Lori Drew Prosecuted for CFAA Violations–Some Comments, and a Practice Pointer

By Eric Goldman Before I get started, let me first say that my heart goes out to Megan Meier’s family. They have suffered a devastating tragedy, and I cannot possibly fathom the pain they must feel. As a result, I…

Content Generation and the Law

By Eric Goldman Last week I participated on a panel at the ION Game Conference in Seattle to discuss UGC in virtual worlds and online games. You can see a reasonably faithful transcript of the discussion here. Here’s a recap…

April 2008 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Anti-Gaming * Even though Ticketmaster won its lawsuit, Minnesota overreacted to the Hannah Montana ticket crush by banning software to circumvent an online ticket allocation process. See Sec. 609.806. Check out the hyperbole in this press release!…

March 2008 Quick Links, Part II

By Eric Goldman Copyright * A lot of action on whether “making available” a file in a P2P share directory is copyright infringement, including Elektra v. Barker and London-Sire v. Doe. Patry summarizes the action. * Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. RMG…

School District Didn’t Violate First Amendment for Reassigning Teacher Who Blogged–Richerson v. Beckon

By Eric Goldman Richerson v. Beckon, 2008 WL 833076 (W.D. Wash. March 27, 2008) A school district appointed Richerson to a position with split responsibilities as a curriculum development specialist and an official mentor for other teachers. She then blogged…

Feb. 2008 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Advertising * BusinessWeek: Monetizing social networking sites isn’t as easy as everyone had hoped, clickthrough rates are through the floor (0.04%!), and ad proliferation on the sites is driving users away. * Wilbur, Kenneth C. and Zhu,…

New Jersey Authorizes Ban of Sex Offenders’ Internet Access

By Eric Goldman New Jersey S1979 (signed December 27, 2007) New Jersey has passed a law allowing various punishment authorities (judges, parole officers, etc.) to restrict Internet use by convicted sex offenders. The main operative restriction says that these authorities…

Internet Doctor Gets Extra Jail Time for Using Website–US v. Hanny

By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Hanny, 2007 WL 4322265 (8th Cir. Dec. 12, 2007) Given its blatant illegality, I’m a little surprised that we don’t hear more about busts of companies and individuals selling prescription drugs over the Internet. I…

Geolocation and A Bordered Cyberspace

By Eric Goldman I recently gave a talk on the general theme of the future of e-commerce, and I was allowed to take the topic in any direction. I decided to talk a little about the propagation of geolocation technology…

September 2007 Quick Links Part II

By Eric Goldman Contracts * Manasher v. NECC Telecom, No. 06-cv-10749 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 18, 2007). NECC included the following language on its invoices: “NECC’s Agreement ‘Disclosure and Liabilities’ can be found online at www.necc.us or you could request a…

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