October 2006 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman * All the media wants to do is talk about Google. All Google, all the time. Three major pieces in the span of three days: The NYT on lawsuits against Google. The WSJ on Google’s hiring practices….
Article on Regulating Marketing–A Coasean Analysis of Marketing
By Eric Goldman Eric Goldman, A Coasean Analysis of Marketing, 2006 Wis. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming). In 2001, I had a career-altering epiphany while I was working at Epinions (this is the topic that prompted me to consider becoming a…
Must Websites Comply with the ADA (and State-Law Equivalents)? National Federation of the Blind v. Target
By Eric Goldman National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp., No. C 06-01801 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 6, 2006) This case got a fair amount of attention when it first came out, so I’m a little late to this party….
Sept. 2006 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Some stories that caught my eye in September: * Digg users are gaming the Digg algorithm. Greg Linden’s take. Naturally, Digg is fighting back by tweaking its algorithm to reduce the effect of gaming and preserve some…
Nails, Coffins, Spam, and the Dormant Commerce Clause?
…I think plans A & B in an alleged commercial spammer’s legal defense (the Dormant Commerce Clause and First Amendment challenges) have now taken enough hits to be declared at least in the coffin, if not dead. Why? In the case of the Dormant Commerce Clause, it isn’t the slow accretion of adverse cases swaying the tide of legal thinking, as with First Amendment Cases, but an intuitively and legally obvious reason I explain below. While plans A&B lay near death, courts (much like they have been doing for the last 200-plus years) are still struggling with notions of jurisdiction. As a result, plan C (resisting the jurisdiction of an out-of-state court) looks to remain a source of continued litigation between spammers and those who would sue them…
Adware, Spam and Some of My Other Favorite Topics
By Eric Goldman There has been a flurry of interesting legal developments in the last few days: * The plaintiffs voluntarily and unilaterally dismissed (with prejudice) Simios v. 180solutions, one of several putative class actions against adware vendors. See the…
Advertiser Not Liable for Spam–Hypertouch v. Kennedy-Western University
By Eric Goldman Hypertouch, Inc. v. Kennedy-Western University, No. 3:04-cv-05203-SI (N.D. Cal. Mar. 8, 2006) This is another in a series of CAN-SPAM lawsuits filed by Hypertouch, which apparently has entered the CAN-SPAM plaintiff business. I blogged on one of…
NY Enforcement Actions for Reselling Emails in Breach of Privacy Policy
By Eric Goldman Gratis Internet runs several websites that promise free stuff (like free iPods) in exchange for consumers signing up for subscription trials. The trials are initially free but then convert to paid subscriptions. The idea is that many…
Do-Not-Contact Registries Proliferating?
By Eric Goldman There has been a groundswell of action at the state level to implement do-not-contact registries of various kinds. Two of particular note: 1) Don’t-spam-my-kid Registries. Two states (Utah and Michigan) already have laws enabling do-not-spam registries for…
San Francisco Presentation, March 15 12:30 pm
By Eric Goldman I’m presenting my latest article, A Coasean Analysis of Marketing, at University of San Francisco on March 15. The talk is free and open to the public. Although the title suggests that the talk will be heavy…