Website Gets 230 Immunity Despite Claim of Site Content Accuracy–Milo v. Martin
By Eric Goldman Milo v. Martin, 2010 WL 1708895 (Tex. App. Ct. April 29, 2010) This case involves allegedly defamatory “guestbook” messages posted by unknown users to a website entitled “The Watchdog.” Framed like that, the precedent says the website…
Online Defamation Action Can Have Only One Defendant–Novins v. Cannon
By Eric Goldman Novins v. Cannon, 2010 WL 1688695 (D. N.J. April 27, 2010). The CMLP page on Novins’ initial demand letter. The CMLP page on the lawsuit. An aborted lawsuit blog putatively by Novins. This is a defamation action…
Record Album Only Supports One Statutory Damages Award–Bryant v. Media Right
By Eric Goldman Bryant v. Media Right Productions, Inc., 09-2600-cv (2d Cir. April 27, 2010). My previous blog post on this case under the name Bryant v. Europadisk. Wow, talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The plaintiffs…
Interesting Database Scraping Case Survives Summary Judgment–Snap-On Business Solutions v. O’Neil
[Post by Venkat, with additional comments from Eric below] Snap-on Business Solutions Inc. v. O’Neil & Assocs., Inc. (N.D. Ohio April 16, 2010) [scribd] Snap-on is one of those cases that’s great because the court canvasses the various claims that…
Amazon Wins Keyword Advertising Suit–Video Professor v. Amazon
By Eric Goldman Video Professor, Inc. v . Amazon.com, Inc., 1:09-cv-00636-REB-KLM (D. Colo. April 21, 2010) Video Professor has been involved in a few interesting legal scrapes. For example, you may recall that in 2007 they launched a major crackdown…
Beverly Stayart Strikes Again! This Time, Stayart Sues Google
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Google, Inc., 2:10-cv-00336-LA (E.D. Wis. complaint filed April 20, 2010) I’ve previously blogged about Beverly Stayart (a/k/a Bev Stayart) and her mockable lawsuit against Yahoo. She has repeatedly declared that she is the only Beverly…
FTC Drops Investigation of Advertiser Who Gave Gifts to Bloggers
By Eric Goldman Although the FTC’s revised Endorsements and Testimonials Guidelines were inscrutable overall, a few things were, in fact, clear from the FTC’s announcements: 1) The FTC believes shill blogging is out of control 2) They blame advertisers for…
Upcoming Talks Spring 2010
By Eric Goldman I’ve added some new talks to my schedule recently, so here’s an updated list of my talks for the next couple of months: May 6, 8-10 am: Obstacles and Opportunities: eCommerce on Both Sides of the Atlantic,…
Spammer Convicted on Wire Fraud Charges — United States v. Diamreyan
[Post by Venkat] United States v. Diamreyan, 09-cr-0260 (JCH) (D. Conn.) (April 16, 2010) Earlier this year Okpako Mike Diamreyan was found guilty of wire fraud. The district court recently denied his motion for judgment of acquittal. Diamreyan “was charged…
Online Publishers, Advertising and Privacy Considerations
By Eric Goldman I recently spoke at OMMA Global on a panel entitled “Can Publishers Take Ownership of Privacy?” This panel focused on the role of online publishers in the marketing-and-privacy discussions. Most of the privacy angst has focused on…