Opinion ID: 2555874
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Respondents' Republication of the Federal Complaints on the Internet.

Text: By the time Respondents published the initial federal complaint on the internet in the Fall of 2007, they had filed it, thereby making it a public document. Once a document is made public, Maryland law does not limit who, where, or the extent to which one may view that document. Thus, publication of the by-now public federal complaint does not bar application of the absolute privilege. There is, too, the additional fact that republication of the complaints served the previously noted and judicially-cognizable purpose the notification of potential class members of ongoing litigation, in which they may have a stake. Moreover, we conclude that the complaints were not redacted so extensively as to render them fundamentally distinct from the public documents that were filed with the federal district court. It appears Respondents omitted mostly exhibits, rather than substantive averments, from their internet republication.