H1 2013 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan Copyright * France is scaling back its three-strikes policy because “suspending Internet connections was incompatible with the French government’s hopes of spurring growth in the digital economy.” Given its horrendous track record of anti-Internet regulations,…
Craigslist’s Anti-Consumer Lawsuit Threatens to Break Internet Law–Craigslist v. 3Taps/Padmapper (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Craigslist, Inc. v. 3Taps, Inc., 2013 WL 1819999 (N.D. Cal. April 30, 2013) Craigslist is one of the best examples of the Internet’s sharing economy. Craigslist improves markets by helping buyers and sellers find each other. Remarkably, it…
Second Circuit Summarily Affirms 512(c) Dismissal–Obodai v. Cracked
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Cracked Entertainment Inc., 2013 WL 2321420 (2d Cir. May 29, 2013). I blogged this case last year. My understanding is that a user allegedly posted copyright infringing material to Cracked.com, and the purported copyright owner…
Talk on Designing Optimal Safe Harbors and Immunities
By Eric Goldman Recently, I posted a Forbes article entitled “Designing Optimal Safe Harbors and immunities.” Based on the feedback I got to the article, I plan to convert it into a full-blown law review article eventually (i.e., it could…
Perfect 10 Gets a Surprising Partial Sumary Judgment in 512 Case–Perfect 10 v. Yandex
By Eric Goldman Perfect 10, Inc. v. Yandex N.V., 2013 WL 1899851 (N.D.Cal. May 7, 2013) Few names strike as much fear–and derision–among Internet lawyers as Perfect 10. Perhaps the quintessential Internet Law plaintiff of the 2000s decade, Perfect 10…
Copyright Trolling Is Really Hard to Do Profitably–Righthaven v. Hoehn
By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, 2013 WL 1908876 (9th Cir. May 9, 2013) It’s been a rough week for copyright trolls. First, Judge Wright destroyed the Prenda Law enterprise in a sanction-filled opinion. Second, today the Ninth Circuit…
More Evidence That Congress Misaligned the DMCA Online Copyright Safe Harbors–UMG v. Grooveshark (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Escape Media Group, Inc., 2013 WL 1729431 (N.Y. App. Div. April 23, 2013) Grooveshark runs a user-generated content (UGC) website that allows users to upload sound recordings and other users to stream those…
You Shouldn’t Need a Copyright Lawyer to Pick a Dentist–Lee v. Makhnevich (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman In October 2010, Robert Lee needed a dentist, pronto. He didn’t realize he needed a copyright lawyer to help him pick a dentist. In search of urgent pain relief, Lee contacted Dr. Stacy Makhnevich (a preferred provider…
Viacom Loses Again–Viacom v. YouTube
By Eric Goldman Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube Inc., 2013 WL 1689071 (S.D.N.Y April 18, 2013) Persistence is a virtue, but stubbornness is a sin. I’m pretty sure Viacom has sinned a lot in its six years of litigation against…
Designing Optimal Immunities and Safe Harbors (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman [Note: this is one of those posts that languished in the queue for a few years. Depending on your response, I may decide to turn it into a lengthier academic paper. Please send me your thoughts!] You…