October 2009 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman

Just a reminder that I am posting most of these types of links exclusively to my Twitter feed.

* Tricome v. eBay, Inc., 2009 WL 3365873 (E.D.Pa. Oct 19, 2009). Court upholds eBay user agreement’s venue selection clause. Evan Brown covers the case.

* The AutoAdmit case is over. Above the Law and the Yale newspaper.

* Google doesn’t want to hear your complaints about your reputation management.

* Moneygram settles with the FTC (to the tune of $18M) that its money wiring service was used to perpetrate fraud.

* The FTC scores a rare COPPA settlement, this time with Iconix for $250,000.

* John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Kirtsaeng, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96520 (SDNY Oct. 19, 2009). Another federal court holds that the purchase of foreign-manufactured textbooks and resale in the US via the Internet is blocked by the importation right and not excused by the First Sale doctrine. My coverage of the analogous Pearson v. Liu ruling.

* Utah’s “Don’t Spam the Kids” registry survived a constitutional challenge. That doesn’t make it good policy!

* Saadi v. Maroun. Blogger hit with $90k judgment for defamation. MLRC coverage. My initial blog post on the case.

* Erik Estavillo, the gamer who sued for being kicked off the PlayStation Network, is appealing his district court loss to the Ninth Circuit. I guess he wants to lock in the adverse ruling as the binding law of the Western United States. My blog post on the district court ruling.

* Susan Gindin, When are a Posted Privacy Policy and ‘Enforceable’ Terms of Use Not Enough? The Many Lessons Learned and Questions Raised by the FTC’s Action Against Sears.

* Rep. Paul Kanjorski wants to end 47 USC 230 with respect to bogus stock investing info? This legislation needs careful monitoring due to its potential perniciousness.

* Venkat has his own version of Quick Links on his site.