Why I hope Google loses

By Mark McKenna The blogosphere is abuzz with discussion of the Authors Guild’s lawsuit against Google. See here, here, and here, in addition to Eric’s post here. UPDATE: this post collects the reaction of a number of commentators. I don’t…

Second Anti-Adware Class Action Filed–Simios v. 180Solutions

By Eric Goldman Simios v. 180Solutions, Inc., No. 05C 5235 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Sept. 13, 2005). This complaint isn’t “new” news; Suzi blogged about it 10 days ago. This is the second anti-spyware class action lawsuit initiated by David…

Cellphone Spam Violates TCPA–Joffe v. Acacia Mortgage

Joffe v. Acacia Mortgage Corp., No. 1 CA-CV 02-0701 (Ariz. Ct. App. Sept. 20, 2005). When is an email a telephone call? The Arizona Court of Appeals says that an email is a telephone call when the receiver gets a…

Anti-Phishing Warning Protected by 47 USC 230

By Eric Goldman Associated Bank Corp. v. EarthLink, Inc., No. 05-C-0233-S (W.D. Wis. Sept. 13, 2005). [BNA subscription required] EarthLink’s “ScamBlocker” incorrectly identified Associated Bank’s website as a phishing site, so users trying to access the website saw a huge…

My Comments on Google Print

By Eric Goldman I have been thinking a lot about Google Print, Google’s plan to scan in and index all of the books of some of the largest libraries in the world. This program has some obvious benefits to society;…

City of Heroes Lawsuit–New Ruling on False DMCA Takedown Notices

By Eric Goldman Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corp., CV 04-9253-RGK (C.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2005). Given the interest in this case, I’m surprised that this ruling appears to have been overlooked (I found it through BNA [subscription required]). In late…

Lane’s Gifts Click Fraud Lawsuit Back to State Court

By Eric Goldman Quick update on the Lane’s Gifts class action lawsuit over click fraud. The Eighth Circuit refused to hear an appeal of the federal court determination that the lawsuit should be remanded back to state court, so the…

Branded products as ingredients

By Mark McKenna Brett Frischmann tells a story about trying to buy his son a cookie with M&M’s on it and having the person working at the cookie stand insist on calling the cookies “B&B” cookies, not M&M cookies. According…

U.T. v. Longhornsingles.com Part 2 – state email filtering

This second post of a two-part posting continues looking at the 5th Circuit’s opinion in this unique case. The first post focused on the CAN-SPAM Act and how the court applied it in this case. This scond post will talk about 1st Amendment complications when a government agency or entity (in this case the University of Texas) adopts a filtering policy or blocks email.

Specht v. Netscape–What Happened After the 2nd Circuit Remand?

By Eric Goldman (with help from Matt Goeden) The Specht v. Netscape 2nd Circuit opinion is a modern classic. The case articulates a clean (and, in my opinion, sensible) rule about online contract formation. I think it’s a great teaching…