'Silk Road' Ruling Will Hurt Online Commerce (Forbes Cross-Post)

‘Silk Road’ Ruling Will Hurt Online Commerce (Forbes Cross-Post)

You may have heard of Silk Road, an online marketplace that enabled hard-to-trace buying and selling of illegal goods. The court says it was “as if the purchases were occurring on eBay;” buyers and sellers could even leave feedback about…

Minors' Privacy Claims Against Viacom and Google Over Disclosure of Video Viewing Habits Dismissed

Minors’ Privacy Claims Against Viacom and Google Over Disclosure of Video Viewing Habits Dismissed

Plaintiffs alleged that Viacom and Google violated the Video Privacy Protection Act and other federal and state privacy laws by improperly collecting and passing along information when end users (kids) viewed videos or games at Viacom-owned websites (nick.com, nickjr.com, and…

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation, Prostitution & More)

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation, Prostitution & More)

Content Regulation * Jancik v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, 2014 WL 1920751 (C.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (cites omitted). Another websites-and-ADA case diverging from the troubling 2012 Netflix ruling: However, the Redbox Instant website and the Redbox kiosks cannot be…

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Marketing, E-Commerce & More)

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Marketing, E-Commerce & More)

Privacy * Snapchat’s basic value proposition (“Disappearing digital photos”) has been deceptive from the beginning. The FTC busted them for it. (I saw James Grimmelmann added this to his Internet Law casebook. We’ve also added it to our Advertising Law…

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Consumer Reviews, Defamation & More)

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Consumer Reviews, Defamation & More)

Consumer Reviews * In re Margrett A. Skinner (Ga. Sup. Ct. May 19, 2014). Lawyer publicly reprimanded for disclosing client confidential information to rebut the client’s online reviews. See my Forbes post. * Loftus v. Nazari, 2:10-cv-00279-WOB-JGW (E.D. Ky. May…

Lawsuit Over Google’s Unified Privacy Policy Pared Down, But Two Claims Survive

Lawsuit Over Google’s Unified Privacy Policy Pared Down, But Two Claims Survive

This is a lawsuit against Google for “commingling user data across different Google products.” Under the policy in effect before March 2012, information collected in one particular Google product was not automatically combined with information from another product. This changed…

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)

Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)

Trademark * Barton Beebe has posted a new free casebook, Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook. Quite possibly the new gold standard of trademark casebooks. Check it out! * Hollywood, Esq.: Chubby Checker Settles Penis Size App Lawsuit. Prior blog post. *…

Another Blogger Wins a Fair Use Defense For a Photo--Leveyfilm v. Fox Sports

Another Blogger Wins a Fair Use Defense For a Photo–Leveyfilm v. Fox Sports

Danielle Wysocki blogged at “The Jersey Catcher,” a sports blog for women. On December 6, 2010, she blogged about a lawsuit over the 1985 novelty rap song “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” sung by members of the Chicago Bears football team….

TCPA Claim Against Taco Bell Fails For Lack of Agency

TCPA Claim Against Taco Bell Fails For Lack of Agency

I mentioned before that a court said Taco Bell wasn’t liable for texts sent on its behalf because the plaintiff didn’t adequately allege the sender was Taco Bell’s agent (See “Franchisor Isn’t Liable Under the TCPA for Franchisees’ Text Message…

Textbooks For An “Intellectual Property For Engineers” Course

I have been exploring teaching a one unit course in the undergraduate Engineering School called something like “IP for Engineers.” As part of researching this course, I flagged several books for closer review. Here are some mini-reviews of the books…