Yelp Beats “Implied Extortion”/”Pay-to-Play” Lawsuit in Round #1–Levitt v. Yelp
By Eric Goldman Levitt v. Yelp, 3:10-cv-01321-MHP (N.D. Cal. Mar. 22, 2011). See the motion to dismiss, the opposition and the reply. This ruling deals with the Second Amended Complaint. Levitt’s initial complaint. Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital’s first amended…
Photo Hosting Site Gets DMCA 512 Safe Harbor–Wolk v. Photobucket
By Eric Goldman Wolk v. Kodak Imaging Network, Inc., 2011 WL 940056 (S.D.N.Y. March 17, 2011) Wolk (is this her?) is a visual artist whose work was allegedly infringed on Photobucket. She sent some 512(c)(3) takedown notices to Photobucket, which…
Judge Rader Talk Recap
By Eric Goldman Last week, we had Chief Judge Rader of the Federal Circuit on campus for a lunchtime talk to a capacity crowd. Judge Rader is always an entertaining speaker, and he is typically more willing to publicly discuss…
Ninth Circuit Upholds Anti-SLAPP Ruling for Blogger/Griper–Sedgwick v. Delsman
By Eric Goldman Sedgwick Claims Management Services v. Delsman, 09-16809 (9th Cir. March 21, 2011). Delsman is a blogging griper about Sedgwick. He made some griping material that included cut-and-pasted headshots of Sedgwick’s managers. Sedgwick sued Delsman aggressively. Delsman got…
47 USC 230 Retrospective Conference Recap
By Eric Goldman Earlier this month, we had a major academic event on 47 USC 230. My notes are especially incomplete because I had lots of administrative duties that day. I didn’t get any usable notes from the introductory sessions…
Jury Awards Damages Against Web Designer/SEO/Host on Contributory Trademark Infringement Theory–Roger Cleveland v. Prince
By Eric Goldman Roger Cleveland Golf Co. v. Prince, 2:09-cv-02119-MBS (D.S.C. jury verdict March 10, 2011 and judgment March 14, 2011). See also the jury instructions. I blogged about this case back in December. That ruling was a puzzling head-scratcher…
How 47 USC 230 Improves Marketplace Efficiency
By Eric Goldman I have been working on a draft article currently titled “In Defense of 47 USC 230” (I’m probably going to change the name). As part of our 15 year retrospective of 47 USC 230, I presented a…
Google Not Liable for Suggested Vanity Searches–Stayart v. Google
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 855316 (E.D. Wis. March 8, 2011) Beverly Stayart (a/k/a Bev Stayart) has graced these pages so many times, I feel a little silly recapping her story yet again. The short story…
Important Ninth Circuit Ruling on Keyword Advertising, Plus Recaps of the Past 4 Months of Keyword Ad Decisions
By Eric Goldman Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced System Concepts, Inc., 2011 WL 815806 (9th Cir. March 8, 2011) [warning: this blog post is nearly 5,000 words] Introduction We’ve had surprisingly few appellate decisions involving keyword advertising generally, and almost…
Stanford Technology Law Review Symposium on Secondary IP Liability
By Eric Goldman Last week we had a cyberlaw-fiesta in the Silicon Valley, the likes of which have been rarely (if ever) seen before. The Stanford Technology Law Review hosted a symposium on Thursday on Internet intermediary liability, then we…