I have posted the published version of my virtual worlds paper, Speech Showdowns at the Virtual Corral, to SSRN. The abstract: “This Essay considers the rights of virtual world providers to terminate their customers or otherwise control their worlds. The…
Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles LLC v. Yahoo! Inc., Case No. CV-2005-52-1 (Ark. Cir. Ct. complaint filed Feb. 17, 2005). After parsing the Click Defense complaint last week, I was finally able to get my hands on one of the complaints…
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc. v. Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inc., No. 1:05-cv-0527 (N.D. Ohio complaint filed February 7, 2005 and order of dismissal filed July 5, 2005). Reuters reports that the case…
Stefanie Olsen at News.com recaps some of the efforts that adware makers have undertaken to become more legitimate. She points to the example of WhenU, which changed its installation policies and cleaned out some distributors–and watched its installation base drop…
Marty Schwimmer weighs in on whether blog names are trademarkable and whether registration is a good idea. (His answers: mostly yes and maybe). From my perspective, trademark law is a cumbersome, expensive and unpredictable solution to managing a pool of…
In re. Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation, M.D.L. No. 1379 (SDNY). This case involves the republication of print articles in electronic databases like Westlaw and Nexis without authorization (part of the fallout from Tasini and similar cases). The…
Gosbee v. Martinson, 2005 ND APP 10 (N.D. Ct. App. July 6, 2005). This is the latest ruling in a RICO action based on the “Spy Wiper” software program. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants hijacked his computer to create…
Stopping Spyware at the Gate: A User Study of Privacy, Notice and Spyware by Nathaniel Good et al. I’ve already lauded this study after I heard Deirdre Mulligan present the findings at the Boalt Spyware conference in April. If we…
For the past two years, John Ottaviani and I have compiled a list of the top Internet IP cases of the year. (Despite the attribution, John O. did all the heavy drafting work). See our lists for 2003 and 2004….
TBS is so convinced that people will laugh at the new Pauly Shore TV show “Minding the Store” that it says: “If his new show doesn’t make you laugh, he’ll send you a dollar!*” Just to make sure we’re clear,…