House Passes I-SPY Act
By Eric Goldman Internet Spyware (I-SPY) Prevention Act of 2007 (HR 1525) The House passed the I-SPY Act, sending it on to the Senate. This is the House’s third time passing anti-spyware legislation. The past two years, the House passed…
Court Upholds Student Suspension For YouTube Video of Teacher
By John Ottaviani Requa v. Kent School District No. 415, 2007 WL 1531670 (W.D. Wash. May 24, 2007). “The Court takes judicial notice that “booty” is a common slang term for buttocks.” High school students secretly take video footage of…
At the Intersection of Copyright and Contract
By John Ottaviani A long simmering debate among museums and other visual archivists is whether (and how) one can charge for digital images of works in a collection that may or may not be covered by copyright any longer. The…
Summary of Perfect 10 Decision
By John Ottaviani Eric suggested that I post this brief summary of the Perfect 10 v. Amazon decision: The 9th Circuit issued a lengthy opinion today, largely favorable to search engines and ISP’s. In 2006, the district court made its…
Messing with Oscar — Academy Sues Oscarwatch.com
By John Ottaviani Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences v. Stone, No. CV07-02846 RGK CA (C.D. Cal.)(complaint filed May 1, 2007) Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“AMPAS”), the organization that organizes the Academy Awards,…
New Discussion Draft of GPL3 is Posted
By John Ottaviani The Free Software Foundation posted draft 3 of GPL3 on its website today. The General Public License (GPL) is one of the most widely used open source licenses. Version 1 was released in 1981, and Version 2…
The End is Near – Bertelsmann Settles EMI Claims Over Napster
By John Ottaviani Various sources are reporting that EMI has agreed to settle its copyright infringement lawsuit against Bertelsmann AG related to Bertelsmann’s investment in Napster. The settlement removes the last large record label with claims against Bertelsmann in the…
Can A Spider Enter Into A Binding Contract?–Internet Archive v. Shell
By John Ottaviani Can a spider enter into a binding contract when the terms and conditions on the website declare that copying or distributing anything on the site indicates an agreement to or acceptance of terms, and the spider copies…
MySpace Suit for Liability for Sexual Assault Dismissed
By John Ottaviani Doe v. MySpace, Inc., No. A-06-CA983-SS (W.D. Tex. 2/13/2007). “If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.” (Sparks, J.) This is a HUGE win for MySpace! Plaintiff’s negligence and gross…
Top Cyberlaw Developments for 2006 – Part 2
By John Ottaviani (Eric Goldman is away until the New Year. He left me the keys to the blog. I warned him that this may be like leaving the teenagers the keys to the house when the parents go away…