Why Did Google Flip-Flop On Cracking Down On “Rogue” Websites? Some Troubling Possibilities (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Earlier this month, Google announced that it may downgrade search results for a website if Google receives a high volume of “valid” takedown notices against the website. Google’s move has confused many Google-watchers, largely because the exact…
Judge Alsup Tells Google to Try Harder With Its Shill Disclosures
By Eric Goldman Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., 3:10-cv-03561-WHA (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 2012) I can’t imagine Google is surprised that Judge Alsup did not like its response to his request that Google and Oracle disclose potential shills in…
Oracle and Google Make Unenlightening Disclosures of their “Shills”
By Eric Goldman In Oracle v. Google, Judge Alsup recently ordered the parties to: [f]ile a statement . . . identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in the case and who…
Section 230 Immunizes Links to Defamatory Third Party Content–Directory Assistants v. Supermedia
By Eric Goldman Directory Assistants, Inc. v. Supermedia, LLC, 2012 WL 3329615 (E.D. Va. May 30, 2012) [For some reason, this case just appeared in my Westlaw alerts today. Even at this late date, it’s worth sharing. I have a…
Six-Month Retrospective of SOPA’s Demise [Forbes Cross-Post, A Month Late!] + SOPA/PROTECT-IP/OPEN Linkwrap #3
By Eric Goldman [This post is composed of three parts. The first part, all 2,700 words of it, is a cross-post from Forbes last month assessing where we stood 6 months after January 18, 2012. Sorry it’s taken me so…
Introducing Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan, and Another Request for Help
By Eric Goldman As I recently mentioned, I am also blogging at my Forbes blog, Tertium Quid. To help balance out some of this blog’s workload, I’m pleased to introduce the Technology & Marketing Law Blog’s first-ever blogging assistant, Jake…
Request for Help: Fill Out a Short Survey on Entrepreneurs’ Handling of Patent Demands
By Eric Goldman While we may have some voyeuristic fun watching a high-profile patent trial like Apple v. Samsung, patent litigation isn’t always a “sport of kings.” To shed some light on these less-publicized aspects of patent enforcement, my colleague…
Using Links as Citations Helps Gizmodo Defeat a Defamation Claim–Redmond v. Gawker Media
By Eric Goldman Redmond v. Gawker Media LLC, 2012 WL 3243507 (Cal. App. Ct. August 10, 2012) Gizmodo.com published an article, Smoke & Mirrors: The Greatest Scam in Tech, about Redmond’s venture, Peep Telephony. In addition to using the word…
Breastfeeding Mom Can Sue Video Producer Despite Signing a Blanket Release–Sahoury v. Meredith
By Eric Goldman Sahoury v. Meredith Corp., 2:11-cv-05180-KSH-PS (D. N.J. Aug. 2, 2012) Sahoury consented to being video-recorded while breastfeeding for inclusion in an instructional video. She claims that the video producers orally agreed to two conditions: (1) the instructional…
Craigslist’s Latest Moves Show It Cares More About Its Market Position Than Delivering Value to Its Users (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Craigslist is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to control its users’ classified ad listings. Last month, Craigslist sued 3Taps and Padmapper for scraping and repackaging its classified ads. Since then, it has extracted greater IP rights from its…