January 2010 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Copyright * An English translation of Google’s December loss in France on a Google Book Search lawsuit. * Ed Felten reports on a survey of files available via BitTorrent. Acknowledging some methodological limits, he estimates ~99% were…

Terri Chen Replaces Rose Hagan as Google’s Chief Trademark Counsel

By Eric Goldman I previously mentioned that Rose Hagan, Google’s longtime chief trademark counsel, was retiring. (Her last day was Wednesday). Rose’s next ventures include art and jewelry. Terri Yun-Lin Chen, a current trademark counsel at Google, has taken over…

Utah May Repeal Its Spyware Control Act–SB 26

By Eric Goldman It’s that time of year again. The Utah legislature is back in session and cooking up new schemes to regulate the Internet. So far I only see one Internet-specific bill in queue, SB 26. Surprisingly, it does…

Facebook User Agreement Upheld in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Third Party App–Miller v. Facebook

By Eric Goldman Miller v. Facebook, Inc., 1:2009cv02810 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 15, 2010). Miller’s complaint filed in October 2009. Miller makes the Adobe Flash videogame “Boomshine.” He alleges that defendant Yeo published a Facebook app, ChainRxn, that violates Miller’s “look…

Google and China: Some General Thoughts

By Eric Goldman I have deferred blogging on the Google/China imbroglio for a few reasons. First, heavyweights such as Jonathan Zittrain have tracked International online censorship and online security issues more closely than I have. Second, after Google’s provocative blog…

Keyword Ad and Product Shots Case Survives Motion to Dismiss–FragranceNet v. FragranceX

By Eric Goldman FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. FragranceX.com, Inc., 2010 WL 174159 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 14, 2010) I previously blogged about this case in 2007. That ruling was one of several in New York that, following the Rescuecom v. Google district court…

4th Amendment Updates in the State Courts

The US Supreme Court is not the only Supreme Court to recently focus on 4th Amendment privacy issues critical to technology. By Ethan Ackerman This blog recently covered the US Supreme Court’s decision to hear a 4th Amendment case dealing…

File Names Can Help Predict File Content in Child Porn Prosecution–US v. Beatty

By Eric Goldman United States v. Beatty, 2009 WL 5220643 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 31, 2009) This is a child porn prosecution. Using Phex P2P software, an undercover investigator accessed the Gnutella network and conducted searches using search terms known to…

“Law & Wikis” Panel at AALS Law & Computers Section Annual Meeting

By Eric Goldman This post recaps the 2010 AALS Law & Computers Section Annual Meeting on the theme of “Law & Wikis.” The program consisted of four papers submitted in response to a Call for Papers from Spring 2009. See…

Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2009 (Eric’s List)

By Eric Goldman Guest blogger John Ottaviani recently dropped by to offer his perspectives on 2009’s top Cyberlaw developments. While I like his list a lot, I independently developed my own top 10 list that has a different emphasis. You…