2009 Cyberspace Law Syllabus and Some Comments

By Eric Goldman I have posted my syllabus for this semester’s Cyberspace Law course. This blog post describes the changes from my 2008 course reader. For more on my pedagogical approaches to the course, see my Teaching Cyberlaw article. Trademark…

An End to Spam Litigation Factories?–Gordon v. Virtumundo

By Eric Goldman Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc., No. 07-35487 (9th Cir. Aug. 6, 2009) When CAN-SPAM was passed in 2003, it was fairly clear that Congress wasn’t trying to enable broad private enforcement. Everyone knew that rabid anti-spammers would seize…

State of the Net West Recap

By Eric Goldman Yesterday, the High Tech Law Institute and the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus co-sponsored the Third Annual State of the Net West event at Santa Clara University. The featured participants were 3 members of Congress…

Wikipedia and Rules Proliferation

By Eric Goldman I have previously mentioned how rule sets tend to expand over time. We’ve seen this with legislation; for example, consider how the Copyright Act has grown over time. Personally, I’ve seen code expansion over and over again…

April 2009 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman [Just a reminder that I am posting some “quick links” exclusively to my Twitter account, so if you want to keep up with everything, follow me at Twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed.] Marketing/Spam * Zango…

Q1 2009 Quick Links, Part 3

By Eric Goldman Blogging and Social Networking Sites * A new version of the EFF Legal Guide to Blogging. While you’re there, consider joining EFF as a member. The EFF does first-rate work, and they can use all the support…

Q1 2009 Quick Links, Part 2

By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * The ridiculous Jones Day v. BlockShopper case settled. The settlement agreement. The ABA Journal and Legal Blog Watch stories. Commentary from CMLP, Paul Levy, Tom O’Toole. * The trial court denouement of the S&L…

IEEE ComSoc SCV Talk: “Engineers’ Role in Internet Law Development”

By Eric Goldman Last week, I gave a talk at a meeting of the IEEE Communications Society, Santa Clara Valley chapter. I don’t often get the chance to speak to a group of engineers, so I decided to go in…

The Third Wave of Internet Exceptionalism

By Eric Goldman [I initially wrote this as an editorial for our University magazine and republished that version through InformIT as well. Here’s the original unedited version I submitted.] From the beginning, the Internet has been viewed as something special…

Facebook User Agreement Imbroglio Recap (and Some Comments of My Own)

By Eric Goldman I didn’t have a chance to blog on the Facebook user agreement amendment flap in real-time, but now that Facebook has rolled back its amendments and everyone is catching their breath, the Monday morning quarterbacking is proceeding…