Legal news off limits for law-firm web sites?

Law Firm A has a web site with a "Hot Topics" section. One "Hot Topic" was a news item about Law Firm B, including a headline, a blurb that mentioned Law Firm B by name, and a link to the on-line version of the newspaper story about Law Firm B. Does Law Firm A have a legal problem? It does, according to this story in today's ABA Journal e-Report. Law Firm B sued Law Firm A under a New York statute, which provides that "[a] person, firm or corporation that uses for advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name, portrait or picture of any living person without having first obtained the written consent of such person … is guilty of a misdemeanor." Law Firm B claims that Law Firm A's web site is an advertisement which unlawfully uses Law Firm B's name.

Some experts quoted in the story think that the First Amendment protects Law Firm A's conduct. I hope they're right. If they're not, then bloggers everywhere must heed this caution by Doug Isenberg, author of The GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law:"

Any adverse decision against the defendant law firm’s Web site here would clearly have enormous chilling effects on countless Web sites, including popular blogs that often include even minimal advertising, as many of them do.