The Latest Attempt to Use Copyright Law to Remove Negative Consumer Reviews–Small Justice v. Xcentric (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman [Note: as you know, I closed comments on this blog in 2006 because of a virulent comment spam attack. Sometimes I miss having comments, but then again, seeing the comments I got at Forbes in response to…
Multiple Listing Service Gets Favorable Appellate Ruling in Scraping Lawsuit
By Jake McGowan, with comments from Eric & Venkat Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., 2013 WL 3722365 (4th Cir. July 17, 2013) This is a follow-up to our massive post on anti-scraping lawsuits in the…
Recap of Stanford E-Commerce Conference Panel on Takedown Notices
By Eric Goldman Last month, I attended Stanford Law School’s annual E-commerce Law Conference, one of my favorite conferences of the year because of its subject material and the chance to hang out with so many friends. This year, the…
Online Retailer Pays Minimum Damages When Taken Down Item Inadvertently Returns–Rosen v. Netfronts
By Jake McGowan Rosen v. Netfronts, CV 12-658 CAS (C.D. Cal. July 9, 2013) What happens when a website operator takes down a potentially copyright-infringing item, only to have it reappear through a technical mix-up? On July 9, a district…
Book Review: “Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein”
By Eric Goldman Ira Arnstein is well-known to most IP professors as the named plaintiff in the copyright classic Arnstein v. Porter from 1946 (also see this case archive). The Second Circuit’s opinion is a landmark ruling that appears in…
Catching Up on 512 Safe Harbor Cases (and Other Online Copyright Cases) From the Past Year
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric; followed by a massive supplement from Eric] [Eric’s intro: sometimes, a draft blog post misses the publication window and then comes out painfully late. Venkat drafted the first draft of this…
Some 47 USC 230 Cases From the Past Year You Might Have Missed (Because I Didn’t Blog Them)
By Eric Goldman How do you celebrate the Fourth of July? I spent the holiday thinking about how 47 USC 230 enhances my freedoms. However, I’ve been feeling a little guilty because I try to blog every Section 230 case…
After “Bellwether Trial,” Court Says Malibu Media Isn’t Copyright Troll – Malibu Media v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Malibu Media v. Does, 12-2078 (E.D. Pa. June 18, 2013) [pdf] In a somewhat bizarre ruling, a district judge in Pennsylvania held, following a “bellwether trial” that Malibu Media was not a “copyright toll.” In a…
“Heisman Pose” Photographer’s Lawsuit Whittled Down–Masck v. Sports Illustrated
By Jake McGowan Masck v. Sports Illustrated, et al., 2:13-cv-10226-GAD-DRG (E.D. Mich. June 11, 2013) Back in February, we blogged about photographer Brian Masck’s Shakespearean complaint, asserting copyright infringement claims (and others) against numerous defendants for using his famous “Heisman…
Freelancer Loses Copyright Claims Against Licensee Who Posted Photos to Facebook – Davis v. Tampa Bay Arena
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Davis v. Tampa Bay Arena, Ltd., 12-cv-60-T-30MAP (M.D. Fl. June 27, 2013) This is a case involving a long-running relationship between Tampa Bay Arena and its freelance photographer. (We previously blogged the ruling on the arena’s…