Australian Court Says Google Isn’t Liable for Advertiser’s Misleading Ad–ACCC v. Trading Post (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Mark Bender, with some comments by Eric Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Trading Post Australia Pty Ltd [2011] FCA 1086 (September 22, 2011, corrected October 10, 2011) [Eric’s introduction: Mark Bender is a business law lecturer…
Good News/Bad News About the Number of Blogs Eligible for the 17 USC 512 Safe Harbor
By Eric Goldman My 2006 article about blog law included the following passage (footnotes omitted): few blogs satisfy the numerous technical prerequisites for § 512 eligibility, such as registering their websites with the U.S. Copyright Office. To assess this, on…
October 2011 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Copyright * MUST READ from Techdirt: MPAA Helped Police Seize ‘Pirated’ DVDs That Were Actually Fully Authorized. On the topic of errors in determining copyright infringement, the incident a powerful reminder both that even those “in the…
Stebbins’ Lawsuit Against Google Dismissed as “Frivolous”–Stebbins v. Google
By Eric Goldman Stebbins v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 5150879 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 27, 2011). Stebbins’ motion to confirm arbitration award (the equivalent of his complaint in this case). Arkansas resident David Stebbins appears to be cranking up a one-man…
Minnesota Appeals Court Says Tracking Statute Excludes Use of GPS to Track Jointly Owned Vehicle — State v. Hormann
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] State v. Hormann, A10-18722 (Minn. Ct. App. October 19, 2011) Hormann was charged with installing a tracking device on his then-wife’s car, in violation of a Minnesota statute prohibiting the use of, among other things, tracking…
Ninth Circuit Affirms Google’s Section 230 Win Over a Negative Business Review–Black v. Google
By Eric Goldman Black v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 5188426 (9th Cir. Nov. 1, 2011). The complaint. The district court ruling. The Blacks sued Google over a negative third party review of their business published in an unspecified Google property….
Yahoo Partially Defeats Lawsuit Over Wrongful Account Termination–Buza v. Yahoo
By Eric Goldman Buza v. Yahoo, Inc., 2011 WL 5041174 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 24, 2011). The complaint. Buza claims Yahoo terminated two GeoCities accounts related to his advocacy efforts. Buza is proceeding pro se, which is typical for user lawsuits…
Call for Papers, 2nd Annual Internet Law Work-in-Progress Symposium, NYC, March 24, 2012
By Eric Goldman For more information about this work-in-progress series, you might check out my recap from the inaugural event. This is a wonderful event in a fantastic location with a group of terrific scholars. I am eagerly looking forward…
District Court Denies Motion to Dismiss on Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Claim — Airfx.com v. AirFX LLC
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Airfx.com v. AirFX LLC, 11-01064 (D. Ariz.; Oct. 20, 2011). See also the UDRP ruling, AirFX, LLC v. ATTN AIRFX.COM, Claim Number FA1104001384655 (NAF May 16, 2011). Lurie is an indoor skydiving…
Notes from HTLI Conference on Defending Against Patent Risk
By Eric Goldman A couple weeks ago, the High Tech Law Institute and the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology co-sponsored a major conference on the evolving patent ecosystem, called “Defense 2.0: New Strategies for Reducing Patent Risk.” We had…