Israeli Court Says Full-Text RSS Feeds Create an Implied Copyright License (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Jonathan J. Klinger Aggregation of content through RSS feeds has been a big issue every since websites began to use RSS to distribute their content. See, e.g., Prof. Goldman’s discussion of the issue in 2005. Still, we…
Update: Facebook Countersues Profile Technology For Contract Breach–Facebook v. Profile Technology
By Jake McGowan [writings][LinkedIn] Facebook, Inc. v. Profile Technology, Ltd., C 13-0459 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed Feb. 1, 2013) Back in December, we blogged about a suit brought by Profile Technology against Facebook, alleging that Facebook had breached an agreement…
“Privacy Policies in the United States” Presentation Slides
By Eric Goldman I recently guest lectured on drafting privacy policies in the United States. My presentation slides. One of my big-picture takeaway points is that privacy laws and associated industry self-regulation have gotten so extensive that drafting privacy policies…
Court Definitively Rejects AFP’s Argument That Posting a Photo to Twitter Grants AFP a License to Freely Use It — AFP v. Morel
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] AFP v. Morel, 10 Civ. 02730 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 14, 2013) The court *finally* issued its ruling on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment in AFP v. Morel, the Haiti photo case. Previous posts here and…
Top Ten Internet Law Developments of 2012 (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman I’m pleased to share my list of top 10 developments of 2012: #10: The Push Towards Anti-Class Action Arbitration Clauses. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that businesses may be able to adopt mandatory…
Anti-Scraping Lawsuits Are Going Crazy in the Real Estate Industry (Catch-Up Post)
By Jake McGowan with comments from Eric [Eric’s preliminary note: it’s taken me weeks to review this blog post, so I’ve been keeping poor Jake in a holding pattern. Still, I hope the wait is worth it.] The real estate…
Sale of “Damn You Auto Correct!” Website Leads to Fights Over Its Google Analytics Numbers — Studio 159 v. PopHang, LLC, et al.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Studio 159 v. PopHang, LLC & NextPoint, Inc., 2012 WL 6675790 (C.D. Cal.; Dec. 21, 2012) (Copy of Purchase and Sale Agreement) Studio 159 sold to PopHang and Nextpoint (Break Media) 22…
Facebook Isn’t–and Shouldn’t Be–A Democracy (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman In 2009, Facebook ($FB) nominally enabled user governance by obligating itself to honor user votes before making certain site policy changes. This experiment in user self-governance was radical and largely unprecedented–especially given the size of Facebook’s userbase, which…
Lawsuit Against Instagram Over Terms of Service Changes Looks Flimsy — Funes v. Instagram
[Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric] Funes v. Instagram, 12-6482 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed Dec. 21, 2012) Eric and I posted about Instagram’s recent TOS rev. Neither of us were particularly enthusiastic about the changes. (See Facebook’s Proposed Amended…
Facebook’s Proposed Amended Sponsored Settlement and Instagram’s TOS Revs
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Fraley v. Facebook, 11-cv-196193 (N.D. Cal.) (Amended Proposed Settlement) (Motion to Approve) (Preliminary Approval) (case docs, compiled by Citizen Media) I initially passed on blogging the amended proposed settlement agreement in Fraley v. Facebook, the Sponsored…