Winn on Adware Contracts

By Eric Goldman The Berkeley Technology Law Journal has published Jane K. Winn, Contracting Spyware by Contract, 20 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1345 (2005), a follow-up to her presentation at the Boalt Spyware Conference in April 2005. Jane details the phenomenon…

Movable Type Upgrade and Liberalized Comments Policy

By Eric Goldman I’ve upgraded the blog to the new version of Movable Type with the comment spam filter that everyone is praising. So I’ll experiment again with allowing comments without a Typekey account. I hope the lower barrier to…

Parental Liability for Kids’ Copyright Infringement

By Eric Goldman Somehow I missed this excellent memo by EFF on parental liability for kids’ infringement, particularly in the context of RIAA music file-sharing lawsuits. The memo discusses the boundaries of parents’ liability for contributory and vicarious infringement. The…

Advertiser Not Liable for Spam–Hypertouch v. Kennedy-Western University

By Eric Goldman Hypertouch, Inc. v. Kennedy-Western University, No. 3:04-cv-05203-SI (N.D. Cal. Mar. 8, 2006) This is another in a series of CAN-SPAM lawsuits filed by Hypertouch, which apparently has entered the CAN-SPAM plaintiff business. I blogged on one of…

WSJ Debate on Advertiser Liability for Adware

By Eric Goldman Today, the Wall Street Journal published an email debate between me and Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology about advertiser responsibility for adware. Regular blog readers know that this has been a hot button…

AIT Click Fraud Lawsuit Stayed

By Eric Goldman Advanced Internet Technologies v. Google, 2006 WL 889477 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 5, 2006) AIT is the lead plaintiff who replaced Click Defense in a click fraud class action lawsuit. Last month, Google announced a tentative settlement of…

Database Publisher Gets 230 Defense–Prickett v. infoUSA

By Eric Goldman Prickett v. infoUSA, Inc., 2006 WL 887431 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 30, 2006) infoUSA publishes a variety of factual databases, including a directory of businesses. Among other data collection techniques, infoUSA permits anyone to submit directory listings through…

Goldman from Marquette to Santa Clara

By Eric Goldman Starting next academic year, I have accepted an appointment as an Assistant Professor and Director of the High Technology Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. The school’s news release. I have posted more details…

Calboli on Geographic Indications of Origin and TRIPs

By Eric Goldman My colleague Irene Calboli has posted “Expanding the Protection of Geographical Indications of Origin under TRIPS: Old Debate or New Opportunity?” to SSRN. This article does a good job recapping the different policy perspectives about GIs. The…

Keyword Purchases Not a Trademark Use–Merck v. Mediplan Health Consulting

By Eric Goldman Merck & Co. v. Mediplan Health Consulting, 2006 WL 800756 (SDNY Mar. 30, 2006) About a week after Edina Realty v. TheMLSonline allowed a keyword purchase of a competitor’s trademark to go to trial, we got another…