Latest Junk Fax Lawsuit–Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications
By Eric Goldman Adler v. Vision Lab Telecommunications, Inc., 2005 WL 2621984 (D.D.C. Oct. 17, 2005). I’ve set up a Westlaw alert to notify me of new TCPA cases and I’m pretty shocked by the volume of cases being reported…
Adware Witchhunt Gone Awry
By Eric Goldman Ben Edelman’s latest “research report”/attack salvo goes after Claria because an ad promoting a Claria product was delivered via alleged spyware. To connect Claria with the “spyware” vendor, Ben traces the money as follows: Step 1: Claria…
Copyright Infringement for Bundling with P2P File Sharing Software?
By Eric Goldman Suzi of Spyware Confidential/Spyware Warrior relayed the following question to me: “Saw your recent posting on the Direct Revenue/KaZaA partnership. Many have praised this move despite the fact the Supreme Court has ruled that these P2P networks…
Menell on State Anti-Spyware Regulation
By Eric Goldman Peter Menell has posted his article “Regulating ‘Spyware’: The Limitations of State ‘Laboratories’ and the Case for Federal Preemption of State Unfair Competition Laws” to SSRN. This article thoroughly examines state-level unfair competition laws and how they…
1-800 Contacts Appeals 2nd Circuit WhenU Decision to the Supreme Court
By Eric Goldman 1-800 Contacts has appealed the 2nd Circuit decision in the WhenU case to the US Supreme Court. A copy of the petition (warning–5+ MB PDF file). As the brief states, the question presented is: “Does ‘use’ of…
Crawford on Spyware Regulation
By Eric Goldman Susan Crawford has posted her paper First do no Harm: The Problem of Spyware to SSRN. This is the paper associated with her talk at the Boalt conference on spyware in April. I read a draft of…
Second Anti-Adware Class Action Filed–Simios v. 180Solutions
By Eric Goldman Simios v. 180Solutions, Inc., No. 05C 5235 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Sept. 13, 2005). This complaint isn’t “new” news; Suzi blogged about it 10 days ago. This is the second anti-spyware class action lawsuit initiated by David…
Specht v. Netscape–What Happened After the 2nd Circuit Remand?
By Eric Goldman (with help from Matt Goeden) The Specht v. Netscape 2nd Circuit opinion is a modern classic. The case articulates a clean (and, in my opinion, sensible) rule about online contract formation. I think it’s a great teaching…
Downloading Software onto Home Computer May Be Trespass to Chattels–Sotelo v. DirectRevenue
Sotelo v. DirectRevenue LLC, No. 05 C 2562 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 29, 2005). It was pretty obvious when the complaint was filed in March that this lawsuit warranted careful scrutiny. This initial ruling reinforces that point. This ruling is interesting…
Alaska Governor Signs Anti-Adware Law
No surprise, but Gov. Murkowski signed SB 140 into law yesterday, enacting the most problematic anti-adware law to date. In signing the law, the governor said: “By signing this bill, I am sending a strong message that we will not…