Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 3 (Special Extra-Long Copyright Edition)

By Eric Goldman * Oracle got a $1.3B jury verdict in its anti-scraping lawsuit against SAP. My prior blog coverage (1, 2, 3). This is one of the largest copyright damage awards ever (if not the largest), and it ranks…

Hypocrisy Alert?! Expedia, a “FairSearch” Member, Marginalizes American Airlines in Its Search Results

By Eric Goldman Just like manufacturers often have complicated relationships with their retailers, airlines and travel aggregators simultaneously compete and cooperate with each other. Airlines value the extra visibility that aggregators give them, but the airlines pay for that premium;…

Google Files Unredacted Brief in Rosetta Stone v. Google Appeal

By Eric Goldman After some prodding by Paul Levy of Public Citizen, Google has filed an unredacted version of its response brief in the Rosetta Stone v. Google appeal. As Paul explains in his blog post, the newly disclosed information…

Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 2

By Eric Goldman Wikileaks Wikileaks has been on my mind for the past 2 months, but the stories have moved faster than I can. From my perspective, Wikileaks is principally a story about The Empire Strikes Back (It is a…

Court Rejects Agence France-Presse’s Attempt to Claim License to Haiti Earthquake Photos Through Twitter/Twitpic Terms of Service — AFP v. Morel

[Post by Venkat with a few comments from Eric] Agence France Presse v. Morel, 10 Civ. 2730 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y.; Dec. 23, 2010) The Southern District of New York issued an order denying AFP’s request to dismiss photographer Daniel Morel’s copyright…

MySpace Profile and Photo Evidence Used to Support Conviction for “Participation in Criminal Gang Activity” — State v. McCraney

[Post by Venkat] State v. McCraney, 2010-Ohio-6128 (Ohio Ct. App.; Dec. 15, 2010) There has been a proliferation of MySpace (and more recently, Facebook) cases in the criminal context. Most of these cases involve evidentiary issues where the prosecution seeks…

Ripoff Report Isn’t Bound By Injunction Against User Post–Blockowicz v. Williams

By Eric Goldman Blockowicz v. Williams, No. 10-1167 (7th Cir. Dec. 27, 2010) I blogged about this case a year ago. The Blockowiczs objected to allegedly defamatory posts on the Ripoff Report. They obtained a default injunction against the posters…

Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)

By Eric Goldman I have a big backlog of Quick Links from the last 2 months. I’ll post them over the next few days. I also have a backlog of other blog posts I need to write, especially my reassessment…

Deep Packet Inspection (NebuAd) Litigation: Court Dismisses ECPA Claim but CFAA Claim Continues

[Post by Venkat with comments by Eric] Mortensen v. Bresnan Comm., CV 10-13-BLG-RFC (D. Mont. Dec. 13, 2010) A district court in Montana hearing one of the many NebuAd “deep packet inspection” lawsuits partially granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss….

Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Proposal of Class Notice via Twitter, SMS, and Email — Jermyn v. Best Buy

[Post by Venkat] Jermyn v. Best Buy, No. 08-Cv-00214-CM-DCF (S.D.N.Y.; Dec. 06, 2010) Plaintiffs brought a class action against Best Buy alleging that Best Buy failed to honor its price-match guarantee. The court certified the class with respect to New…