Patent Reform Act of 2005–July 26 Draft
A new draft of the Patent Reform Act of 2005 (HR 2795) has been circulated. Among other noteworthy aspects, this draft drops the limitations on injunctive relief–perhaps expedient to move the bill forward, but a disappointing omission IMO nonetheless. At…
Challenge to CDA’s Obscenity Provision Rejected–Nitke v. Gonzales
Nitke v. Gonzales, No. 01 Civ. 11476 (SDNY July 25, 2005). This case involves a challenge to the 1996 Communications Decency Act’s restriction on disseminating obscenity over the Internet. The basic gist is that there are different standards for evaluating…
Surowiecki on the Decline of Brands
Catching up on back reading, I came across James Surowiecki’s Wired article The Decline of Brands from Nov. 2004. If you haven’t read it, I recommend the article highly–it’s provocative and interesting. Surowiecki argues that consumers’ brand loyalty has declined…
Internet Hunting Editorial
On my other blog, I have frequently railed against the regulatory response to Live-shot.com and hunting via the Internet (you can find postings sprinkled throughout this page). I finally organized my thoughts into an editorial that ran today in the…
Bellia on Spyware, and Searcy v. Microsoft
Patricia Bellia of Notre Dame Law School recently posted a paper on spyware and surveillance laws, Spyware and the Limits of Surveillance Law. She challenges those who believe that the Electronic Communications Privacy or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act…
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…