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…
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…
Gosbee v. Martinson–Trial Court Motion to Dismiss Reversed on Appeal
Gosbee v. Martinson, 2005 ND APP 10 (N.D. Ct. App. July 6, 2005). This is the latest ruling in a RICO action based on the “Spy Wiper” software program. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants hijacked his computer to create…
Shocking Revelations About BitTorrent
By Mark Schultz Ernest Miller, Ed Felten, and I (clearly the lesser blogger of the three) have been blogging about what happens to BitTorrent after Grokster. Ernie Miller has discovered a circa 2001 cybermanifesto in which BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen…
More on BitTorrent and Grokster
Mark Schultz Ernest Miller notes that I should address the new trackerless BitTorrent and BitTorrent search created by Cohen. He was right. So, here goes. As Wired News reported a few weeks back, Bram Cohen and fellow developers released two…
Important 2d Circuit Adware Case–1-800 Contacts v. WhenU
1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU.com, Inc., Docket Nos. 04-0026-cv and 04-0446-cv (2d Cir. June 27, 2005). Overshadowed by yesterday’s Grokster mania, the Second Circuit finally issued an important ruling about WhenU’s liability for trademark infringement. The court found that WhenU…
What Happens to BitTorrent After Grokster?
By Mark Schultz, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois School of Law Thanks to Eric for the chance to guest blog here. And congratulations to Eric for predicting the decision right. He called it about a month ago–I was there, under a…
Grokster Ruling Commentary
In this post, I’ll summarize some of the various blog reactions to Grokster that I’ve come across. You should start with my own, of course! For another good roundup (with some overlap to this post), see Ernest Miller’s The Importance…
Grokster Supreme Court Ruling
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd, Case No. 04-480. (US Supreme Court June 27, 2005). What Happened The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit’s upholding of summary judgment for the defendants, sending the case back to the lower courts…