Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 4
By Eric Goldman Spam * Ars Technica: “a disturbing number of e-mail users respond to spam, and not just because they’re dumb—some of them did so because they were actually interested in the product or service.” I collected some empirical…
Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman Copyright * AP v. All Headline News settles. My initial blog post. The settlement order. * The Turnitin case has settled. My blog post on the district court ruling. * Corbis Corp. v. Starr, No. 3:07CV3741 (N.D….
Texas Class Action Aims to Derail Facebook Beacon Settlement–Harris v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat] In late September, Facebook announced the settlement of a class action challenging its ill-fated “Beacon” program. Facebook set aside $9.5 million to settle the class claims and agreed to set up a privacy foundation. Facebook also agreed…
Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Trademark * Venkat: Twitter makes the dictionary. * Federal Circuit says Hotels.com is generic. * Steve Madden sues eBay for trademark infringement. Marty’s coverage. Justia page. I found the fifth cause of action, “trademark delusion,” a surprisingly…
Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman My system of managing news items that don’t warrant a full blog post but can’t fit into a 140 character Twitter post has broken down. So, I’m belatedly catching up on my backlog of things that caught…
Sex Predator Stung By Undercover Officer Who Self-Reported 3 Different Ages–US v. Haile
By Eric Goldman US v. Haile, 2009 WL 3163556 (W.D. Ky. Sept. 29, 2009) Let me start out by stating the obvious: sexual predation of minors is an unacceptable crime. I remain deeply troubled by how many Westlaw cases report…
A Fuller Explanation of Why the FTC Endorsement/Testimonial Guidelines Violate 47 USC 230
By Eric Goldman Last week’s release of the FTC’s new Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines has generated a significant amount of angst online. The resulting commentary has been strongly and almost uniformly negative. Frankly, none of the sources I read have…
Ochoa on the Duration of James Joyce’s Copyrights
By Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: my colleague Tyler Ochoa contributes to the blog from time to time. This time, he submits a modified version of a letter he sent to the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle, wherein he explains…
CAN-SPAM Doesn’t Preempt CA Privacy Law–Powers v. Pottery Barn
by Ethan Ackerman On Sept. 19th, a California state appellate court held that CAN-SPAM doesn’t categorically trump state laws that may address email. Defendant retail store Pottery Barn was hoping it would agree with the initial ruling of the California…
Resale of International Textbooks to US Students Not Protected by First Sale Doctrine–Pearson v. Liu
By Eric Goldman Pearson Education, Inc. v. Liu, 2009 WL 3064779 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 25, 2009) As a complement to Venkat’s excellent post on Vernor v. Autodesk from this morning, it turns out that we are celebrating First Sale Doctrine day…