“Must Carry” Lawsuit Against Search Engines–Langdon v. Google
By Eric Goldman Langdon v. Google, 1:06-cv-00319-JJF (D. Delaware complaint filed May 17, 2006) Omigosh, will these lawsuits over search engine editorial discretion ever cease? Earlier this week I reported on (yet another) lawsuit against Google for dropping a website…
Teenager Busted for Creating Fake “News” Story
By Eric Goldman It seems like every day there are new stories about teenagers doing stupid things online, but this story still struck me as interesting and unusual. The incident involves a website, Cheezus.com, that asks the user to submit…
Quick Links May 2006
By Eric Goldman My blogging queue has gotten too thick. Here’s some items that caught my attention that I’ve been meaning to blog and simply haven’t gotten to. * I previously blogged about Chris Wilson, the website operator who allowed…
Google Sued for Child Porn–Toback v. Google
By Eric Goldman Toback v. Google, Inc., No. 06-007246 (NY Sup. Ct. complaint filed May 4, 2006) Yet another legislator has seized the public microphone to grandstand about Internet threats. This time the lucky legislator is Jeffrey Toback, a member…
AP on Internet Porn Regulation
By Eric Goldman Associated Press runs a retrospective/status report on Congress’ battle against Internet porn. Believe it or not, this battle recently entered its second decade–Congress’ first effort, the Communications Decency Act, was passed in February 1996. After that law…
Congress Is Lovin’ the Internet…to Death?
By Eric Goldman Congress has an unresolved love-hate attitude towards the Internet. Through the 1990s, Congress frequently said that the Internet should be left alone from a regulatory standpoint. Indeed, in some cases, Congress affirmatively deregulated the Internet; 47 USC…
Blog Defamation Lawsuit Lacks Jurisdiction–TrafficPower.com v. Seobook.com
By Eric Goldman Software Development and Investment of Nevada d/b/a Traffic-Power.com v. Wall d/b/a Seobook.com, No. 2:05-cv-01109-RLH-LRL (D. Nev. motion to dismiss granted Feb. 13, 2006) I generally avoid blogging about Internet jurisdiction cases. They tend to be fact-specific, and…
Congress, Search Engines and China
By Eric Goldman OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS Dear Caucus members, Like you, I do not like the fact that search engines are helping China effectuate its repressive policies. However, I am confused why…
Adult Webmaster Criminally Prosecuted for User-Uploaded Photos
By Eric Goldman Chris Wilson runs a website called NowThatsFuckedUp.com (first page is office-safe; I didn’t look further!). The website describes itself as “an Amateur community for wife and girlfriend pictures,” and the photos contain graphic depictions of people engaged…
U.T. v. Longhornsingles.com Part 2 – state email filtering
This second post of a two-part posting continues looking at the 5th Circuit’s opinion in this unique case. The first post focused on the CAN-SPAM Act and how the court applied it in this case. This scond post will talk about 1st Amendment complications when a government agency or entity (in this case the University of Texas) adopts a filtering policy or blocks email.