We Hate You, Buy Our Stuff
By Mark Schultz Treating your customers well is always a good idea. Treating your customers well is a very good idea if they don’t really need your product. Finally, treating them well is absolutely essential if they don’t need your…
Click Defense Lawsuit Update
By Eric Goldman Click Defense v. Google, No. 5:05-cv-02579-RMW (N.D. Cal.). The Click Defense lawsuit is one of three pending click fraud actions (the other two being the Lane’s Gifts and CLRB Hanson Industries LLC cases). After launching the lawsuit…
The FTC, Adware Advertising and Badges of Shame
By Eric Goldman New FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz has embraced one of the favorite causes of the anti-adware grumblers: dry up adware funding by making adware advertisers feel some pain. According to AdAge, he recently said that the FTC might…
Downloading Music Isn’t Fair Use–BMG v. Gonzalez
By Eric Goldman BMG Music v. Gonzalez, No. 05-1314 (7th Cir. Dec. 9, 2005) This case deals with a central topic in P2P file-sharing lawsuits–was the downloading excused by fair use? This issue has come up in oblique ways in…
Another 47 USC 230 Case, Another Defense Win–Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com
By Eric Goldman Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com, LLC, 2005 WL 3299077 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 30, 2005) [actually 2004–see below] I’m not sure why this case took so long to hit Westlaw [see below for explanation]….
Keeping C&D Letters Confidential
By Eric Goldman An all-too-familiar story. A famous celebrity takes her clothes off in a private outdoor space (in this case, Jennifer Aniston goes topless in her backyard). The paparazzi captures the event for posterity and profit. Celebrity finds out…
Yale Regulating Search? Conference Recap
By Eric Goldman I attended the Regulating Search? conference at Yale Law School this weekend. This post contains the notes I took at the conference. A couple of meta-observations: * almost everyone on the various panels spoke against government regulation….
Wikipedia Will Fail Within 5 Years
By Eric Goldman Over the weekend I had dinner with Mike Godwin, one of the most significant influencers of the development of Cyberlaw and a longtime friend. Mike and I were discussing Wikipedia, the community-edited and -maintained encyclopedia. I like…
New Metatag/SEO Lawsuit–Salu, Inc. v. Pitts
By Eric Goldman Salu, Inc. v. Pitts (E.D. Ca. complaint filed Nov. 17, 2005). Introduction Salu operates skinstore.com, a website that sells skin care products. (With that name, I was totally expecting to find a porn site, but the website…
Microsoft Will Be an Adware Vendor
By Eric Goldman Microsoft is considering migrating some of its software titles to an ad-supported model instead of a consumer licensing fee model. This isn’t exactly a new idea–this development has been anticipated for at least a decade. However, if…