2009 Cyberspace Law Syllabus and Some Comments
By Eric Goldman I have posted my syllabus for this semester’s Cyberspace Law course. This blog post describes the changes from my 2008 course reader. For more on my pedagogical approaches to the course, see my Teaching Cyberlaw article. Trademark…
Nursing Student’s Blog Post Doesn’t Support Expulsion–Yoder v. University of Louisville
By Eric Goldman Yoder v. University of Louisville, 2009 WL 2406235 (W.D. Ky. Aug. 3, 2009). Yoder’s initial complaint. Nina Yoder was a University of Louisville nursing student. She posted a blog post to MySpace entitled “How I Witnessed the…
An End to Spam Litigation Factories?–Gordon v. Virtumundo
By Eric Goldman Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc., No. 07-35487 (9th Cir. Aug. 6, 2009) When CAN-SPAM was passed in 2003, it was fairly clear that Congress wasn’t trying to enable broad private enforcement. Everyone knew that rabid anti-spammers would seize…
State of the Net West Recap
By Eric Goldman Yesterday, the High Tech Law Institute and the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus co-sponsored the Third Annual State of the Net West event at Santa Clara University. The featured participants were 3 members of Congress…
Wikipedia and Rules Proliferation
By Eric Goldman I have previously mentioned how rule sets tend to expand over time. We’ve seen this with legislation; for example, consider how the Copyright Act has grown over time. Personally, I’ve seen code expansion over and over again…
Google Goes on Offensive in AdWords Trademark Lawsuit–Google v. John Beck Amazing Profits
By Eric Goldman Google, Inc v. John Beck Amazing Profits, LLC, C09 03459 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed July 27, 2009). [Warning: 1.4MB file] The Justia page. A couple of interesting developments in John Beck Amazing Profits v. Google, the putative…
Google Not Liable for False Ads–Goddard v. Google
By Eric Goldman Goddard v. Google, Inc., 5:08-cv-02738-JF (N.D. Cal. July 30, 2009) I previously blogged on this case in December 2008. The case involves AdWords advertisements for allegedly fraudulent mobile subscription services. In an underappreciated opinion, Judge Fogel wrote…
Google Down to 7 AdWords Lawsuits–Ascentive v. Google Voluntarily Dismissed
By Eric Goldman Ascentive v. Google, Inc., 2:09-cv-02871 (E.D. Pa. voluntary dismissal July 30, 2009) The litigation count on Google’s keyword ad lawsuits has started trending downward. For the second time in a week, a plaintiff has voluntarily dismissed its…
Microsoft-Yahoo Alliance Comments
By Eric Goldman Some comments on the proposed search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo: * I remember a time, long ago back in the mid-1990s, when Yahoo was the unquestioned leader in search. * The beginning of the end is…
Biosafe-One v. Hawks Dismissed
By Eric Goldman Biosafe-One, Inc. v. Hawks, 2009 WL 2170150 (S.D.N.Y. July 25, 2009) I previously blogged about this case in 2007. The parties are competitors in the septic system cleaning products business. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant ripped…