Jan. 2008 Quick Links (Non-IP Edition)
By Eric Goldman 47 USC 230 * Doe v. SexSearch, the case absolving a website for age verification of its users, has been appealed. * The Supreme Court denied cert in Parker v. Google. See 2008 WL 114262. * NYT…
Oct.-Nov. 2007 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Marketing/Branding * To stimulate demand for its services, the British postal service is pointing out that snail mail is a good way to use olfactory marketing. Try to keep up with THAT, spammers! But doesn’t this give…
Facebook v. ConnectU Update
By Eric Goldman Facebook, Inc. v. ConnectU LLC, 2007 WL 4249924 (N.D.Cal. Nov. 30, 2007) (denying sanctions); Facebook, Inc. v. ConnectU LLC, 2007 WL 4249926 (N.D.Cal. Nov. 30, 2007) (dismissing individual defendants) You may recall the intertwined relationship between ConnectU…
Yale Reputation Economies Symposium Recap
By Eric Goldman Reputation is a hot topic in Cyberlaw circles, so the Yale ISP conference on Reputation Economies in Cyberspace came at a propitious time. Some of my meta-observations from the talks. 1) We lack a uniformly accepted definition…
Search Redirection Tool Could Be Trespass to Chattels–Burgess v. EForce
By Eric Goldman Burgess v. EForce Media, Inc., 2007 WL 3355369 (W.D.N.C. Nov. 9, 2007) Every now and then a consumer goes on a me-vs.-the-world bender and decides to unilaterally save society by suing everyone in sight. Burgess’ anger over…
Spam Crime Loss Not Measured by Defendant’s Gain–US v. Kilbride
By Eric Goldman US v. Kilbride, 2007 WL 2774487 (D. Ariz. Sept. 21, 2007) Kilbride and his co-defendants are porn spammers who have been convicted of obscenity charges and criminal violations of CAN-SPAM. They face very long jail sentences. Their…
2007 Cyberspace Law Syllabus
By Eric Goldman I’ve posted my 2007 Cyberlaw syllabus. Unlike the past few years, which were a little slow cyberlaw-wise, the past 12 months saw a lot of important developments. Let me recap some of changes I made to my…
CAN-SPAM Defendant Awarded $111k in Fees/Costs–Gordon v. Virtumundo
By Eric Goldman Gordon v. Virtumundo, 06-0204-JCC (W.D. Wash. Aug. 1, 2007) I believe this ruling represents the first time that a CAN-SPAM plaintiff has been ordered to pay attorneys’ fees and costs to a defendant. As a result, it’s…
July 2007 Quick Links, Part II
By Eric Goldman Virtual Worlds * After a remarkable run as media darlings, Second Life is now experiencing some of the inevitable backlash. Case in point: Wired’s “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.” In this…
June 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Email * Spam cases are coming at a regular clip, and it’s tricky divining the latest state of the law. Two recent cases that caught my attention: – US v. Impulse Media Group, 2007 WL 1725560 (W.D….