Recap of Stanford E-Commerce Conference Panel on Takedown Notices
By Eric Goldman Last month, I attended Stanford Law School’s annual E-commerce Law Conference, one of my favorite conferences of the year because of its subject material and the chance to hang out with so many friends. This year, the…
Tenth Circuit Kills the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine–1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com
By Eric Goldman 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. Lens.com, Inc., 2013 WL 3665627 (10th Cir. July 16, 2013) Here are some things I hate: * duplicitous litigants, such as plaintiffs who buy competitive keyword advertising yet sue competitors for doing the…
Dentist’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Yelp Preempted by Section 230–Braverman v. Yelp
By Eric Goldman Braverman v. Yelp, Inc., 2013 NY Slip Op 31407 (NY Sup. Ct June 28, 2013) Mal Braverman is a Manhattan dentist. He sued Yelp for defamation based on two allegedly defamatory user posts. I’m not sure which…
Catching Up on 512 Safe Harbor Cases (and Other Online Copyright Cases) From the Past Year
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric; followed by a massive supplement from Eric] [Eric’s intro: sometimes, a draft blog post misses the publication window and then comes out painfully late. Venkat drafted the first draft of this…
Some 47 USC 230 Cases From the Past Year You Might Have Missed (Because I Didn’t Blog Them)
By Eric Goldman How do you celebrate the Fourth of July? I spent the holiday thinking about how 47 USC 230 enhances my freedoms. However, I’ve been feeling a little guilty because I try to blog every Section 230 case…
Essay Explaining Why 47 USC 230 Should Immunize State Crimes
By Eric Goldman You’ve probably already heard that at the Summer 2013 NAAG meeting in Boston, some State Attorneys General indicated they will ask Congress to exclude state criminal prosecutions from the 47 USC 230 immunity. Although many folks believe…
“Heisman Pose” Photographer’s Lawsuit Whittled Down–Masck v. Sports Illustrated
By Jake McGowan Masck v. Sports Illustrated, et al., 2:13-cv-10226-GAD-DRG (E.D. Mich. June 11, 2013) Back in February, we blogged about photographer Brian Masck’s Shakespearean complaint, asserting copyright infringement claims (and others) against numerous defendants for using his famous “Heisman…
Online Dating Websites Aren’t Required To Warn That Some Members May Be Murderers (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Beckman v. Match.com, 2013 WL 2355512 (D. Nev. May 29, 2013) and Okeke v. Cars.com, 2013 N.Y. Slip Op. 23174 (N.Y.City Civ. Ct. May 28, 2013) Mary Kay Beckman suffered an online dating nightmare. She met Wade Mitchell…
Second Circuit Summarily Affirms 512(c) Dismissal–Obodai v. Cracked
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Cracked Entertainment Inc., 2013 WL 2321420 (2d Cir. May 29, 2013). I blogged this case last year. My understanding is that a user allegedly posted copyright infringing material to Cracked.com, and the purported copyright owner…
Overly Cautious Judge Allows Discovery Before Resolving Section 230 Dismissal–Nasser v. WhitePages
By Eric Goldman Nasser v. WhitePages, Inc., 2013 WL 2295678 (W.D. Va. May 24, 2013). Prior blog post. Rulings like this drive me batty. This is an easy and unambigous Section 230 case, but the judge decided to drag it…