Privacy Digest

JS Online: Sheboygan women files landmark case over Web links - Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel :

Can a city stop people from posting a link to its Web site?

That’s the question at the center of a federal lawsuit brought by a Sheboygan woman against the mayor and other officials there, in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, according to an Internet law expert.

Jennifer Reisinger says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city’s police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit filed last week.

The city went further, the lawsuit claims, launching a criminal investigation of Reisinger for linking to the department on one of her sites.

The city’s actions torpedoed Reisinger’s Web site marketing business and led to death threats against her, according to the lawsuit.

“The mayor decided to use his office to get back at Jennifer for her efforts in the recall and picked this to do it,” said her attorney, Paul Bucher. “There is more than a mistake here. There have been repercussions.”

The mayor, City Attorney Stephen McLean, the police chief and city clerk are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Perez and McLean did not return calls for comment.

Reisinger alleges her First Amendment rights were violated by the city. She seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and unspecified declaratory relief.

[...]

Reisinger ran several Web sites and also was active in an unsuccessful recall effort against the mayor. A recall site she created later showed a Fourth of July parade photograph of Perez with a U.S. flag that had been digitally replaced with a Mexican flag and the caption, “Power to illegals?”

Reisinger told a Journal Sentinel reporter in July 2006 she did not know who put up the altered photo because the Web site allowed anyone to upload to the site.

According to her lawsuit:

Separate from the recall, Reisinger ran the Brat City Web Design site, which featured several links, including one to the Sheboygan police department.

On Oct. 18, 2007, the mayor’s secretary e-mailed McLean, the city attorney, asking if Reisinger could link to a city Web site. McLean answered, “Anyone can create a link to someone else’s Web site very easily without the knowledge or consent of the linked party.”

Nonetheless, McLean said he could issue a “cease and desist” order to Reisinger, and the mayor said to do it.

(Read Original Article - Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .)