Junk Fax Doesn’t Create Conversion Claim–Edwards v. Emperor’s Garden
By Eric Goldman Edwards v. Emperor’s Garden Restaurant, 130 P.3d 1280 (Nev. Mar. 30, 2006) Defendants sent a single junk fax to the (pro se) plaintiff. The plaintiff sued for a variety of causes of action, including conversion and private…
Advertiser Not Liable for Spam–Hypertouch v. Kennedy-Western University
By Eric Goldman Hypertouch, Inc. v. Kennedy-Western University, No. 3:04-cv-05203-SI (N.D. Cal. Mar. 8, 2006) This is another in a series of CAN-SPAM lawsuits filed by Hypertouch, which apparently has entered the CAN-SPAM plaintiff business. I blogged on one of…
WSJ Debate on Advertiser Liability for Adware
By Eric Goldman Today, the Wall Street Journal published an email debate between me and Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology about advertiser responsibility for adware. Regular blog readers know that this has been a hot button…
NY Enforcement Actions for Reselling Emails in Breach of Privacy Policy
By Eric Goldman Gratis Internet runs several websites that promise free stuff (like free iPods) in exchange for consumers signing up for subscription trials. The trials are initially free but then convert to paid subscriptions. The idea is that many…
CDT Report on Adware Advertising
By Eric Goldman The Center for Democracy and Technology has released “Following the Money: How Advertising Dollars Encourage Nuisance and Harmful Adware and What Can be Done to Reverse the Trend.” The report details the complex web of relationships between…
Do-Not-Contact Registries Proliferating?
By Eric Goldman There has been a groundswell of action at the state level to implement do-not-contact registries of various kinds. Two of particular note: 1) Don’t-spam-my-kid Registries. Two states (Utah and Michigan) already have laws enabling do-not-spam registries for…
San Francisco Presentation, March 15 12:30 pm
By Eric Goldman I’m presenting my latest article, A Coasean Analysis of Marketing, at University of San Francisco on March 15. The talk is free and open to the public. Although the title suggests that the talk will be heavy…
Wasted Time as a Damage–Paglinawan v. Frey
By Eric Goldman Paglinawan v. Frey, No. 2:06-cv-00099-RSM (W.D. Wash. complaint filed Jan. 19, 2006). James Frey publishes the book “A Million Little Pieces.” It’s marketed as a non-fiction book, but some of it is actually fiction. Readers are upset…
The NFL’s SUPER BOWL Will Be Held on SUPER SUNDAY
By John Ottaviani A sports report on the local radio station broadcast this morning reminded me that we are in our annual period where the NFL causes all broadcasters to step “through the looking glass” and act in accordance with…
Anti-Marketing Laws and the Commercial Speech Doctrine
By Eric Goldman Prompted by the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in the White Buffalo case, Chris Hoofnagle of EPIC posted a nice rundown of some recent cases where anti-marketing laws survived a First Amendment challenge. He calls the 1999…