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…
Settlement in Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Case
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc. v. Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inc., No. 1:05-cv-0527 (N.D. Ohio complaint filed February 7, 2005 and order of dismissal filed July 5, 2005). Reuters reports that the case…
“Adware’s Second Act”
Stefanie Olsen at News.com recaps some of the efforts that adware makers have undertaken to become more legitimate. She points to the example of WhenU, which changed its installation policies and cleaned out some distributors–and watched its installation base drop…
Trademarking a Blog Name
Marty Schwimmer weighs in on whether blog names are trademarkable and whether registration is a good idea. (His answers: mostly yes and maybe). From my perspective, trademark law is a cumbersome, expensive and unpredictable solution to managing a pool of…
Class Action Settlement in Electronic Databases Case–Should I Participate?
In re. Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation, M.D.L. No. 1379 (SDNY). This case involves the republication of print articles in electronic databases like Westlaw and Nexis without authorization (part of the fallout from Tasini and similar cases). The…
Gosbee v. Martinson–Trial Court Motion to Dismiss Reversed on Appeal
Gosbee v. Martinson, 2005 ND APP 10 (N.D. Ct. App. July 6, 2005). This is the latest ruling in a RICO action based on the “Spy Wiper” software program. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants hijacked his computer to create…
Study on User Consent and Spyware
Stopping Spyware at the Gate: A User Study of Privacy, Notice and Spyware by Nathaniel Good et al. I’ve already lauded this study after I heard Deirdre Mulligan present the findings at the Boalt Spyware conference in April. If we…
Top Internet IP Cases of 2005 (So Far)
For the past two years, John Ottaviani and I have compiled a list of the top Internet IP cases of the year. (Despite the attribution, John O. did all the heavy drafting work). See our lists for 2003 and 2004….
Laugh! Or You Can Be 26 Cents Richer
TBS is so convinced that people will laugh at the new Pauly Shore TV show “Minding the Store” that it says: “If his new show doesn’t make you laugh, he’ll send you a dollar!*” Just to make sure we’re clear,…