Internet Obscenity Conviction Requires Assessment of National Community Standards–US v. Kilbride
By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Kilbride, 2009 WL 3448360 (9th Cir. Oct. 28, 2009) Jeffrey Kilbride and James Schaffer were porn spammers, operating through Ganymede Marketing, a Mauritian company. I previously blogged on their case in 2007. Their spam failed…
Tucows Not Liable for Spam Judgment Against 3rd Party Based on Private Registration Services — Balsam v. Tucows
[Post by Venkat] Judge Breyer (N.D. Cal.) rejected an attempt by a spam plaintiff to hold a registrar liable for a judgment against a third party based on private registration services provided by the registrar. (Balsam v. Tucows Inc., et…
Power.com Counterclaims Dismissed — Facebook v. Power Ventures
[Post by Venkat] Facebook and Power Ventures have been involved in a lawsuit over whether Power.com can allow its users to access user data on Facebook’s network. Facebook brought suit against Power.com asserting a slew of claims ranging from copyright…
Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 4
By Eric Goldman Spam * Ars Technica: “a disturbing number of e-mail users respond to spam, and not just because they’re dumb—some of them did so because they were actually interested in the product or service.” I collected some empirical…
CAN-SPAM Doesn’t Preempt CA Privacy Law–Powers v. Pottery Barn
by Ethan Ackerman On Sept. 19th, a California state appellate court held that CAN-SPAM doesn’t categorically trump state laws that may address email. Defendant retail store Pottery Barn was hoping it would agree with the initial ruling of the California…
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…
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…
Ninth Circuit Revives TCPA Claim–Satterfield v. Simon & Schuster
By Eric Goldman Satterfield v. Simon & Schuster, Inc., No. 07-16356 (9th Circuit June 19, 2009) Satterfield sued Simon & Schuster (and its mobile ad agency) for sending text messages to her cellphone without the requisite permission. The district court…
Twitter, Email and Brand Engagement
By Eric Goldman Last week, in an interview with a reporter, I extolled the virtues of Twitter as a tool for brands to keep in touch with and engage their customers. The reporter responded by asking why brands would choose…
Expansive Preemption of State Anti-Spam Laws Is Curtailed
Courts are splitting over the scope of CAN-SPAM preemption, with even judges in the same federal division disagreeing. By Ethan Ackerman It is a truth universally recognized that a legal blogger whose legal positions cause them to eat crow or…