California’s Reader Privacy Act: A First Step in a New Direction (Guest Blog Post)
By Sonya Ziaja (with comments at the end from Eric) [Eric’s note: this guest post is from Sonya Ziaja, J.D., a California attorney and co-owner of Ziaja Consulting LLC. She writes regularly for LegalMatch’s Law Blog and Ziaja Consulting’s blog,…
Cease & Desist Letter to iTunes Isn’t Covered by 17 USC 512(f)–Red Rock v. UMG
By Eric Goldman Rock River Communications, Inc. v. Universal Music Group, Inc., 2011 WL 1598916 (C.D.Cal. April 27, 2011) We continue to get more cases telling us what 17 USC 512(f), the cause of action for bogus copyright takedown notices,…
Department of Commerce Releases Worthless Report on Trademark Bullying
By Eric Goldman Trademark Litigation Tactics and Federal Government Services to Protect Trademarks and Prevent Counterfeiting, April 2011. [For background, see my earlier blog post on trademark bullies. The term “bully” appears only 4 times in the report; as FN51…
Copyright Takedown Notice Isn’t Actionable Unless There’s an Actual Takedown–Amaretto v. Ozimals
By Eric Goldman Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc., 2011 WL 1753479 (N.D. Cal. April 22, 2011). My initial blog post on this case. The virtual horses and bunnies are back. This is the lawsuit between two vendors of…
Acknowledging Receipt of an Email Doesn’t Form a Contract–Stebbins v. Wal-Mart
By Eric Goldman Stebbins v. Wal-Mart Stores Arkansas, LLC, 2011 WL 1519390 (W.D. Ark. April 14, 2011). Lawsuits like these tend to be associated with repeat users of the judicial process; see the Justia Arkansas page for other lawsuits possibly…
Videos from the 47 USC 230 Conference Now Online
By Eric Goldman Without any pretense of modesty, I think we have put on a number of first-rate High Tech Law Institute events over the years. However, unquestionably, the post-event buzz from our recent conference on 47 USC 230 has…
Google Wins Lawsuit Over Unhappy Google Search Appliance Installation–Market America v. Google
By Eric Goldman Market America, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 1485616 (D. Del. April 19, 2011) I blogged about this case last year. Market America retained Google and its system integrator LTech to install a Google Search Appliance to…
Republishing Entire Newspaper Story is Fair Use–Righthaven v. CIO
By Eric Goldman Righthaven, LLC v. Jama, 2011 WL 1541613 (D. Nev. April 22, 2011). See my comprehensive blog post on Righthaven from October. [Note: A month ago, the judge orally dismissed the defendant in this case. Yesterday, the judge…
Blogger Gets 47 USC 230 Dismissal for Third Party Comment–Kruska v. Perverted Justice
By Eric Goldman Kruska v. Perverted Justice Foundation Inc., 2011 WL 1260224 (D. Ariz. April 5, 2011) This is my third time blogging this case. The latest ruling involves a blog, run by Brocious, for people fighting pedophiles. Someone (presumably…
Bulk Emailers (Mostly) Lose Three 47 USC 230(c)(2) Rulings–Holomaxx v. Microsoft/Yahoo & Smith v. TRUSTe
By Eric Goldman I’ve been so behind that it’s taken me until now to blog these cases from last month. All three opinions involve the same basic fact pattern: a bulk emailer gets blocked by an email service provider (relying…