I’m not really a fan of new TLDs. Mostly, I see them increasingly irrelevant, so they generate a fair amount of activity but little benefit. As a result, not surprisingly, I am not excited about a .xxx TLD. Indeed, not…
By John Ottaviani Although there was some confusion over Judge Patel’s May 11th ruling in the Napster investor litigation, her May 31 ruling leaves no doubt that the Section 106(3) distribution right is not infringed merely by maintaining an index…
I’m giving a talk at Law & Society Association’s annual meeting this Thursday in Las Vegas called “Trademark Adjacency.” A preview of my slides.
I’m a little late blogging on this, but the FAA has proposed regulations to prohibit billboards in space. Comments are due by July 18. Unfortunately, the news reports didn’t accurately capture the issue. Congress already outlawed “obtrusive space advertising” in…
By John Ottaviani Eric pointed out that I neglected to mention in my post yesterday this case is actually one of the few reported “E-SIGN” decisions. The district court had questioned whether or not an e-mail agreement to arbitrate satisfies…
Ben Edelman’s latest post discusses intermediary responsibility for adware. The post details how cash goes from advertisers to advertising representatives (“intermediaries”) to adware vendors to distributors. The Legal Liability Question This implicates an essential question: if someone commits an illegal…
By John Ottaviani Although the First Circuit’s May 23 opinion in Campbell v. General Dynamics Government Systems Corp. arises in the employment context, any company that engages in the practice of amending the terms of use, a privacy policy or…
A few days ago the Feds busted the Elite Torrents, who were warez traders using BitTorrent. The target: sites trading the Revenge of the Sith. The timing of this makes me wonder–is the passage of the ART Act, reinforcing criminal…
Three lawyers have launched a website called Lostclicks.com to drum up business for their click fraud legal campaigns. While these lawyers appear to be involved in the Lane’s Gift and Collectibles lawsuit, the site doesn’t contain the complaint–so it’s a…
Mike Madison provides a thoughtful post on why some copyright owners might resist Creative Commons. UPDATE: John Dvorak writes a powerful critique of Creative Commons. Some of John’s arguments are wrong as a matter of law, but his points are…