.

Ford loses court bid to block controversial site

By Bloomberg News
Special to CNET News.com
September 7, 1999, 1:45 PM PT

DETROIT--A federal judge denied Ford Motor's request to banish an Internet site on which a Dearborn, Michigan, man allegedly posted company secrets.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds refused to extend a temporary restraining order she issued last week against Robert Lane, who operates the Web site Blueovalnews.com. Ford lawyers argued that Lane violated the Michigan Uniform Trade Secrets Act, as well as copyright and trademark law when he published Ford documents on engineering problems, timing of future vehicles, and other trade secrets on the site.

The case has raised questions about how much control companies have over information that customers and employees may publish on the Internet.

Edmunds decided that Lane's First Amendment free-expression rights outweigh Ford's interest in protecting sensitive information.

"With the Internet, significant leverage is gained by the gadfly, who has no editor looking over his shoulder and no professional ethics to restrain him," Edmunds wrote.

"Technology blurs the traditional identities of David and Goliath."

Edmunds did prohibit Lane from destroying or deleting documents he has. She also ruled he can't publish additional documents he knows were prepared by Ford employees, nor can he solicit new documents from Ford workers.

Lane also must provide Edmunds and Ford in 10 days with a list of all documents in his possession and identify the source of each document.

"We were granted some of what we sought," said Ford spokesman Terry Bresnihan. "This is a tremendously complex issue." Ford has not decided whether to appeal, he said.

"This, once again, illustrates that average Americans can do remarkable things when it comes to press freedoms, even when faced by huge corporations such as Ford Motor," Lane wrote on his Web site. The 32-year-old nursing student and avid Ford customer started the site in February 1998 to provide information to Ford Mustang owners and enthusiasts.

Mark Pickrell, a Nashville attorney who represented Lane, said he promised Edmunds that Lane would not publish any new documents in their entirety while the case is pending. Lane is permitted to publish limited portions and select quotes from such documents under what is known as the "fair use"

doctrine of copyright law.

==

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg454.htm.

10/18/99- Updated 05:59 PM ET

Ford appeals Web site decision
Site operator and car enthusiast Lane counter-sues Ford for $15M

DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co. is going back to court to try to stop a Mustang enthusiast from putting confidential company information on his Web site.

But the enthusiast, Robert Lane, has fired back with a $15 million countersuit against Ford, claiming the company tampered with his site and illegally tried to silence him.

In September, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied a Ford request to bar Lane from posting company documents on his Web site. The automaker wanted to ban Lane, a 32-year-old Dearborn nursing student, from using, copying or disclosing company information.

Lane testified he has 112 Ford documents received from anonymous sources, including blueprints and production schedules. He had posted some of them on his Internet site, www.BlueOvalNews.com, and wrote stories about others over the past several months.

Ford sued Lane in August, claiming he violated laws against disclosing trade secrets when he posted the documents on his Internet site. A different judge ordered Lane to remove the documents and any material copyrighted by Ford.

But Judge Edmunds said that while Ford had a strong case, blocking Lane from putting the documents on the Internet would be an illegal prior restraint of speech. The judge did order Lane to preserve any Ford documents he might have, to not violate Ford copyrights and to not solicit information from Ford employees.

At the time of the ruling, Ford said it was pleased with Edmunds' ruling.

But earlier this month, Ford filed a notice to appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Ford spokesman Jim Cain said the company believes Lane is still publishing copyrighted material and trade secrets.

Since the September ruling, Lane has posted several articles on Ford's future engine plans, including specifications for a new line of diesel truck engines.

C. Mark Pickrell, the Nashville attorney handling Lane's case, said he was surprised by Ford's decision to appeal.

''Everything else Ford requested, Ford won,'' Pickrell said. ''The one part of the preliminary injunction they lost they're appealing.''

Pickrell said Lane filed his counterclaim against Ford earlier this month.

The lawyer said Ford's lawsuit against Lane amounts to a SLAPP -- strategic lawsuit against public participation -- action, and Lane is entitled to $15 million.

No court dates have been scheduled.

== http://www.auto.com/industry/qford31.htm.

Disputed Ford site is back up

Judge promises quick ruling in free press vs. the company's rights August 31, 1999

BY RACHEL KONRAD
DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

An Internet site that publishes trade secrets about Ford Motor Co. is back on-line, but in a very abbreviated form, after a judge in Detroit said the site could continue for at least a week.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, who heard testimony from Dearborn Internet publisher Robert Lane on Monday, said www.blueovalnews.com should not have been yanked from the Internet.

But Edmunds warned Lane that he could be held in contempt of court if he violated a temporary restraining order issued last week that required him to remove the most controversial secret company documents he was displaying.

Lane promised he would be careful and he was. When the site reappeared Monday afternoon the only content was a report on Edmunds' hearing. All other pages under topics such as "Engines & News" were blank except to say:

"This document has been pulled by a Federal Court Order. Ford Motor Company has successfully trampled on the first amendment and the freedom of speech."

The site was closed last week after Ford secured the restraining order and sent a copy to CommuniTech.net, the Kansas City, Mo.-based Internet service provider that charges Lane $19.95 per month to post the site.

CommuniTech.net reinstated the site Monday when Lane erased the objectionable documents and stopped using Ford's trademark blue oval.

"The only reason we ever shut it down was because we received an order to do so, initiated by Ford," said Ryan Elledge, a manager of 8,000 Web sites operated by CommuniTech.net.

On Monday, Ford asked Edmunds for a permanent restraining order on what Lane could publish. She said she would rule on the fate of Lane's site by the time the temporary injunction expires Sept. 7.

Edmunds also said the Web site should go back up because the temporary order never said it should be completely shut.

Elledge said the company routinely shuts sites that involve child pornography or e-commerce frauds. It shut several "Trenchcoat Mafia" sites to comply with an FBI order after the Columbine High School murders in Colorado. But until the Ford case, Elledge said, the company had never shut a site for displaying trade secrets.

Many Internet publishers and free speech advocates have lionized Lane for supporting First Amendment rights in cyberspace. The Mustang collector and Henry Ford admirer has also become the target of heavy criticism from Ford employees and others who insist he hurt the automaker by publishing its trade secrets.

The case is one of several in American courts involving free speech rights in cyberspace. Corporations are struggling to identify -- and when possible punish -- certain publishers on the Internet, where nearly anyone can post something that defames executives or divulges secrets.

If a judge finds that Lane violated copyright and trade secret laws, he could be liable for millions of dollars -- if not billions. Lawyers and academics say it's highly unlikely that Ford can prove Lane damaged the company's fortunes, but Ford attorneys say the company could lose to competitors in the next decade because of the leaks. Lane provided spy photos and engine specifications for various Ford vehicles as far out as the 2010 model year.

"There is no other case where valuable, competitive trade secrets have been distributed on the World Wide Web," Edmunds said, vowing to work quickly so as not to harm Ford or hamper Lane's free-speech rights unnecessarily.

"I'll do this as expeditiously as possible."

Hello, Hollywood?

The two sides in the case appeared in court like movie stereotypes.

On one side sat numerous Ford attorneys, mostly dressed in black or navy suits with conservative ties and dark shoes. Led by Southfield attorney Ernie Brooks, the team huddled every half hour or so, deftly opening thick briefcases and pushing bundles of paper at each other.

On the other side sat the lanky Lane, unjacketed, who shoved his hands in and out of his pants pockets except when taking an oath of honesty. The 32-year-old nursing student's attorney, 33-year-old Mark Pickrell of Nashville, is reminiscent of comedian Drew Carey. With a crooked tie and harried air, he begged forgiveness from the judge because he flew to Detroit on Sunday morning and hadn't had time to make copies of papers he submitted into evidence.

Lane and Pickrell hailed the judge's decision Monday as a tiny victory in what could become a long battle. They are eager to take the case as far as the U.S. Supreme Court. They have received e-mail and faxes from lawyers specializing in First Amendment issues.

"Mr. Lane isn't wrapping himself in the mantle of the First Amendment,"

Pickrell said, paraphrasing a sarcastic statement from a Ford attorney.

"He's protected by it."

At the heart of the case, Pickrell said, is whether Lane is a journalist who has the right to publish classified information. Pickrell argues that Lane's one-man operation, anchored by an Apple G3 computer in his bedroom, has the same right to disclose private documents as Business Week or any mainstream publication.

Lane used confidential documents from Team Mustang engineers to uncover major powertrain problems in the Mustang Cobra SVT, which Ford recalled this month after a storm of consumer complaints. He also published confidential emissions reports that grossly contradict public statements from Ford executives boasting about the automaker's commitment to the environment.

According to court testimony, documents leaked to Lane show that Ford's 4.5-liter V6 diesel engines will fail stricter emissions standards in three states in 2002. The three states -- California, New York and Massachusetts -- make up 25 percent of Ford's market for that engine, according to the leaked document.

Ford says it's simply theft

Ford attorneys say the case has nothing to do with the First Amendment but the protection of intellectual property. Roger May, president and CEO of Dearborn-based Ford subsidiary Ford Global Technologies Inc., said the case is about theft of the Ford logo and internal documents.

May and other Ford attorneys say Lane, who never worked for Ford, published information that he knew employees leaked in violation of Ford's confidentiality policy. Attorneys say Lane violated the new Michigan Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which forbids the disclosure of any information "derived from or through a person who had utilized improper means to acquire it."

"We only filed our lawsuit after he posted a strategic confidential document and trade secrets on the Internet where our competitors can read them -- and threatened to post many more," said Ford Vice President Vaughn Koshkarian. "All of this -- and his offer to sell Ford blueprints -- is plainly illegal and unethical. That's what this is really all about."

RACHEL KONRAD can be reached at konrad@freepress.com or at 313-222-5394.

==

court transcript COMPLETE COURT TRANSCRIPT

Ford Motor Company .vs. BlueOvalNews http://www.bonforums.com/legal/ford_transcript.htm.

==

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