Ripoffreport.com Wins 47 USC 230 Case
Whitney Information Network, Inc. v. Xcentric Ventures, LLC, 2005 WL 1677256 (M.D. Fla. Jul 14, 2005). The plaintiff runs real estate training programs. The defendants run ripoffreport.com and ripoffrevenge.com where consumers can submit complaints about businesses. The consumers write the…
FTC Cracks Down on Porn Spam
The FTC has brought enforcement actions against seven companies for violating failing to include the “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT” label on emails where such labels are required under CAN-SPAM and the implementing FTC regulations (as well as other violations of CAN-SPAM). Four of…
Teaching Contract Drafting Presentation
I’m giving a talk tomorrow at Northwestern Law School about my experiences teaching a course called Contract Drafting. A preview of my notes from my talk.
Misguided CNET Article on Canadian Copyright Law and Caching/Archiving
CNET ran an odd article today entitled “In Canada: Cache a page, go to jail?” The article discusses some proposed changes to Canada’s copyright law that allegedly would make search engine archiving an infringement. It quotes a bunch of intelligent…
Search Engines and Privacy…AGAIN?!
News.com and the Associated Press both ran stories last week about the possible ways that Google aggregates user data in a way that theoretically threatens privacy. Hmm…this sounds familiar…haven’t we heard this story before? Yes, only about a thousand times….
Virtual Worlds Paper
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 Gift Click Fraud Complaint
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…
Settlement in Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Case
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…
“Adware’s Second Act”
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…
Trademarking a Blog Name
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…