WhenU Opposition to 1-800 Contact’s Certiorari Petition
By Eric Goldman WhenU has filed its opposition to 1-800 Contact’s petition for certiorari from the US Supreme Court. WhenU’s main argument: “1-800 mischaracterizes the decision below as holding that the “covert” use of a trademark can never support an…
Domain Name Outage This Morning
By Eric Goldman This morning the blog suffered an outage due to a problem with the domain name renewal. With Rex’s help, we got everything straightened out and we should be back in business. Fortunately, the domain never really left…
Product Placement and the Apprentice TV Show
By Eric Goldman I’ve always been confused by the fuss over product placements. I know people generally don’t like advertisements, and I also know that people want to be told when something is an “advertisement.” But product placement occurs in…
Can Kids Bind Parents to EULAs?
By Eric Goldman Abramson v. America Online, 2005 US Dist. LEXIS 10095 (N.D. Tex. May 25, 2005). One of the great unresolved issues in Cyberlaw: if a kid downloads P2P file sharing software, are the parents responsible? This issue is…
Barnes on Adware Contracts
By Eric Goldman Wayne Barnes, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, has posted “Rethinking Spyware: Questioning the Propriety of Contractual Consent to Online Surveillance” to SSRN. The first 50 pages largely recap the technology and the…
“Does Anyone Really Like Adware?” My Response to Suzi’s Question
By Eric Goldman Suzi of Spyware Confidential asks: “Does anyone really like adware?” I think this question is crucial, and it’s one I’ve been wondering myself. However, I think there are really 2 subquestions embedded in this one, and I’d…
Spitzer’s Witchhunt Nails Adware Executive Personally
By Eric Goldman In response to my post yesterday about adware witchhunts, a reader privately criticized me for analogizing the adware situation with manias where people’s lives were at stake. Ben Edelman made a similar point in his comment to…
California Anti-Phishing Law–Cal. B&P Code Sec. 22948
By Eric Goldman Going through my stack, I came across Cal. Business & Professions Code Sec. 22948-22948.3 (SB 355), California’s recently enacted anti-phishing law. In general, compared to other state anti-Internet behavior laws, this law is relatively targeted and unobjectionable….
Latest Junk Fax Lawsuit–Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications
By Eric Goldman Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications, Inc., 2005 WL 2621984 (D.D.C. Oct. 17, 2005). I’ve set up a Westlaw alert to notify me of new TCPA cases and I’m pretty shocked by the volume of cases being reported…
Adware Witchhunt Gone Awry
By Eric Goldman Ben Edelman’s latest “research report”/attack salvo goes after Claria because an ad promoting a Claria product was delivered via alleged spyware. To connect Claria with the “spyware” vendor, Ben traces the money as follows: Step 1: Claria…