- Tech
-
-
Tech
The gadgets, platforms, and software that make your digital life possible. If it bleeps, clicks or blinks, you’ll find it here.
-
Devices
-
Categories
-
-
- Internet Culture
-
-
Internet Culture
-
Categories
-
Featured
-
-
- Streaming
-
-
Streaming
-
Services
-
Featured
-
-
- IRL
-
-
IRL
-
Categories
-
Featured
-
-
- Social
-
-
Social
-
Categories
-
Featured
-
-
- Live TV
-
-
Live TV
-
Services
-
Guides
-
-
- More
- Search
See all Editor's Picks →
See all Popular →
Represented by Complex Media, Inc. for advertising sales.
Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Ethics
Latest
- ‘Penis fish’ memes erupt after worms wash up on California coast Friday 5:58 PM
- Why Britons are tweeting ‘Little England’ in wake of the U.K. election Friday 3:22 PM
- Net neutrality advocates ask for rehearing on federal court decision Friday 2:29 PM
- Americans are sharing their #PrivateHealthLIFEhacks to help Brits Friday 2:28 PM
- Warren, Sanders, Yang pledge to skip next week’s debate over union dispute Friday 2:12 PM
- How to watch tonight’s Nets vs. Raptors matchup on NBA TV Friday 2:00 PM
- Alt-right comedian Owen Benjamin banned from Instagram over anti-Semitic memes Friday 1:55 PM
- TikTok teens are procrastinating with #FinalsWeek Friday 1:46 PM
- ‘The Mandalorian’ takes on a prison break in episode 6 Friday 1:30 PM
- Nick Cannon vs. Eminem battle expected to escalate after ‘off-limits’ daughter diss Friday 12:50 PM
- Laura Loomer vehemently denies being author of new Laura Loomer-themed action novel Friday 12:30 PM
- PewDiePie’s poop-inspired game gets banned by Apple Friday 11:29 AM
- ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners to adapt ‘Lovecraft’ graphic novel to screen Friday 11:00 AM
- The 50 memes that defined the decade Friday 10:45 AM
- Venmo users are getting harassed with fraudulent payment requests Friday 10:38 AM
Courtney Love wins trademark libel case
Jury rules that Love did not defame her former lawyer.

Courtney Love tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. She’s been in catfights with Madonna, gotten into Twitter spats with her own daughter, and she called Dave Grohl a “sub-mediocre kind of guy” once, which is both an awesomely mean thing to say and not true.
While most of Love’s smack-talking results in bad press, a tweet she sent in 2010 resulted in something even more serious: Love’s former lawyer brought a libel case against the smeared-lipstick siren.
San Diego Lawyer Rhonda J. Holmes, who represented Love in 2008 and 2009, filed suit after Love accused her of taking a bribe on Twitter. Before their falling out, Holmes was helping Love with a fraud case.
The exact wording of Love’s (now deleted) tweet:
I was fucking devestated [sic] when Rhonda J Holmes esq of San Diego was bought off. I’ve been hiring and firing lawyers to help me with this.
The tweet was up for around an hour before it was deleted, but that hour was enough to make Holmes worry about her reputation being sullied.
This case makes Courtney Love the first person to defend herself in a Twitter libel suit; while other complaints have been filed, this is the first to go to trial and may end up setting an important precedent when it comes to defamation suits based on the popular micro-blogging platform.
While this is the first “Twibel” lawsuit to go to trial, it’s actually not even the first “Twibel” suit for Love. In 2009, she paid $430,000 to settle a suit made by a Dawn Simorangkir, a fashion designer Love had disparaged in tweets and on her MySpace page. Love had called Simorangkir, among other things, an “asswipe nasty lying hosebag thief” and “drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery who lost custody of her own child,” so in that case the defamation charges were a little more straightforward.
While Love settled up in the initial case against her, she went in guns blazing this time around, and it worked. Holmes needed to prove that Love intended for the tweet to be public, which is where her case went off the track. Love’s lawyers successfully argued that the hard-living musician had meant to send the offending statement in a Direct Message, and that Love quickly deleted the tweet after she realized she’d sent it out publicly. “I’m sort of a computer retard,” Love explained to the jury.
With Love’s offending tweet up for such a short time before she deleted it, her lawyers’ argument seemed entirely plausible. It took the jury just three hours to determine that Love’s tweet was not defamatory.
Holmes sought $8 million in damages. While she lost the trial, Holmes’ lawyer Mitchell Langberg said the attorney was happy that her reputation had been restored. “At the end of the day, her biggest asset in life is her reputation,” Langberg told reporters. “That she got back today.” I’m not entirely sure that’s true—Holmes will forever be known as the lady who lost against Courtney Love now, after all—but I guess it’s good she’s looking on the bright side.
Love celebrated her win, appropriately enough, on Twitter:
Can’t shut me up…now we go beyond #twibel @willkeenan pic.twitter.com/9ponFuaPrE
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) January 27, 2014
I can’t thank you enough Dongell Lawrence Finney LLP, the most incredible law firm on the planet.We won this epic battle. #justiceprevails
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) January 25, 2014
H/T The Awl | Photo via Flickr/georgia

Kate Knibbs
Kate Knibbs is a notable tech reporter and pop culture essayist. A former staff writer for the Daily Dot, her work has appeared in Gizmodo, the Ringer, AV Club, Digital Trends, Popular Mechanics, and Time.