Because of the First Amendment, it is rare that we hear about consumers being sued for exercising their right to free speech — even with nearly 50 million reviews contributed to-date. That's probably why there's been a fair amount of media attention surrounding a couple of recent cases in Virginia. But despite this press hype,… Read more
Earlier this week, the Virginia Court of Appeals announced a ruling that sets Virginia apart from other states when it comes to free speech rights for consumers. In this case, the owner of a Virginia carpet cleaning business argued that because he could not find in his customer database the screen names of some… Read more
Earlier this year, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., Yelp announced an open data project with the City of San Francisco: bringing restaurant hygiene scores onto Yelp business listings. Soon thereafter, Louisville, Kentucky — a model city for embracing open data standards — signed up, followed by Wake County (Raleigh), North… Read more