South Dakota S.Ct Recognizes the Obvious: a Happy Birthday Message on Facebook Doesn’t Mean Much — Onnen v. Sioux Falls Independent School Dist.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Onnen v. Sioux Falls Independent School Dist., 2011 S.D. 45 (South Dakota; Aug. 3, 2011) If any modern day communication is more inconsequential than a “happy birthday” post on Facebook, I’m not sure what is. We’ve…
Idea Submission Case Revived Against MySpace–Riggs v. MySpace
By Eric Goldman Riggs v. MySpace, Inc., 2011 WL 3020543 (9th Cir. July 25, 2011) Riggs created a popular MySpace page, only to have MySpace delete it twice. Not pleased by that turn of events, for years Riggs has been…
Sixth Circuit: Email and Phone Advocacy Campaign Can Violate the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act — Pulte Homes v. LIUNA
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Pulte Homes, Inc. v. Laborers’ Int’l Union, et al., 09-2245; 10-1673 (6th Cir. Aug 2, 2011) I blogged about a case involving a labor dispute between Pulte Homes and Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)….
Newspaper’s Discussion About Trademark Owner Protected as Nominative Use–1 800 GET THIN v. Hiltzik
By Eric Goldman 1 800 GET THIN v. Hiltzik, 2:11-cv-00505-ODW -E (C.D. Cal. July 25, 2011) I’m sure any trademark experts reading this post are scratching their heads at the blog post title. Newspapers discussing a trademarked product qualify for…
Ninth Circuit Reconsiders SEO-Destroying Injunction Against DMV.Org–TrafficSchool v. EDriver (Joint Blog Post)
By Rebecca Tushnet and Eric Goldman TrafficSchool.com, Inc. v. Edriver Inc., 2011 WL 3198226 (9th Cir. July 28, 2011) [Over the years, Rebecca and I have blogged dozens of the same cases. However, we’ve never done a joint blog post…
Logging Into Someone Else’s Facebook Account and Posting Messages on Their Friends’ Walls Could Be Identity Theft — In re Rolando S.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] In re Rolando S., 2011 WL 3212879 (Ca. Ct. App.; July 21, 2011) Background: Rolando was a juvenile who received an unsolicited text message with the victim’s email password. According to the…
Court Smacks Down Koch Industries’ Attempt to Shut Down Satirical Website — Koch Industries v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Koch Industries, Inc. v. Does, 10CV1275DAK (D. Utah; May 9, 2011) [.pdf] [This is one of those cases that I intended to cover when it came out, but it got lost in the shuffle. Eric talks…
Power.com Up For Auction — Facebook v. Power Ventures
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Facebook v. Power Ventures, Case No. 5:08-cv-05780 JW (N.D. Cal.) [Update/Clarification: I received an email from the CEO of RokMe Inc. (who is handling the power.com auction) to this effect: Power.com is being sold by its…
Court Rejects First Amendment Challenge to CAN-SPAM Indictment — US v. Smallwood
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Ethan Ackerman] US v. Smallwood, 09-CR-00249 (N.D. Tex.; July 15, 2011) First Amendment challenges to spam statutes are long shots at best, with Jaynes v. Virginia being the big exception. In this case,…
Employee Terminated for Accessing ‘Inappropriate’ Websites not Entitled to Unemployment Benefits — Berglund v. ITI
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Berglund v. Industrial Tech. Institute, No. 298227 (Mich. Ct. App. July 21, 2011) Berglund worked at Industrial Technology Institute and was terminated for “using his computer to access inappropriate websites” (and for printing materials unrelated to…