Cook County Sheriff Sues Craigslist for Erotic Services Category
By Eric Goldman Dart v. Craigslist, Inc., 09-CV-1385 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed March 5, 2009) Dart, the Cook County, Illinois sheriff, has sued Craigslist in federal court for creating a “public nuisance” because its “Erotic Services” category facilitates prostitution. Unfortunately…
Utah Trying to Regulate Keyword Advertising….Again!? Utah HB 450
By Eric Goldman When I first heard that the Utah legislature is considering yet another law to regulate keyword advertising, I thought: Are you kidding me? After all, Utah has pursued these regulations twice with disastrous results. The first time,…
Facebook Sued Over Private Facebook Group–Finkel v. Facebook
By Eric Goldman Finkel v. Facebook, Inc., 102578-09 (N.Y. Supreme Ct. complaint filed Feb. 24, 2009). A New York teenager has sued Facebook and four Facebook users (plus their parents) for allegedly defamatory content posted in a private Facebook group…
Republishing Solicited Email May Not Qualify for 47 USC 230 Immunization–Woodhull v. Meinel
By Eric Goldman Woodhull v. Meinel, 2008 WL 5663874 (N.M. App. Ct. Oct. 24, 2008). This one just showed up in my Westlaw alerts; not sure why it took so long. The NM Supreme Court denied cert Jan. 7, 2009….
Zango v. Kaspersky Ninth Circuit Oral Arguments
By Eric Goldman The Ninth Circuit has posted the audio of the February 2, 2009 oral arguments in Zango v. Kaspersky, the important 47 USC 230(c)(2) case about vendors’ abilities to classify third party content as spam, viruses, adware/spyware, etc….
Affiliate Liability Talk Notes from SMX West
By Eric Goldman Last week, I spoke for 10 minutes (actually, I took 12) at SMX West on the topic of advertiser liability for affiliates’ actions. My talk notes: General Principles Issue: when are advertisers liable for their affiliates’ behavior?…
Yahoo’s Sale of Competitive Keyword Ads Isn’t False Designation of Origin–Heartbrand Beef v. Lobel’s
By Eric Goldman Heartbrand Beef, Inc. v. Lobel’s of New York, LLC, 2009 WL 311087 (S.D.Tex. Feb. 5, 2009). The Justia page. Heartbrand sells Akaushi beef, a special and very expensive Japanese variety of beef. Heartbrand brought an enforcement action…
2008 Cyberlaw Year-in-Review
By Eric Goldman It’s a sign of my schedule that I’m just now getting to this, and this post will be more pithy than I initially conceived. This post recaps some of the Cyberlaw highlights from last year. Frankly, the…
Social Networking Sites and Blogs Talk for Students
By Eric Goldman Today I gave a talk entitled “Social Networking Sites and Blogs” for the on-campus Student Intellectual Property Law Association (SIPLA). My slides. In conjunction with this, I thought it might be useful to organize a bibliography of…
Web Host Faces Potential Contributory Trademark Liability–Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc
By Eric Goldman Louis Vuitton Malletier, S.A. v. Akanoc Solutions, Inc., C 07-03952 JW (N.D. Cal. Dec. 23, 2008) This is one of countless anti-counterfeiting actions by luxury brands against allegedly infringing websites—but the twist is that the brand owner…