Roommates.com En Banc Rehearing GRANTED!

By Eric Goldman Terrific news from the Ninth Circuit this morning! They have granted an en banc hearing in the Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com case and (as their rules require) designated the prior opinion non-precedential. The full text of…

Bay Area Blawgers 2.0

By Eric Goldman The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law School and Six Apart are pleased to announce Bay Area Blawgers 2.0, the second gathering of legal bloggers in the Bay Area. See a recap of the first…

230 Applies Even if Website Retains Content That Author Asked to Remove–Global Royalties v. Ripoff Report

By Eric Goldman Global Royalties, Ltd. v. Xcentric Ventures, LLC, 07-956-PHX-FJM (D. Ariz. Oct. 10, 2007) Surprise! Ripoff Report/Xcentric/badbusinessbureau/Magedson are in court again (I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve blogged on them–check here and do a find…

AFP v. Google News Redux–AP v. Moreover

By Eric Goldman Associated Press v. Moreover Technologies, Inc., 07 CIV 8699 (SDNY complaint filed Oct. 9, 2007) I don’t understand Moreover. From their website, they describe themselves as: the premier provider of real-time news, current awareness and business information,…

Pandora Founder Westergren Speaks at SCU

By Eric Goldman I *love* Internet radio. I typically listen to it all day long while I’m pounding out emails, articles and blog posts (like this one). I’ve tried a number of services, including Accuradio, Sky.fm and Last.fm. However, now…

Spam Crime Loss Not Measured by Defendant’s Gain–US v. Kilbride

By Eric Goldman US v. Kilbride, 2007 WL 2774487 (D. Ariz. Sept. 21, 2007) Kilbride and his co-defendants are porn spammers who have been convicted of obscenity charges and criminal violations of CAN-SPAM. They face very long jail sentences. Their…

Yet Another NY Court Says Keyword Ads & Metatags Aren’t TM Use in Commerce–S&L Vitamins v. Australian Gold

By Eric Goldman S & L Vitamins, Inc. v. Australian Gold, Inc., 2:05-cv-1217 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2007) If it wasn’t so painful for all involved, I would enjoy watching the legal contortions of companies whose outdated business models are being…

September 2007 Quick Links Part II

By Eric Goldman Contracts * Manasher v. NECC Telecom, No. 06-cv-10749 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 18, 2007). NECC included the following language on its invoices: “NECC’s Agreement ‘Disclosure and Liabilities’ can be found online at www.necc.us or you could request a…

September 2007 Quick Links Part I

By Eric Goldman Marketing * From the NYT: There are 200+ auto repair shops in the “Iron Triangle” area in New York, and apparently they compete fiercely with each other, shouting out price quotes as cars needing repairs drive by….

“Making Available” as Copyright Infringement–Capitol v. Thomas

By Ethan Ackerman Capitol v. Thomas has been widely covered (even simul-blogged) as the first RIAA copyright lawsuit against an individual P2P downloader to reach a jury trial. But, to poorly paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, “a funny thing happened on the…