Second Circuit Summarily Affirms 512(c) Dismissal–Obodai v. Cracked
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Cracked Entertainment Inc., 2013 WL 2321420 (2d Cir. May 29, 2013). I blogged this case last year. My understanding is that a user allegedly posted copyright infringing material to Cracked.com, and the purported copyright owner…
Year-in-Review Talk on Online Marketing Issues
By Eric Goldman Today I’m speaking in Westminster, Colorado at the Rocky Mountain IP and Technology Institute. My topic is “Online Marketing/E-Commerce Updates” and was designed to be a “year-in-review” type talk. However, as I thought about the most important…
Overly Cautious Judge Allows Discovery Before Resolving Section 230 Dismissal–Nasser v. WhitePages
By Eric Goldman Nasser v. WhitePages, Inc., 2013 WL 2295678 (W.D. Va. May 24, 2013). Prior blog post. Rulings like this drive me batty. This is an easy and unambigous Section 230 case, but the judge decided to drag it…
Talk on Designing Optimal Safe Harbors and Immunities
By Eric Goldman Recently, I posted a Forbes article entitled “Designing Optimal Safe Harbors and immunities.” Based on the feedback I got to the article, I plan to convert it into a full-blown law review article eventually (i.e., it could…
Google Crushes Home Decor Center’s Trademark Challenge to AdWords
By Eric Goldman Home Decor Center, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 2:12-cv-05706-GW-SH (C.D. Cal. May 9, 2013) Home Decor Center sued Google in the wake of the Fourth Circuit’s Rosetta Stone ruling. The lawsuit did not go well for it. Recently,…
Suing Over Keyword Advertising Is A Bad Business Decision For Trademark Owners–General Steel v. Chumley (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman General Steel Domestic Sales, LLC v. Chumley, 2013 WL 1900562 (D. Colo. May 7, 2013) Trademark owners rarely win keyword advertising lawsuits in court. Reinforcing this conclusion, another trademark owner lost a trial over competitive keyword advertising…
UK’s New Defamation Law May Accelerate the Death of Anonymous User-Generated Content Internationally (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Historically, United Kingdom defamation law has been victim-favorable. In an effort to modernize its defamation law, the UK Parliament recently enacted the Defamation Act 2013 (royal assent was given on April 25). The act generally makes it harder for…
Perfect 10 Gets a Surprising Partial Sumary Judgment in 512 Case–Perfect 10 v. Yandex
By Eric Goldman Perfect 10, Inc. v. Yandex N.V., 2013 WL 1899851 (N.D.Cal. May 7, 2013) Few names strike as much fear–and derision–among Internet lawyers as Perfect 10. Perhaps the quintessential Internet Law plaintiff of the 2000s decade, Perfect 10…
Copyright Trolling Is Really Hard to Do Profitably–Righthaven v. Hoehn
By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, 2013 WL 1908876 (9th Cir. May 9, 2013) It’s been a rough week for copyright trolls. First, Judge Wright destroyed the Prenda Law enterprise in a sanction-filled opinion. Second, today the Ninth Circuit…
Suing Like It’s 2009: Parts.com Sues Google and Yahoo for Keyword Advertising
By Eric Goldman Parts.com v. Google, 3:13-cv-01074-JLS-WMC (S.D. Cal. complaint filed May 6, 2013); and Parts.com v. Yahoo, 3:13-cv-01078-AJB-JMA (S.D. Cal. complaint filed May 6, 2013) _____ In the immediate wake of the Second Circuit’s Rescuecom ruling in 2009, about…