The St. Louis Cardinals’ Manager Tony La Russa has sued Twitter over a fake account which he claims has “harmed his reputation” and damaged his tradmark rights. The Tony La Russa Twitter Lawsuit brings up an interesting question, but in my opinion it’s not going to go anywhere and I wonder why he would file such a suit, especially if he doesn’t like what was posted on the account.
St. Louis Cardinals’ Manager Tony La Russa
The Twitter posts were obviously in bad taste, referencing the death of two Cardinals’ pitchers, Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock. They also made fun of La Russa’s DUI arrest in Florida.
A “tweet” from April 19 stated the following, “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher.” Admittedly I can see why La Russa would be upset by this. The posts are obviously in terrible taste, but as bad as the posts are I think that a lawsuit over this kind of thing is just as terrible an idea. According to the Chicago Sun-Times:
The lawsuit includes a screen shot of three tweets. One posted on April 19 said: “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher.”
Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart condition in his Chicago hotel room in 2002. Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock died in a 2007 auto accident, and the medical examiner measured his blood-alcohol level at 0.157 — nearly twice the legal limit.
I understand that La Russa has a right to sue, but whether he should or not is a completely different question. Tony, in addition to being the manager of the Cards’ is also a lawyer. You’d think he would understand that this lawsuit is shaky from the start. Tony isn’t suing the person who created the account, he is suing Twitter for allowing the account in the first place. I am having a very hard time understanding what the goal is. Twitter took down the account after the suit was filed, and La Russa did claim that attempted to work with Twitter to take down the account but they were unresponsive which forced him to file suit, but I think that there are better ways than filing a lawsuit to accomplish the same goal.
Tony has gone after the media before, as evidenced by the video below, but I’m not sure how smart filing a lawsuit against with Twitter over a fake account is. It seems to just give people a reason to talk about it, and gives publicity to Twitter and to the thing La Russa is trying to bury.
Tony La Russa
The profile on Twitter made it very clear up front that the account was a spoof. I really don’t think that Tony’s lawsuit against Twitter has any legs at all and I’d expect the suit to be either withdrawn or dismissed now that the profile is down. What do you all think, if you are a Cards’ fan do you really like the headline “Cardinals Manager Sues Twitter”? If I was a Card’s fan I don’t know what would worry me more, the fact that the manager of my team has thin enough skin that he would sue over something like this, or that they are tied with the Brewers for first in the division right now.
June 5th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
As sad as it is that La Russa had his identity stolen on the Internet, Twitter is actually covered by Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act. Hopefully, he’ll find a way to land the IP address of the person that stole his identity.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Derick-
I agree, I hope they find the guy who did this. I think La Russa’s fundamental mistake was going after Twitter, and not trying to go after the guy who did this. It is similar to the S.C. (I believe) Attorney General who threatened to go after Craigslist because hookers used the site to advertise in the “Erotic Services” section of the site.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Ryan:
You make good legal points, but let me just say this. The person who made the fake profile is probably one of those vile Cubs fans. If you are one, eat crap and die.
LOL, can you tell I’m a Cardinals fan. So a Cubs fan making such a fake profile, making fun of dead Cardinals is highly provocative. Tony’s own Dad was a HUGE Cardinals fan. I think Tony is personally vested in this franchise and hates the Cubs as much as the everyday fan does. He even bad mouthed Jim Edmonds after he signed with the Cubs last year, a guy who Tony loved while he was in St. Louis.
There is bad blood between the blue menace to the north, and the Red Birds. But remember, it has been over 100 years since the Cubs have won a world series, so most of the bitterness comes from fans wearing blue. Us Cardinals fans mostly ignore the insignificant threat coming out of the “friendly confines” or as I like to call it, the “chamber of doom.”
LOL
June 6th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I was waiting for either Justin or Bryan to chime in and blame a Cubs fan. The thing is, I’d put a month of salary up saying you are right.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:51 am
The solution for Twitter is very simple: all they need to do is verify accounts by email before they set them up. That way, when abuse is reported at least you have an email address as a lead. Why don’t they verify users by email?
June 9th, 2009 at 1:23 am
[...] Tony La Russa Twitter Lawsuit: Cardinals’ Manager Sues Twitter [...]
June 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am
My, someone has strong feelings for the Cardinals. While I don’t dismiss the idea that a Cubs fan could be to blame for the fake La Russa account, to use terms like “vile”, “blue menace”, and “chamber of doom” completely dismisses your credibility in the argument. You have officially reached the level of uber-fanatic. Being a Cubs fan myself, I don’t totally dislike the Cardinals, but would never use name-calling as support for an argument. Now the Yankees however…
June 10th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Ben:
It may not have been easy to tell, but I was exaggerating, mainly for fun. One of my best friends is an avid Cubs fan. It was just rhetoric my friend. What would the National League Central be (or the whole league for that matter) without one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time? I love the Cubs if nothing else for the fact that they make the game more interesting for Cardinals fans. There is nothing better than a Cardinals-Cubs game.
I actually rooted for the Cubs in the playoffs the last two years, just hoping they might win a World Series after a 100 year drought. I felt the agony of being a Cubs fan for the first time. It felt good. It was like being whipped by a hot women wearing leather. It hurts sooo good. You have to be a gluten for punishment to be a Cubs fan. Good luck to you my friend. For now, I leave you with this link to a picture you might find interesting.
http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu100/scriptoforreals/wrigleyfield.jpg
July 16th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Клёво, мне понравилось!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Look Tony is a deusche. They can do whatever they like and he can’t do crap. The truth is that the interent is a form of media, and since the tweets were done in jest they fall under the fair use for comedy laws. Thats why Tom Cruise can’t get Trey Parker and Matt Stone for making him come out of the closet on South Park. Now if we were in England, then Tony and Tom would be able to hide in the closet all day long, and sue whomever they wanted for whatever they wanted if their feelings got hurt, but that is not the case in the good old USA. Let freedom ring beaches!