Internet Obscenity Conviction Requires Assessment of National Community Standards–US v. Kilbride

By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Kilbride, 2009 WL 3448360 (9th Cir. Oct. 28, 2009) Jeffrey Kilbride and James Schaffer were porn spammers, operating through Ganymede Marketing, a Mauritian company. I previously blogged on their case in 2007. Their spam failed…

Court: Prosecutors Can’t Rummage Around in a Defendant’s Gmail Account — U.S. v. Cioffi

[Post by Venkat] The government is prosecuting a couple of Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for securities fraud and related offenses. I came across a story that prosecutors obtained evidence from the gmail account of one of the defendants which…

Zittrain on the Dark Sides of Crowdsourcing

By Eric Goldman Last week, Cyberlaw expert/rock star Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School (visiting at Stanford Law School this term) spoke as part of SCU’s lecture series on IT, Ethics and Law. An overflow crowd of over 100 people…

Tucows Not Liable for Spam Judgment Against 3rd Party Based on Private Registration Services — Balsam v. Tucows

[Post by Venkat] Judge Breyer (N.D. Cal.) rejected an attempt by a spam plaintiff to hold a registrar liable for a judgment against a third party based on private registration services provided by the registrar. (Balsam v. Tucows Inc., et…

Judge Rejects Attempts by Texas Plaintiffs to Intervene in Beacon Class Action–Harris v. Facebook

[Post by Venkat] I mentioned last week that a group of plaintiffs sought to intervene in the class action filed against Facebook in the Northern District of California. The Texas plaintiffs who sought to intervene were part of a class…

Google AdWords Litigation Updates–Google Adds One Lawsuit and Ends Another

By Eric Goldman It’s been a little quiet on the Google AdWords trademark litigation front in the past couple of months, so it’s timely to check in on the situation. Jurin v. Google, Inc., 2:09-at-01695 (E.D. Cal. complaint filed Oct….

Power.com Counterclaims Dismissed — Facebook v. Power Ventures

[Post by Venkat] Facebook and Power Ventures have been involved in a lawsuit over whether Power.com can allow its users to access user data on Facebook’s network. Facebook brought suit against Power.com asserting a slew of claims ranging from copyright…

Facebook Not Liable for Private User Groups Per 230–Finkel v. Facebook

By Eric Goldman Finkel v. Facebook, Inc., 2009 N.Y. Slip Op. 32248 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Sept. 15, 2009) This is a really interesting legal dispute with an entirely predictable outcome for Facebook as a defendant. See my initial blog post…

Craigslist Isn’t Liable for Erotic Services Ads–Dart v. Craigslist

By Eric Goldman Dart v. Craigslist, Inc., 09 C 1385 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 20, 2009) Yesterday, Judge John F. Grady of the Northern District of Illinois federal court dismissed Cook County Sheriff Dart’s lawsuit against Craigslist for user-posted advertisements in…

Domain Names as Property Subject to Creditor Claims–Bosh v. Zavala

[Post by Venkat] Most people take it for granted that domain names are property. As such, there shouldn’t be much dispute that domain names are subject to the claims of judgment creditors. But I’ve seen enough resistance to this position…