Google Confirms That Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter
By Eric Goldman Few Internet technologies have horked cyberlaw as much as keyword metatags. Back in the 1990s, some search engines indexed keyword metatags, which encouraged some websites to stuff their keyword metatags as a way of gaming the rankings….
Why More Wikipedia Editing Restrictions Are Inevitable, and Some Comments on Flagged Revisions for Living People’s Biographies
By Eric Goldman I have posted my latest article, “Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences,” to SSRN. The article will be published in the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law in the relatively near future. The article is still…
2009 Cyberspace Law Syllabus and Some Comments
By Eric Goldman I have posted my syllabus for this semester’s Cyberspace Law course. This blog post describes the changes from my 2008 course reader. For more on my pedagogical approaches to the course, see my Teaching Cyberlaw article. Trademark…
An End to Spam Litigation Factories?–Gordon v. Virtumundo
By Eric Goldman Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc., No. 07-35487 (9th Cir. Aug. 6, 2009) When CAN-SPAM was passed in 2003, it was fairly clear that Congress wasn’t trying to enable broad private enforcement. Everyone knew that rabid anti-spammers would seize…
State of the Net West Recap
By Eric Goldman Yesterday, the High Tech Law Institute and the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus co-sponsored the Third Annual State of the Net West event at Santa Clara University. The featured participants were 3 members of Congress…
Wikipedia and Rules Proliferation
By Eric Goldman I have previously mentioned how rule sets tend to expand over time. We’ve seen this with legislation; for example, consider how the Copyright Act has grown over time. Personally, I’ve seen code expansion over and over again…
April 2009 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman [Just a reminder that I am posting some “quick links” exclusively to my Twitter account, so if you want to keep up with everything, follow me at Twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed.] Marketing/Spam * Zango…
Q1 2009 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman Blogging and Social Networking Sites * A new version of the EFF Legal Guide to Blogging. While you’re there, consider joining EFF as a member. The EFF does first-rate work, and they can use all the support…
Q1 2009 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * The ridiculous Jones Day v. BlockShopper case settled. The settlement agreement. The ABA Journal and Legal Blog Watch stories. Commentary from CMLP, Paul Levy, Tom O’Toole. * The trial court denouement of the S&L…
IEEE ComSoc SCV Talk: “Engineers’ Role in Internet Law Development”
By Eric Goldman Last week, I gave a talk at a meeting of the IEEE Communications Society, Santa Clara Valley chapter. I don’t often get the chance to speak to a group of engineers, so I decided to go in…