August 19, 2008
State of the Net West 2008 Recap
By Eric Goldman
Earlier this month, the High Tech Law Institute co-sponsored "State of the Net West," an event designed to facilitate a conversation between DC policy makers and Silicon Valley technology folks. We had a terrific turnout (especially given that we held it during peak vacation season) and some stimulating conversation. We recorded the discussion, so take a listen [these are at iTunesU, so you need the iTunes client to access them]:
* Welcome and Panel 1 on reputation, anonymity and social networking
* Panel 2 on 47 USC 230. See Larry Magid's writeup of this panel.
* Panel 3 on cloud computing and the privacy of remotely stored information. See a writeup of this panel.
Some interesting tidbits from the day:
* Rep. Goodlatte's son now works at Facebook
* Rep. Lofgren called the Roommates.com decision a "real stretch"
* Michael Fertik said that it only takes 20 minutes to ruin someone's reputation online while it can take 20-200 hours to repair the damage
* there was some discussion about ways that copyright law attempts to protect individual privacy. Copyright law wasn't designed to do that, so it functions poorly in that regard (and probably others). If you're looking for a paper topic, there may be some merit to exploring copyright's role as a privacy protection tool.
Posted by Eric at 06:10 PM | General | TrackBack
August 14, 2008
Fall 2008 Cyberspace Law Syllabus
By Eric Goldman
I've posted my latest Cyberspace Law course syllabus. Some changes from last year:
* added an August 2007 Search Engine Land article by Chris Silver Smith on geolocation technologies and their efficacy.
* added California Penal Code Sec. 502.
* added my slides on trespass to chattels and related doctrines (to save some classtime laying out these complex doctrines).
* added my Fair Use Cheat Sheet (I had routinely distributed it to students during the semester, but this year I finally remembered to include it in the reader).
* substituted the Second Circuit ruling Cartoon Networks v. CSC for the district court ruling in Cablevision. I deleted the Field v. Google case because it became largely redundant with the Cartoon Networks ruling for the pedagogical point about volitional activity.
* substituted the amended Ninth Circuit opinion in Perfect 10 v. Amazon.
* added the Ticketmaster v. RMG case. I'm not sure what to do with this case, but I'm thinking of using it as a mid-semester mini-review.
* deleted the Lockheed v. NSI case and added the Tiffany v. eBay case. The Lockheed case is probably more general in nature and is a 9th Circuit case (and it's a lot shorter!), so this was a tough call. On the other hand, I think the facts in the Tiffany case better reflect the modern web economy than the 1990s-era Lockheed case.
* substituted the Roommates.com en banc ruling for the 3 judge panel ruling. Fortunately, last year, by the time I got to Roommates.com, the 3 judge panel ruling had already been wiped away by the en banc grant, so I never had to teach that hairball.
* substituted the FTC's updated CAN-SPAM regulations.
* substituted the Fifth Circuit Doe v. MySpace ruling for the district court opinion.
* deleted the module on spyware/adware. I've not been able to get there in the past 2 years, and I don't see how that will change this year.
Cases from this year that barely missed the cut:
* A.V. v. iParadigms
* Mazur v. eBay
* Zango v. Kaspersky
I need to look at yesterday's Federal Circuit Jacobsen case. This may be a post-printing addition.
There are still some areas I'm not happy with:
* the Perfect 10 troika of cases regarding secondary copyright liability. They are a big chunk of reading with a low pedagogical payoff because the legal rules are incoherent.
* the keyword advertising cases. I'm still waiting for a great teaching case on keyword advertising. The FragranceNet case is an OK summary of the discussion, and the Playboy v. Netscape case has a number of useful pedagogical angles, but neither is ideal.
* my Fall 2007 syllabus recap
* my Fall 2006 syllabus recap
* my Fall 2005 syllabus recap
* my Cyberspace Law course page listing all of my syllabi, exams and sample answers from the past 14 years
* my essay on Teaching Cyberlaw
Posted by Eric at 08:15 AM | General , Internet History | TrackBack
August 13, 2008
Economics of Reputational Information Talk
By Eric Goldman
I am nearing the end of my last major research project (the Brand Spillovers project--see [1] and [2]). I hope to post a near-final draft to SSRN in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, I'm now moving on to my next major project, which I am currently calling "the Economics of Reputational Information." This project isn't an IP paper specifically, but it is a natural extension of my last couple of papers that discussed how trademarks could suppress socially useful Internet content. I presented some very initial thoughts about the project at IPSC last week at Stanford. My slides.
Posted by Eric at 04:48 PM | General | TrackBack
July 21, 2008
Teaching Cyberlaw Article
By Eric Goldman
As part of the recent St. Louis University Law Journal's issue on Teaching Intellectual Property Law, I published a short article entitled "Teaching Cyberlaw." The abstract:
"Over the past dozen years, Cyberlaw courses have become a staple of the law school curriculum. This Essay, part of a Spring 2008 St. Louis University Law Journal issue on Teaching Intellectual Property Law, explores methodological and pedagogical issues raised by these courses."
This article, based on my experiences teaching Cyberlaw for the past 13 years, organizes my thoughts about the pedagogy of teaching Cyberlaw, including course titling, doctrinal coverage, teaching materials and more. I think the article will be particularly interesting to folks teaching the course for the first time, but I expect veteran Cyberlaw professors will find a few interesting tidbits as well. I was given a limited word count cap, so I didn't intend to make this article exhaustive. Instead, I view it as a tentative and limited effort to help kick off a community discussion about how we teach the course.
On that front, I am scheduled to be the Chair of the AALS Law & Computers Section in 2009, which principally means that I will help organize the Law & Computers session at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans in January 2010. (Hard to believe, but it's less than 18 months away!). One idea I've been considering is to have a panel discussion about Teaching Cyberlaw issues at that session. Comments/thoughts?
When i did my research for my Teaching Cyberlaw article, I didn't find any other law review-style articles that addressed Cyberlaw pedagogy at any length. Then, just as my article was going to press (and therefore after I could make any changes), a topical article emerged: Patrick Quirk, Curriculum Themes: Teaching Global Cyberlaw, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, March 2008. Quirk uses the article to enumerate 10 topical "themes" that are likely to be omnipresent in Cyberlaw courses both today and in the future:
"Where are we? (Jurisdiction),
Who are we? (Transacting via networks),
Who pays us? (E-money and funds transfer),
Who protects us? (Spreading and transferring transactional risk),
Who funds us? (The other type of computer ‘security’),
Who taxes us? (Who doesn’t?),
Who bugs me? (Network crimes and misdemeanors),
Who came before me? (Historical analogies for technology regulation),
Who watches (over) us? (Ubiquitous privacy issues),
The pervasive problems of intellectual property."
I definitely organize my course differently, but vetting different organizational approaches is part of the pedagogical fun.
Posted by Eric at 08:37 AM | General , Internet History | TrackBack
July 14, 2008
State of the Net West 2008, August 6, SCU
By Eric Goldman
I would like to invite you to attend State of the Net West 2008, co-sponsored by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus and the High Tech Law Institute. This event is a complement to the very popular State of the Net event in DC held each January, which has become the "must attend" event for technology policy wonks and lobbyists. See my recap of this year's event. On August 6 at Santa Clara University, we'll have a West Coast version of the DC event, with three members of Congress guiding our discussion on cutting-edge policy issues related to Internet content protections. As usual, registration is free, so submit your RSVP here. I look forward to seeing you there!
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The full description:
In August The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee in collaboration with the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara School of Law cordially invites you to attend the 2nd Annual State of the Net West Conference on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008, in the California Room at the Benson Center of the Santa Clara University School of Law, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The discussion will feature leaders of the Congressional Internet Caucus, including Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Congressman Mike Honda, and Congressman Bob Goodlatte. Other participants will include West Coast academic scholars, public interest advocates, and industry executives during a series of discussions on current, important technology policy issues. State of the Net West is designed to channel West Coast thought leadership from the academic community and private sector to help inform the technology policy issues being debated in Washington.
The State of the Net West Conference allows for bicoastal networking and dialogue on key policy issues to take place in the heart of Silicon Valley. Participate in lively debates exploring the following topics:
"Will Our Reputations and Privacy Survive the Age of Social Networking?"
"Can ISP Immunity Survive the Onslaught of Web 2.0"
"The Movement of Information from the Crowd to the Cloud"
The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee hosts the annual "State of the Net Conference" in Washington to frame many of the technology policy debates that Congress grapples with throughout the year. State of the Net has grown into the largest and most influential information technology policy conference in the country to discuss technology trends and the enormous challenges that lawmakers, industry leaders, and citizens must confront and resolve. While the State of the Net Conference has been an unmitigated success at framing the debate in Washington, an infusion of intellectual capital from the West Coast significantly enhances the State of the Net discussions.
Posted by Eric at 03:24 AM | General | TrackBack
June 07, 2008
Vacation and Guest Bloggers
By Eric Goldman
For the next two weeks, I will be enjoying a celebratory river-rafting trip on the Hulahula River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This is a supremely remote destination--it takes 4 airplanes to get there from the Bay Area (the last one being a bush plane that will land on a gravel bar of the river), and needless to say, it won't be possible to blog from there even if I wanted to.
While I won't be blogging for the next couple of weeks, long-time guest bloggers John Ottaviani and Ethan Ackerman will be around to keep the conversation going. I hope you enjoy their posts, and I'll see you the week of June 23.
Posted by Eric at 09:55 PM | General | TrackBack
April 29, 2008
Wikipedia Ethics Event, May 15 at SCU
By Eric Goldman
The High Tech Law Institute is cosponsoring (along with the Center for Science, Technology and Society and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics) the following event:
The World that Wikipedia Made: The Ethics and Values of Public Knowledge
May 15, 2008, 6.30-8.00 p.m., de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
Speakers: Mike Godwin (GC of Wikimedia and one of the pioneers of Cyberlaw) and Carl Hewitt. Pedro Hernández-Ramos will moderate.
Admission is free; parking is $6. RSVPs aren't required.
More details about the event and bios for the participants.
This event should be a great opportunity to explore the ethical, legal and credibility issues associated with Wikipedia's editing structure (something I've critiqued before). I haven't heard Carl speak before, but I can confirm that Mike Godwin is a brilliant and entertaining speaker.
Posted by Eric at 05:46 PM | General | TrackBack
April 23, 2008
Two Open Positions at the High Tech Law Institute, Santa Clara University
By Eric Goldman
We're hiring! Please send interested candidates to the online job descriptions and application mechanism.
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The High Tech Law Institute (HTLI) is the umbrella organization that sponsors and helps administer Santa Clara University School of Law's well-regarded program in high tech and intellectual property law. Among other duties, the HTLI manages SCU's rich curriculum of high tech and IP courses and offers events for academics, Silicon Valley lawyers and others.
The HTLI is looking to fill two important administrative positions:
1) Assistant Director of the HTLI. See the job description.
2) Program Manager, HTLI. See the job description.
Each position provides an excellent opportunity for a motivated and entrepreneurial individual to play a pivotal role in defining and enhancing the services provided by the HTLI.
Interested applicants should submit an online application via the "apply" button at the end of the job description. We are considering applications as they arrive, so applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. We would be very grateful if you could help spread the word!
Santa Clara University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer, committed to excellence through diversity, and, in this spirit, particularly welcomes applications from women, persons of color, and members of
historically underrepresented groups. The University will provide reasonable accommodations to all qualified individuals with a disability.
Posted by Eric at 09:16 PM | General | TrackBack
April 20, 2008
Bay Area Blawgers 3.0, May 20, Berkeley
By Eric Goldman
The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law is pleased to sponsor Bay Area Blawgers 3.0, the third gathering of legal bloggers in the Bay Area and friends. This time we're thrilled to co-host the event with the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at the UC Berkeley Law School. As we have done in the past, we'll spend about 1 hour of our time in a structured discussion, with the balance of our time for informal chit-chatting. The details:
When: May 20, 6-8 pm
Where: Goldberg Room, UC Berkeley Law School. Directions and parking.
Who: Everyone is welcome, but this event principally will cater to active legal bloggers. Bloggers and friends who have said they plan to attend include: Tsan Abrahamson, Jerry Bame, Hudson Bair, Robert Barr, Larry Downes, Eli Edwards, Bob Eisenbach, Cathy Gellis, Mark Goldowitz (maybe), Susan Gluss, Eric Goldman, Beth Grimm, Greg Haverkamp, Matt Holohan, Cathy Kirkman, Kimberly Kralowec, Ethan Leib, Cathy Moran, Joe Mullin, Deborah Neville, David Newdorf, Dana Nguyen, Chris Peeples, Aaron Perzanowski, Elizabeth Pianca, Mark Radcliffe, Ash Remwa, Colin Samuels, Jason Schultz, Tim Stanley, Stacy Stern, John Steele, Kevin Underhill, Tom Villeneuve, Fred von Lohmann, J. Craig Williams and Cicely Wilson. (This list will be updated as new blawgers and friends RSVP).
Cost: Admission is free.
CLE: This event qualifies for 1 hour of general CLE credit. Santa Clara University School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
RSVPs: RSVP to Eric Goldman (egoldman@gmail.com).
Some background materials:
* Announcements of Bay Area Blawgers 1.0 and 2.0.
* Recap of the first gathering
* Photos from the second gathering at Fenwick & West's San Francisco office. More photos.
* List of possible discussion issues
* Census of Bay Area Blawgers
Posted by Eric at 05:05 PM | General | TrackBack
March 31, 2008
PLI Presentation on Social Networking Sites and Blogs
By Eric Goldman
Last week I gave a brief overview talk about social networking sites and blogs at a PLI conference. My slides. For each screen shot, you'll have to imagine some of the faux-witty remarks I might have made. To help you along as an example, on the fourth slide I noted that Ian Ballon doesn't look a day over 70. (You can see a different assessment of Ian's age here).
Posted by Eric at 10:09 AM | General | TrackBack
January 11, 2008
Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2007
By Eric Goldman
I have posted my annual Cyberlaw recap, enumerating the top 10 Cyberlaw developments from 2007, at InformIT. You'll have to read the whole thing to find out my votes for the biggest developments from last year (can you guess my #1???). From the article, some of the runners-up:
* Jammie Thomas Loses P2P File Sharing Jury Trial. Even a jury of our peers knows that P2P file-sharing of copyright works isn't legit.
* DVR-as-a-Service Isn't Permissible. You can record broadcasted shows on a device in your house. Just don't ask anyone to do it for you.
* AutoAdmit Controversy Spills Over Into a Lawsuit. Some sophomoric online banter among law students is all fun-and-games until someone gets sued.
* Commercial Referential Trademark Use Is Successful Defense. A trademark owner can't use trademark law to stop people chattering about its business on a message board.
* Anti-Spyware Vendor Protected by 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(2). A company that doesn't like being called spyware can't use the judicial system to force a different label.
Curious what I thought was more exciting than these developments? Go check out the whole thing!
As an aside, you may be wondering why I published the recap at InformIT instead of here on this blog. I've complained before about my crummy AdSense revenues. Apparently InformIT is much better at monetizing content than AdSense is, because InformIT pays me easily 100X (or more) what I would expect to earn by posting the article here. So whether InformIT is monetizing better or just spending like drunken fools, that ratio is enough to get my attention. As an added bonus, I spiked the InformIT article with generous links back to my site, and I never mind getting some extra link love from reputable third party domains.
Posted by Eric at 11:45 AM | General | TrackBack
January 08, 2008
Road Show Spring 2008
Some of the places I'll be this semester. As always, please let me know if I should plan to see you there!
January
Jan. 15: Best Practices for Businesses Exploring…Exploiting…and Expanding in Web 2.0, Pike & Fischer teleconference
Jan. 26: The Toll Roads: The Legal and Political Debate Over Network Neutrality, University of San Francisco School of Law. I'm moderating an afternoon panel.
Jan. 30: Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's 4th annual State of the Net Conference, Washington DC. Check out the panel I'll be on--there could be some sparks!
Jan. 31: Spyware: What's Worked, What's Left, and What's Coming, Anti-Spyware Coalition, Washington DC. I'm really excited about the panel topic of "Is Adware Dead?" I have some strong thoughts on this topic!
February
Feb. 1: Internet Collaboration: Charting the Waters of Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0, and the GPL, Santa Clara Computer & High Tech Law Journal. Judge Kozinski, a frequent presence on this blog, will be the keynote speaker, and the speaker list is studded with other luminaries.
Feb. 8-9: Fourth International Conference on Contracts, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.
Feb. 26 SMX West, Santa Clara
March
Mar. 24: Information Technology Law Institute 2008, Practicing Law Institute, San Francisco
April
Apr. 18: Co-sponsored event with Berkeley Center for Law & Technology to be held in Berkeley. This hasn't been publicly announced, but I promise you it will be relevant to this blog's audience and a top-notch event, so mark your calendars now.
Posted by Eric at 09:32 PM | General | TrackBack
December 31, 2007
2007 Blog Year-in-Review
By Eric Goldman
A look back at 2007:
Most Popular Blog Posts
1) The Most Effective Anti-Terrorism Law EVER
2) Utah Bans Keyword Advertising
3) Rescuecom v. Google Law Professors' Amicus Brief [overflow from #1]
4) Sex.com -- An Update
5) Regulating "Stealth" Marketing [overflow from #2]
6) Keyword Ads and Metatags Don't Confuse Consumers--J.G. Wentworth v. Settlement Funding
7) American Airlines Sues Google Over Keyword Ads
8) Search Engines Defeat "Must-Carry" Lawsuit--Langdon v. Google
Some Posts You Might Have Missed the First Time Around
* The Victorian Internet
* Best and Worst Internet Laws
* Gifts for Incoming First Year Law Students
* Israel Trip Reflections
* Suggestions for Conference Organizers
Blog Statistics
* Despite the overall softness in the legal blogosphere market, all of the blogs' key metrics (unique visitors, visits, page views) roughly doubled in 2007 compared to 2006.
* Google represented about 90% of search engine referrals.
* Top 10 referral search terms: "sex.com"; "barbri class action"; "law professor salaries"; "law professor salary"; "eric goldman blog"; "donotcall.gov"; "facebook connectu"; "eric goldman"; "goldman"; "american blinds". This is the third year in a row that "law professor salary" was a top 5 referral term. I wonder why such a small number prompts such great interest?
* The blogs had about 320 posts this year. Top categories include derivative liability, search engines and trademarks, each with about 70 posts this year.
* According to Google Analytics, I had visitors from 184 countries, including countries with low Internet usage (<50k Internet users per CIA Factbook) such as Greenland, Guinea-Bissau, Andorra and Reunion.
* AdSense continues to disappoint. My eCPM has been progressively decreasing over time, and it's down to $1.60 in 2007. As confirmation of how poorly AdSense performs for my site, in the month of December, I earned about 3X from Amazon Affiliates program than I did from my AdSense on my blogs, even though I have affiliate links only on about a half-dozen pages (compared to the couple thousand pages displaying AdSense ads).
Blog Year-in-Review from 2005 and 2006
Posted by Eric at 10:45 AM | General | TrackBack
October 12, 2007
Bay Area Blawgers 2.0
By Eric Goldman
The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law School and Six Apart are pleased to announce Bay Area Blawgers 2.0, the second gathering of legal bloggers in the Bay Area. See a recap of the first gathering. This time, we'll spend an hour in a structured discussion starting around 6:15 (see some possible discussion topics). We'll spend the rest of the time schmoozing/chit-chatting.
When: November 5, 6-8 pm.
Where: San Francisco office of Fenwick & West, 555 California Street, 12th Floor, San Francisco, CA. Directions.
Who: Everyone is welcome, but this event principally will cater to active legal bloggers. People who have indicated they plan to attend: Tsan Abrahamson, Ann Althouse, Harry Boadwee, Michael Bond, Brian Crossman, Aviva Cuyler, Robert Eisenbach, David Friedman, Sujatha Ganesan, Cathy Gellis, Eric Goldman, Joe Gratz, Beth Grimm, Chris Hoofnagle, Kimberly Kralowec, Matthew Lasar, David Levine, Tom Levis, Ethan Leib, Susan Nevelow Mart, Mike Masnick (maybe), Mary Minow, Cathy Moran, Amy Morganstern, Joe Mullin, Keith Nagayama, Deborah Neville, David Newdorf, Bruce Nye, Kevin O'Keefe, Jay Parkhill, Bertrand Pautrot, Aaron Perzanowski, Benjamin Reyes, Scott Righthand, Colin Samuels, Jason Schultz, Derek Slater, Peter Smith, Tim Stanley, John Steele, Stacy Stern, Kelly Stewart, Victoria Stodden, Gene Takagi, Chris Vail, Colette Vogele, Fred von Lohmann, Julia Wei and Cicely Wilson.
Cost: Admission is free, but parking is not!
CLE: This event qualifies for 1 hour of general CLE credit. Santa Clara University School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
RSVPs: RSVP are ESSENTIAL for this event because of security procedures at 555 California Street. RSVP to Eric Goldman (egoldman@gmail.com).
UPDATE: Michael Atkins of Seattle Trademark Lawyer Blog is organizing a similar gathering for Seattle-area blawgers.
UPDATE 2: Stanford CIS/SLATA scheduled an attractive complementary event for the same day (Nov 5 at noon) entitled "How Blogs Impact Legal Discourse."
Posted by Eric at 09:21 AM | General | TrackBack
September 12, 2007
Fall 2007 Tour Schedule
By Eric Goldman
L'Shanah Tovah! Here are some events I'll be attending this semester. It would be a delight to see you at one or more of these:
Sept. 17: Blogging, Scholarship and the Bench and Bar, Santa Clara University
Sept. 17: IT Security World, SF (topic: Blog Law)
Sept. 28-29: Works in Progress Intellectual Property, Washington DC
Sept. 29: TPRC, Arlington, VA (topic: Brand Spillovers)
Oct. 1: New Media Law Conference, SF (topic: Keyword Advertising)
Oct. 2: Trust Online, Santa Clara University
Oct. 5: Trademark Dilution: Theoretical and Empirical Inquiries, Santa Clara University
Oct. 18: Association of Internet Researchers, Vancouver (topic: investment decisions in virtual worlds)
Nov. 1: Jonathan Zittrain lecture, Santa Clara University
Nov. 5: Bay Area Blawgers, SF
Posted by Eric at 02:37 PM | General | TrackBack
September 10, 2007
Fall 2007 High Tech Law Institute Events
By Eric Goldman
I realize this is a self-serving assessment, but I think we have an absolutely terrific roster of events lined up this Fall! Check out some highlights:
________
Sept. 17, 10:30am-12pm. Blogging, Scholarship, and the Bench and Bar, sponsored by the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) & the National Law Journal. This panel will discuss the effect of blogs on legal scholarship, judges and practicing lawyers. To discuss these issues, we have some top-notch bloggers (Larry Solum and Paul Butler, and I'll be there too), Judge Berzon from the Ninth Circuit, and Cindy Cohn from the EFF. If you attend in person, you get the free CLE; alternatively, you can watch it live from your desktop via our real-time webcast. See the details here.
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Oct. 2, 8:30am-2pm. Trust Online, co-sponsored with the Center for Science, Technology & Society, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Microsoft Corporation. This half-day event will gather lawyers, technologists and policy-makers to discuss how online businesses can engender trust from their users. The big name draw is Richard Clarke, but I'm equally excited to hear about some recent academic research by the always-interesting Chris Hoofnagle and Alessandro Acquisti.
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Oct. 5, 8:45am-5:15pm. Trademark Dilution: Theoretical and Empirical Inquiries, a full-day academic conference on trademark dilution. Take a look at the schedule/speaker list and you'll see why I'm so excited about this conference. If an all-out trademark geekfest appeals to you, this really is a can't miss event. As a bonus, you'll get a boatload of free CLEs.
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Oct. 12, noon-1pm. Prof. Mike Madison, Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Law, will give a faculty workshop on the topic of "Information Governance." This event is limited to academic faculty and staff; so please email me directly if you want to come.
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Nov. 1, 6:30-8pm, Distinguished Lecture by the well-known and highly respected Cyberlaw Prof. Jonathan Zittrain, Oxford Internet institute, entitled “The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.” RSVP to Jasmine Pilgeram.
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Nov. 5, 6-8pm. Bay Area Blawgers Roundtable at Fenwick & West's San Francisco office. This is the second gathering of local legal bloggers, following on the very popular first gathering from March. See my recap of the first event. I'll put out a more formal announcement later; for now, RSVP directly to me.
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Check out our events page for the complete run-down. Hope to see you at these events!
Posted by Eric at 05:26 PM | General | TrackBack
September 07, 2007
August 2007 Quick Links, Part II
By Eric Goldman
* e360 Insight v. Spamhaus Project, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 20725 (7th Cir. Aug. 30, 2007). An email marketing company was listed on Spamhaus' ROSKO and sued for defamation and other torts in Illinois. Spamhaus took the position that US courts have no authority to render a judgment on a UK-based operation. The district court ultimately awarded $11.7M in damages and various equitable relief. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the default judgment but vacated the damages and equitable relief, sending those back to the district court to reevaluate the appropriate remedies. I understand that Spamhaus wanted to make a philosophical point by not fighting the lawsuit in the US, but had they overlooked their philosophical objections, they should have won a quick victory per 47 USC 230(c)(2).
* Perfect 10 has appealed its Ninth Circuit 230 loss in ccBill to the US Supreme Court.
* Search Engine Land had a good overview/recap article on geolocation technology. It provides a clear and easy-to-read explanation why the folks who think online businesses can just stay out of a state that enacts dumb regulations are full of crud.
* Pisciotta v. Old National Bancorp, No. 06-3817 (7th Cir. Aug. 23, 2007). Another court (this time, the Seventh Circuit) says that consumer fretting about possible future identity theft isn't enough harm to support a lawsuit. See the analogous JetBlue, Acxiom and Key cases.
* Wikipedia Scanner--an automated tool to determine who is editing Wikipedia pages. Katie Hafner's NYT article on the matter. David Hoffman does a little sleuthing on law firm edits.
* NYT: In the 1990s, a lot of people sought to build an infrastructure for micropayments. Consumers resisted them, but today those efforts seem a little silly--AdSense advertising can generate the same financial benefits for a web publisher without the overhead. Meanwhile, the credit card systems are being stretched to cover micro-transactions because merchants are aggregating a consumer's orders and processing them in bulk (rather than processing each one individually) as a way to reduce the transaction costs.
* NYT: "As video games have surged in popularity in recent years, politicians around the country have tried to outlaw the sale of some violent games to children. So far all such efforts have failed."
* AP: Chinese animated cops will be patrolling the Information Superhighway beat.
* Tired of negative reviews on Yelp, a San Francisco restaurant put up a sign saying "no Yelpers." I wonder if a sign like that lessens or exacerbates negative publicity.
* NYT: Book authors obsessively check Amazon sales rankings and try to game them.
* Facebook accidentally posted some of its source code to a public website. Surely an interesting development for ConnectU's discovery team!
* Another Internet company hires its own in-house economist--this time, virtual world Eve Online.
* A nice retrospective on the Cleveland Free-net, which at one point was a prominent component of the Cyberspace community.
* I have one free guest pass to the CLE International New Media Law conference in SF on Oct. 1-2. Free to the first person who sends me an email request. [SORRY--TAKEN!]
Posted by Eric at 09:48 AM | Content Regulation , Derivative Liability , E-Commerce , General , Internet History , Privacy/Security , Virtual Worlds | TrackBack
August 01, 2007
July 2007 Quick Links, Part II
By Eric Goldman
Virtual Worlds
* After a remarkable run as media darlings, Second Life is now experiencing some of the inevitable backlash. Case in point: Wired's "How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life." In this respect, Second Life reminds me a little of Keen.com--both provide fantastic platforms for monetizing user-generated content, but that powerful economic platform is likely to take root primarily in the sin businesses (porn, gambling, etc.). (FWIW, Keen.com appears to have cleaned up the dial-a-porn and is now focused exclusively on dial-a-horoscopes). As a result, it will be interesting to see what happens to Second Life's numbers in response to their anti-gambling crackdown. Meanwhile, lawyers--the classic late adopters--are gushing about Second Life's potential as a business generator--an interesting counter-perspective to the Wired article.
* World Copyright Law Report: "Some residents have been using a rogue version of a program called CopyBot to make a copy of anything in the Second Life world, thus threatening to undermine the whole basis of the Second Life economy."
Wikipedia
* More marketers wake up to the value of inserting links into Wikipedia despite Wikipedia's nofollow tag. See my earlier explanation of this. Meanwhile, a Wikipedia administrator talks about what Wikipedians consider white hat practices for marketers.
* Willing to cite to Wikipedia in your legal briefs? Need some custom-tailored authority to support your argument? Edit Wikipedia to say what you want!
* Mike Godwin has become Wikimedia’s GC. You may recall that Mike and I bet about Wikipedia’s future; it appears he has raised the stakes on that bet substantially!
User Generated Content
* "GC's Client from Hell": Whole Food's CEO John Mackey pseudonymously posted about his company's stock and his competitor's stock on Yahoo Finance. The WSJ article has some of the juiciest postings. The NYT on CEO "sock puppetry."
* A restaurant owner used consumer reviews from Yelp as part of deciding to fire employees.
* Interesting interview with the pseudonymous founder of a pay-for-Diggs business.
Blogs
* The ABA Journal has entered the crowded field of blawg directories with one of their own.
* Blawgworld 2007: 77 blawgers chose their favorite posts, which were compiled into an e-book. The compilation turns out to be a great way to get noisy blawgers to promote their brilliant contributions to the e-book, which generates traffic and link love for the publisher, which in turn creates a nice delivery vehicle for sponsored content/advertising.
Miscellaneous
* Asch Webhosting, Inc. v. Adelphia Business Solutions Investment, LLC, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52932 (D. N.J. July 23, 2007). IAP terminates customer based on complaints that customer was a spammer. Court holds that the consequential damages waiver applies, effectively negating customer's alleged damages. Rejecting the customer's argument that the termination was in bad faith, the court says: "Plaintiff’s arguments about the accuracy of the spamming complaints do not change the Court’s determination because regardless of the ultimate accuracy or veracity of the spamming complaints, defendant was entitled to rely on those complaints so long as it did so in good faith, and plaintiff has not demonstrated any bad faith by defendant." HT: Technology Law Update.
* Consumer Law & Policy Blog: "companies in two recently filed federal cases explicitly invoke [the recent Supreme Court decision in] Leegin as a justification for terminating the eBay auctions of competitors that charge lower prices online."
* Declan on whether anti-spyware vendors are screening for "fedware" (government keystroke loggers designed to capture data before it's encrypted).
Fun
* More proof that technology can save lives: During a power outage at a hospital, doctors were able to complete a surgery using the light of open cellphones.
* I’m a new fan of Oddee. Some recent posts (it helps to think about sexual connotations when interpreting the photos):
- "15 Unfortunately Placed Ads."
- "Most Unfortunate Logos Ever"
- "Unfortunate Business Names.”
Posted by Eric at 11:06 AM | Adware/Spyware , E-Commerce , General , Internet History , Marketing , Spam , Virtual Worlds | TrackBack
March 24, 2007
Entrepreneurs & IP Talk
By Eric Goldman
I gave a talk to a group of local entrepreneurs on general IP issues in the process of being an entrepreneur. For most of you, this talk is very, very basic, but if you're interested, here are my slides.
Posted by Eric at 02:46 PM | General | TrackBack
March 14, 2007
Eric Goldman Road Show Spring 2007
By Eric Goldman
I have a busy schedule over the next 3 months. As always, I'd welcome the opportunity to meet, either at the events below or if I am in your neighborhood.
March 14: [TODAY!] Radio interview with David Levine on "Hearsay Culture." The live broadcast will air in the Bay Area between 5-6 pm on KZSU, 90.1 fm, or the podcast will be loaded here in the next week or so. David and I discuss domain name regulation, my Coasean Analysis of Marketing paper, online trademark law and anti-adware laws.
UPDATE: Podcast available here.
March 22: Originality, Software and Moral Rights with Prof. Bobbi Kwall
March 26: Virtues and Vices of Open Source Software with Prof. Eben Moglen
March 28: Bay Area Blawgers (about 2 dozen blawgers coming!)
April 5 (noon): Faculty Colloquium at SCU Law. Topic: Brand Spillovers. Please email me if you want to come (space is very limited).
April 6 (10 am): Law, Science & Technology LLM Colloquium, Stanford Law School. Topic: Brand Spillovers (yes, same topic as the day before). This event may have limited access to the public; contact me if you want to come.
April 13: Emerging Issues in Computer and Technology Law, SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas, TX. Topic: Keyword Law.
April 30: When Spam Isn't Spam: An Unfiltered Look at Self-Regulation and the Law Behind E-mail, Touro Law School, Central Islip, NY. Topic: Anti-Spam and Anti-Blocklist Lawsuits: Past and Future.
May 14: American Law Institute meeting, San Francisco
June 7: 2007 International IT Law Conference, Southwestern Law School (Los Angeles). Topic: On-line Marketing Issues and What to Do About Them.
June 18: Fourth Annual Ecommerce Best Practices Conference, Stanford Law School. Topic: Navigating the Shoals of State Regulation.
Posted by Eric at 09:10 AM | General | TrackBack
March 07, 2007
March High Tech Law Institute Events
By Eric Goldman
The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law has a terrific series of three events over the next few weeks. I hope to you can join us.
Originality, Software and Moral Rights (details here)
March 22, 2007, 5-7pm
Professor Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, DePaul University College of Law, will lead a discussion on the nature of creative endeavors, the role of moral rights, protection, and the application of these principles to software development. This should be a great event for technology lawyers who wrestle with moral rights issues when doing overseas development. RSVP to Jasmine Pilgeram by March 19, 2007.
This event qualifies for 1 hour of general CLE credit. Santa Clara University School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
Virtues and Vices of Open Source Software with Eben Moglen (details here)
March 26, 2007, 5:30-6:45pm
Professor Eben Moglen, Columbia Law School, of GPL fame/infamy, will discuss his views on the merits of open source software development (and, I anticipate, the demerits of commercial software development), followed by some commentary/pushback by Prof. Geof Bowker and myself. Eben is a colorful, dynamic and frequently hyperbolic speaker, so I expect this event will be very fun and maybe a little controversial. If you work with open source software, this should be an especially interesting event. RSVP to Sherrill Dale by March 22, 2007
Bay Area Legal Blawgers Event (details here)
March 28, 2007, 6-8pm
We now have over 20 Bay area blawgers who have said they are coming, plus a few other non-blogging luminaries. (I'm constantly updating the original post to reflect the master list of attendees). This should be a great opportunity for local bloggers to meet-and-greet and trade tips. RSVP to me by March 26, 2007
This event qualifies for 1 hour of general CLE credit. Santa Clara University School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
Posted by Eric at 03:40 PM | General | TrackBack
March 01, 2007
Bay Area Blawgers Get-Together, March 28, 6-8 pm
By Eric Goldman
The High Tech Law Institute at SCU Law is sponsoring a gathering for Bay Area legal bloggers/blawgers. Our goal is to get all of us together in a room to meet each other, socialize a bit, and discuss topics of common interest in a group discussion. Light refreshments will be served. The details:
Who: The event will cater principally to legal bloggers in the Bay Area, but everyone is welcome. Confirmed blogger-attendees so far include Harry Boadwee, the Blawg Review editor, Matt Cutts of Google (75% confirmed), Stephen Diamond, Mike Dillon of Sun, Sean Garrett of 463 Communications (trying to make it), Cathy Gellis, Eric Goldman of SCU, Joe Gratz of Keker & Van Nest, Beth Grimm, Patrick Guevara of Randick O'Dea, Matt Holohan, Chris Hoofnagle of Boalt, Cathy Kirkman of Wilson Sonsini, Kim Kralowec of the Furth firm, David Levine of Stanford Law CIS, Mike Masnick of TechDirt, Mary Minow, Kurt Opsahl of EFF, Jay Parkhill, Leah Peachey of Meyers Nave, Aaron Perzanowski of Boalt, Elizabeth Pianca of Meyers Nave, Kristie Prinz, Colin Rule of eBay/PayPal, Colin Samuels, Erik Schmidt of SCU, Jason Schultz of EFF, Mark Smith of SCU, John Steele of Fish & Richardson, Transmogriflaw, Kevin Underhill of Shook Hardy, and Colette Vogele. Other expected attendees include Craig Anderson of the SF Daily Journal, Bob Cullen, Rudy Guyon of Fujitsu, Tom Levis of Backweb, Jan Lewis of Wilson Sonsini, Kevin Martin of Randick O'Dea, Amy Morganstern, Elizabeth Nevis, Benedict O'Mahoney, Risa Schwartz of Cisco, Martin Stone, Andrew Tolve, Cicely Wilson of Justia and Louis Wu.
When: March 28, 6-8 pm
Where: Wiegand Room, Arts & Sciences Building, Santa Clara University. Directions to campus.
Cost: Free. Parking is available for $5
CLE: This event qualifies for 1 hour of general CLE credit. Santa Clara University School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.
How: Please RSVP to Eric Goldman.
Feel free to pass along this notice to anyone you think might be interested.
UPDATE: A superset of possible discussion topics we might address at the event.
UPDATE 2: A roster of the Bay Area Blawgers I could find.
UPDATE 3: My recap from the event.
Posted by Eric at 12:20 PM | General | TrackBack
February 21, 2007
Cyberspace Law Readers--Free to Good Home
By Eric Goldman
[UPDATE: Sorry, they are all gone!]
I have six leftover casebooks from my Cyberspace Law class last semester. These are lightly edited compilations of cases and statutes that I teach in class. (See my syllabus for the table of contents). Email me if you want a free copy--first come, first serve, and only to US mailing addresses.
Posted by Eric at 10:16 AM | General | TrackBack
January 10, 2007
December 2006 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman
* JP Enterprises, Inc. v. HDVE, LLC, 1:06-cv-01046-REB-PAC (D. Colo.). In June 2006, JP Enterprises sued Yahoo for selling its trademarks for keyword-triggered ads. In December, JP Enterprises and Yahoo stipulated a dismissal of the case against Yahoo (the remaining defendants weren't affected), presumably based on a settlement.
* Domain name valuations continue to rise. The latest overvalued domain name? Vodka.com, selling for $3M. This totally perplexes me. Can you imagine what $3M of well-spent PPC advertising would do?
* Amidst the TLD proliferation, ICANN is thinking about retiring some TLDs, such as .su for the (extinct) Soviet Union.
* According to ClickTales, "76% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent[, and] 22% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom." From a legal standpoint, currently we assume that content “below the fold” usually is legally irrelevant. However, if users routinely scroll down on pages, this may require rethinking.
* Forbes' special report: "Books." Especially interesting stories:
- The Secret Life Of An Online Book Reviewer
- Cory Doctorow, Giving It Away
- Stop Worrying About Copyrights
- Publish And Perish (about picking storage media to archive human knowledge)
- The Networked Book (about using blogs as a complement to the book authoring process)
* How about this manipulative practice? Yelp, the local consumer review guide, pays "marketing assistants" to leave positive comments for review authors to "help make Yelp appear to be a vibrant and outgoing community in hopes that it will actually become one." As the BusinessWeek article says, "Some reviewers may be turned off by the notion that an ostensibly disinterested fellow user is getting paid to compliment their writing." Ya think? Hiring professional back-patters crosses my line.
UPDATE: I got the following email from Jeremy Stoppelman, founder of Yelp:
The Businessweek article is misleading so I can understand how you got that impression. Our system breaks down as follows:
Community Managers - responsible for local marketing & pr, organizing yelp events (offline) and for welcoming people to the site. People who are active in the community generally know this person (and that they are an employee) since they are organizing local events and emailing users all the time.
Marketing Assistants - the first people in a new market (that has little-to-no community), they are paid to update our crappy yellow pages data and write some of the first reviews (e.g. make the site not empty). We initially suggested they get active (post on talk, compliment if someone shows up), but turned away from that quickly (for the same concerns you raised).
The only critique left is that these people aren't badged and I totally understand this issue (minor, but real). Therefore we decided before Christmas break we should badge all our marketing & community staff. This change should be out later tonight.
* The magazine Nature has ended its experiment with an open peer review process. Why? According to the AP, "The journal concluded that many researchers were either too busy or had no real incentive in evaluating their colleagues' work publicly. In addition, none of the editors found the posted comments influenced their decision whether a paper gets published." No point in manufacturing metadata if it's not going to change the decision anyway! But this raises a related question--what incentives are needed to produce useful metadata?
* As written up in the NYT, Sao Paulo has outlawed a wide variety of outdoor advertising, including billboards, leaflets, advertising on the sides of buses/taxis, and via airplanes and blimps, and has promulgated strict rules on commercial signage. This is a radical experiment in the effort to reduce visual clutter by squelching the availability of a major class of advertising. But Chris Hoofnagle (who pointed out the article to me) wonders, where are these ad dollars going to go? Presumably they will be redirected into different ad media, with uncertain consequences. For more on the effect of regulation in one advertising medium on advertising in other media, see my Coasean Analysis of Marketing article.
* In response to the Google/China flap, the State Department in February 2006 established the Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT). On December 20, the GIFT issued a press statement outlining its "GIFT Strategy" consisting of 3 principal points:
- MONITORING Internet freedom in countries around the world
- RESPONDING to challenges to Internet freedom.
- ADVANCING Internet freedom by expanding access to the Internet.
I wonder if this effort will moot the need for the Global Online Freedom Act?
* BusinessWeek article on domain tasting (with the wildly hyperbolic title "The Great Internet Brand Rip-Off"--an editor ran amok!). Domain tasting always has struck me as a silly issue. Of course if you offer marketers a way to get exposure to consumers for free, some of them will abuse it! But I just have to believe that the legitimate utility of the 5 day refund period is low, if not zero. So the refund period should be killed, and consumers who make a typographical error when registering domain names should be SOL (much like it's almost impossible to fix an error if a consumer buys the wrong non-refundable airline tickets).
* Rick Skrenta: "RIP DMOZ: 1998-2006."
* AP Story updating the Steinbuch v. Cutler case. The case is in discovery now, and there's no sign that it will avoid a trial.
* Tom Smedinghoff wrote an excellent recap of last year's developments in the field of information security law: Where We're Headed — New Developments and Trends in the Law of Information Security.
* In December, Shuman (Google's click fraud czar) reportedly said that Google's click fraud rates were less than 2%, but then Google backpedaled and obfuscated about what Shuman had really said. In yet another terrific post, Danny sorts through the mess and tells us what we know and don't know about click fraud rates. Read the whole thing.
* Jeffrey Rohrs is one of the people I trust for expert opinions. I don't agree with his plaintiff-side orientation, but I respect his perspectives. He's written an analysis of the click fraud issue that he calls the Sausage Manifesto. A recap of Google's responses to the manifesto.
* Jennifer Granick predicts that EULAs and the law of mass surveillance will be the hot legal issues of 2007. Both seem good bets; I'd add to that list that this year we'll spend a lot of time irresolutely chasing our tail on the net neutrality issue.
Posted by Eric at 10:00 AM | Domain Names , General , Licensing/Contracts , Marketing , Privacy/Security , Search Engines , Trademark | TrackBack
January 04, 2007
Cross-Border Legal Challenges in High Tech Law, January 26
By Eric Goldman
Our student-run Computer & High Tech Law Journal is putting on a conference, Cross-Border Legal Challenges in High Tech Law, January 26 at the San Jose Museum of Art. See the conference website. It would be great to see you there.
Posted by Eric at 06:04 PM | General | TrackBack
January 01, 2007
2006 Blog Year-in-Review
by Eric Goldman
Most Popular Blog Posts of the Year
1) O'Reilly and the "Web 2.0" Trademark
2) NYT on Fair Use and Documentaries (overflow from Slashdotting of #1)
3) GEICO v. Google Opinion (Finally) Issued
4) Competitor's Keyword Ad Purchase May Be Trademark Infringement--Edina Realty v. TheMLSonline
5) Lane's Gifts Click Fraud Lawsuit Near Settlement
6) Keyword Purchases Not a Trademark Use--Merck v. Mediplan Health Consulting
7) Griper Gets 47 USC 230 Defense for Reposted Article--D'Alonzo v. Truscello (I'm not sure why this post made the top 10 list. I think it may be fueled by comment/referral spam)
8) Downloading Music Isn't Fair Use--BMG v. Gonzalez
9) Search Engine Liability for Selling Keywords Redux--800-JR Cigar v. GoTo.com
10) KinderStart Second Amended Complaint
Overlooked Posts (some of my favorites that didn't get the traffic they might have)
* Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
* Princess Bride and Jurisprudence
* Slinky Factory Tour
* Sexy Professors are Better Professors (?)
* Trademark Travesty of the Month--SMJ Group v. 417 Lafayette Restaurant
* Teenager Busted for Creating Fake "News" Story
* Piracy Loss Estimates as a Managed Number
* Your License, Registration and DNA, Please? (by Ethan Ackerman)
Blog Statistics
* The number of unique vistors in December 2006 was over double those in December 2005, and total visits and pageviews for the year were about 3X that from 2005. It's unclear how much of this was due to comment/referral spammers and other robotic activity.
* Google provided 88% of the referrals from search engines (last year it was 78%).
* Top 10 search phrases used by referrals to find the blog: geico, sex.com, barbri class action, 50.cent oprah, law professor salary, eric goldman blog, gifts for professors, law professor salaries, eric goldman, donotcall.gov
* The blogs have a total of about 860 posts, of which about 300 were made this year. Most commonly blogged categories include search engines (67 posts this year), derivative liability (47 posts), trademark (43 posts), copyright (37 posts) and adware/spyware (27 posts).
* As with last year, only about half of blog visitors used Windows Internet Explorer as their browser.
* Visitors came from over 150 countries, including Australia, Germany (#2 and #3), Malawi and Saint Vincent & Grenadines (with 8,000 Internet users in 2005 per the CIA factbook)
* Ad clickthrough rate of 0.38% with eCPM of $2.41. I'm not thrilled with these numbers.
Posted by Eric at 05:20 PM | General | TrackBack
December 29, 2006
My Wikipedia Page is Safe (For Now...)
By Eric Goldman
In my last post on Wikipedia, I mentioned that my personal Wikipedia page had been tagged "article lacks information on the importance of the subject matter." Shortly thereafter, things took the inevitable turn for the worse--the page got nominated for deletion. The Wikipedians huddled on a discussion page and failed to reach a consensus: 7 voted to keep the page, and 7 voted to delete it and/or merge it into another page. Apparently, this preserves the status quo, so my Wikipedia page was saved from deletion for now. It's not exactly the most ringing endorsement, but it's better than having to report to mom that Wikipedia deemed me "non-notable"!
UPDATE: I feel a little better now that I know Matt Cutts was nominated for deletion too. This is the problem of having contributions from people who aren't experts in the applicable area.
Posted by Eric at 03:42 PM | General | TrackBack
December 14, 2006
Site Outage and Comments
By Eric Goldman
The website and blogs had a 4+ hour outage today. My web host pulled the plug (sadly, without warning me) because "it was crashing the server with 250 other customers on it. Something on your website is causing very high server loads." We haven't been able to determine the cause yet, although comment spammers are the most likely culprit. So to convince the web host to put me back online, I agreed to shut down comments for now. Because I'm going to be in Israel for most of the rest of the year, I'm going to leave comments off until January. I'll reassess what to do then. Sorry for any inconvenience if you tried to access the blog and got the scary "this website has been suspended" notice.
Posted by Eric at 12:28 PM | General | TrackBack
August 13, 2006
Fall 2006 Cyberlaw Syllabus
By Eric Goldman
I've posted the syllabus for my Fall 2006 Cyberspace Law course. As I have done for the past 11 years, I prepared my own materials. To do so, I cull through all of the action from the past year to see what changes I should make from the prior year's syllabus. In the late 1990s, a lot--1/3 to 1/2--of the pages would change from year-to-year. In the past couple of years, this pace has slowed considerably. This year, I added only 3 new cases and 1 new statute to the reader:
* the Lamparello case (which I actually substituted in last year after I prepared my 2005 syllabus)
* Perfect 10 v. Google and Field v. Google. They make an excellent compare-contrast unit. They also provide enough material to moot the 2003 Ticketmaster ruling, which I dropped this year.
* I substituted in the Alaska anti-adware law to replace Utah's anti-adware law.
Beyond those additions, I substituted in the 7th circuit ruling in the BMG v. Gonzalez case for the district court ruling, and I dropped the FTC v. Phoenix Avatar spam case and my short editorial on advertiser liability for adware (neither of which I had time to cover).
I could make an argument that the past 12 months have been comparatively slow in cyberlaw (by cyberlaw's historical standards), at least in terms of significant precedent. There have been some fairly important rulings (the KinderStart, JR Cigar, Merck v. Mediplan and Edina Realty cases come to mind) and interesting developments (the Sony DRM episode, click fraud lawsuits and the battles over search engine queries come to mind), but very few of these cases or episodes resulted in important/pedagogically useful precedent or statutes. Not that I'm complaining--it may just be a sign of cyberlaw's maturation.
Interestingly, although blog law is hot, I couldn't really find anything useful to teach on the topic. I think this reflects that blog law is just a seamless part of cyberlaw. As a result, I'm sure I'll integrate blog issues into the course throughout the semester.
Posted by Eric at 08:34 AM | General , Internet History | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 26, 2006
Blog Law Recap
By Eric Goldman
Spring was a busy time for blog law! This post recap some blog law resources