Spyware, the Pew Report, Anti-Terrorism Efforts and Coping with Spam

I’m a little late blogging about the most recent Pew report on spyware. A couple of weeks ago, Pew Internet & American Life Project released its report “Spyware: The threat of unwanted software programs is changing the way people use…

Answer in AFP v. Google

Agence France Presse v. Google Inc., Civil Action No. 1:05cv00546 (D.D.C. answer filed May 19, 2005). Following up on my earlier coverage of AFP v. Google over Google News, I have found the answer and put it online. As is…

eBay, the Search Engine

Is eBay a search engine? Of course it is. eBay is acknowledging as much. As the NY Times reports, “In a conference call, Ms. Whitman also described the importance of improving eBay’s search capability, calling the service as much a…

Ripoffreport.com Wins 47 USC 230 Case

Whitney Information Network, Inc. v. Xcentric Ventures, LLC, 2005 WL 1677256 (M.D. Fla. Jul 14, 2005). The plaintiff runs real estate training programs. The defendants run ripoffreport.com and ripoffrevenge.com where consumers can submit complaints about businesses. The consumers write the…

FTC Cracks Down on Porn Spam

The FTC has brought enforcement actions against seven companies for violating failing to include the “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT” label on emails where such labels are required under CAN-SPAM and the implementing FTC regulations (as well as other violations of CAN-SPAM). Four of…

Teaching Contract Drafting Presentation

I’m giving a talk tomorrow at Northwestern Law School about my experiences teaching a course called Contract Drafting. A preview of my notes from my talk.

Misguided CNET Article on Canadian Copyright Law and Caching/Archiving

CNET ran an odd article today entitled “In Canada: Cache a page, go to jail?” The article discusses some proposed changes to Canada’s copyright law that allegedly would make search engine archiving an infringement. It quotes a bunch of intelligent…

Search Engines and Privacy…AGAIN?!

News.com and the Associated Press both ran stories last week about the possible ways that Google aggregates user data in a way that theoretically threatens privacy. Hmm…this sounds familiar…haven’t we heard this story before? Yes, only about a thousand times….

Virtual Worlds Paper

I have posted the published version of my virtual worlds paper, Speech Showdowns at the Virtual Corral, to SSRN. The abstract: “This Essay considers the rights of virtual world providers to terminate their customers or otherwise control their worlds. The…

Lane’s Gift Click Fraud Complaint

Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles LLC v. Yahoo! Inc., Case No. CV-2005-52-1 (Ark. Cir. Ct. complaint filed Feb. 17, 2005). After parsing the Click Defense complaint last week, I was finally able to get my hands on one of the complaints…

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