Supreme Court on Interstate Shipment of Wine–Granholm v. Heald
Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. __ (May 16, 2005). The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, has declared that states cannot discriminate between out-of-state wineries and in-state wineries in allowing direct-to-consumer sales. Such discrimination violates the dormant commerce clause….
Racine Man Plans to Fight RIAA
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports on Dave Bink, a Racine dad who was sued by the RIAA because of KaZaA downloads made by his 13 year old daughter. He has decided to fight the lawsuit in court because (a) his daughter…
Orphan Works Comments, Round 2
After the first 716 comments on orphan works, you’d think the Copyright Office would have had enough. Instead, they allowed the filing of “responses” to the initial 716 comment salvo and got another 145 comments. Whew! That’s a lot of…
Yahoo Sued for Allowing Child Porn Operators to Use Site Tools
Yahoo has been sued for allowing child pornographers to communicate with each other using hosting and messaging services from Yahoo Groups. Prediction: Yahoo will win this case on a motion to dismiss based on 47 USC 230. Why? There is…
Internet Explorer Market Share Dips Below 90%
Microsoft’s share of the browser market has dipped below 90%. On my blogs, the numbers are even less favorable for Microsoft. Consider my blog stats in the month of May (so far): “Unknown” 50.9 % (I believe this includes RSS…
Sen. Allen Introduces New Anti-Spyware Legislation
Sen. Allen promised to introduce an anti-spyware law about a month ago, but Internet News is reporting that he introduced a bill yesterday. A copy is not yet on Thomas or on Sen. Allen’s website. The article suggests that Allen…
Patent Act of 2005 Proposed Draft
The “Committee print” version of the proposal is available here. Prior comments here.
Copyright Office RSS Feeds
The Copyright Office has launched four RSS feeds. I’ve been an email subscriber of NewsNet for a while, but I think the other feeds provide us with new ways to monitor the Copyright Office’s activities. Kudos to the Copyright Office…
Schwartz on Adware Advertisers
Ari Schwartz comes out swinging against adware advertisers, saying “Advertisers, too, should be pushed to take greater responsibility for the companies they advertise with.” His remarks raise a number of questions, including: 1) Is there something unique about the adware…
New Initial Interest Confusion Case in Sixth Circuit
Stilson & Associates v. Stilson Consulting Group, 2005 Fed. App. 0363N (6th Cir. May 6, 2005). Alden Stilson founded a civil engineering firm in the 1940s called “Alden Stilson & Associates.” By the 1980s, the name devolved to “Stilson &…