When Does a Privacy Policy Breach Support a Breach of Contract Claim? In re JetBlue
By Eric Goldman In re JetBlue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation, 79 F. Supp. 2d 299 (E.D.N.Y. August 1, 2005) I’m late blogging this case, but the case is remarkable enough to warrant some comments even at this late date. As…
Report Challenges Value of Notifying Consumers of Data Security Breaches
By Eric Goldman ID Analytics has released a report trying to quantify the harms caused by data security breaches. The report sensibly distinguishes between different types of breaches–misappropriation of name and social security numbers are different, and in some ways…
City of Heroes Lawsuits Settled
By Eric Goldman A complex but interesting legal fight between Marvel and NCSoft, about City of Heroes players generating characters that look like Marvel-owned characters, has come to an end. The press release announcing the settlement. Settlement terms were not…
4th Circuit Upholds Internet Flame War Lawsuit Dismissal on 230 Grounds–Winter v. Bassett
Winter v. Bassett, No. 03-2176 (4th Cir. Dec. 12, 2005) This lawsuit involves one of those oh-so-messy Internet flame wars/personal disputes that prompted the creation of an anti-Steve Winter website. Winter then sued a variety of people, including the web…
Click Defense Lawsuit Update
By Eric Goldman Click Defense v. Google, No. 5:05-cv-02579-RMW (N.D. Cal.). The Click Defense lawsuit is one of three pending click fraud actions (the other two being the Lane’s Gifts and CLRB Hanson Industries LLC cases). After launching the lawsuit…
The FTC, Adware Advertising and Badges of Shame
By Eric Goldman New FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz has embraced one of the favorite causes of the anti-adware grumblers: dry up adware funding by making adware advertisers feel some pain. According to AdAge, he recently said that the FTC might…
Downloading Music Isn’t Fair Use–BMG v. Gonzalez
By Eric Goldman BMG Music v. Gonzalez, No. 05-1314 (7th Cir. Dec. 9, 2005) This case deals with a central topic in P2P file-sharing lawsuits–was the downloading excused by fair use? This issue has come up in oblique ways in…
Another 47 USC 230 Case, Another Defense Win–Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com
By Eric Goldman Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com, LLC, 2005 WL 3299077 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 30, 2005) [actually 2004–see below] I’m not sure why this case took so long to hit Westlaw [see below for explanation]….
Keeping C&D Letters Confidential
By Eric Goldman An all-too-familiar story. A famous celebrity takes her clothes off in a private outdoor space (in this case, Jennifer Aniston goes topless in her backyard). The paparazzi captures the event for posterity and profit. Celebrity finds out…
Yale Regulating Search? Conference Recap
By Eric Goldman I attended the Regulating Search? conference at Yale Law School this weekend. This post contains the notes I took at the conference. A couple of meta-observations: * almost everyone on the various panels spoke against government regulation….