Twitter trouble: Mark Cuban fined, Courtney Love sued -- over tweets

Mark Cuban at South by Southwest. Credit: gorriti via Flickr

Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is apparently just as frank on Twitter as he is courtside at basketball games. The NBA fined Cuban $25,000 on Sunday for a complaint that he tweeted about the refereeing of his team's 103-101 loss to Denver.

Cuban complained that refs didn't call a technical foul on Nuggets guard J.R. Smith for taunting Antoine Wright after a missed shot. Cuban's 100-character protest, broadcast to his more than 13,000 followers on the short-blogging service, translated to $250 per character. That's one pricey tweet.

After telling the world about his slap on the wrist, Cuban quipped on his Twitter page, "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does."

He isn't the only celebrity getting in trouble for a loose tongue -- make that loose fingers. Rock musician and party girl Courtney Love is being sued for defamation because of messages on Twitter. She complained on her Twitter page (sorry, no link due to excessive swearing) about conflicts with clothing designer Dawn Simorangkir, which spurred the lawsuit that was filed in an L.A. court.

Defamation is a sensitive issue among journalists. We weigh the concerns of what may be defamatory in everything we publish. But it has rarely been cause for concern among celebrities — mainly because they used to have to go through the news media to get their statements out to the mainstream.

Now that everyone has a direct line to the public, the courts will either have to redefine the legal definition, or we're all just going to have to play nicer.

-- Mark Milian

Comments

[Michael Kosowicz]

A great article, so funny. I can't wait for the first political scandal from a tweet.

[Allen Klosowski]

How funny. I guess people need to be careful about publishing their stream of consciousness! Publishing a tweet is held to the same standard as publishing an article.

[Steven]

Whatever happened to free speech? It is absolute garbage that he would get fined for speaking his mind.

[Midwesterner]

@Michael-

Twitter has already been the subject of political scandal. A Republican congressman was lambasted for twittering about a confidential trip to Iraq, breaching security.

Fun times.

[wikiBuddha]

What country is this? Is defamation not protected by the constitutional first amendment rights? Or am I missing something, here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law

http://www.infernalramblings.com/articles/Malaysian_Politics/116/

OK, after considering the above links, I still lean greatly toward the freedom of speech over prevention of slander and libel, however, it is generally (morally?) ideal to avoid such slanders.

Considering the cases detailed here, I will only comment on Cuban's twit. According to these laws I've briefed, the suite against him would not hold up in the court of law. Although I am not a judge or a lawyer, I am logical and I don't see any slander. He basically expressed his opinion (legal). The only possible issue could be some hidden text in the basketball rulebooks I'm not familiar with. If I was him, I'd take it to the highest circuit.

This makes me wonder about the legality of theonion.com...

I think I fall short of understanding these suits mostly because historically, bad press generates income...

I'm tempted to slander in the name of freedom, but I don't think many of you care about freedom any more, so I won't waste either of our time.

[kc]

wikiBuddha, Cuban isn't being sued for defamation, so those links aren't relevant. Although i think it's a bit ridiculous to fine someone for comments on Twitter, Cuban doesn't really care and unless his policy has changed, he'll donate an equal amount to charity. In a weird way, fining Cuban is good.

As for the Love case, unless the person she allegedly defamed is a public figure (I've never heard of her), or the statements she made are largely true, she's likely to lose (though they'll probably settle before it goes to court).

[MMM]

I cannot wait for a political scandal over a tweet!