Oracle and Google Make Unenlightening Disclosures of their “Shills”

By Eric Goldman In Oracle v. Google, Judge Alsup recently ordered the parties to: [f]ile a statement . . . identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in the case and who…

Six-Month Retrospective of SOPA’s Demise [Forbes Cross-Post, A Month Late!] + SOPA/PROTECT-IP/OPEN Linkwrap #3

By Eric Goldman [This post is composed of three parts. The first part, all 2,700 words of it, is a cross-post from Forbes last month assessing where we stood 6 months after January 18, 2012. Sorry it’s taken me so…

No Liability for Takedown Notice that Results in Termination of Facebook Page — Lown Cos. v. Piggy Paint

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Lown Companies v. Piggy Paint, LLC, 1:11-cv-911 (W.D. Mich.; Aug. 9, 2012) Lown and Piggy Paint are squabbling over “piggy paint” trademarks. Lown has a registration for “PIGGY POLISH,” and alleges that…

Breastfeeding Mom Can Sue Video Producer Despite Signing a Blanket Release–Sahoury v. Meredith

By Eric Goldman Sahoury v. Meredith Corp., 2:11-cv-05180-KSH-PS (D. N.J. Aug. 2, 2012) Sahoury consented to being video-recorded while breastfeeding for inclusion in an instructional video. She claims that the video producers orally agreed to two conditions: (1) the instructional…

Craigslist’s Latest Moves Show It Cares More About Its Market Position Than Delivering Value to Its Users (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman Craigslist is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to control its users’ classified ad listings. Last month, Craigslist sued 3Taps and Padmapper for scraping and repackaging its classified ads.   Since then, it has extracted greater IP rights from its…

EA Faces Uphill Battle in Its Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Zynga (Partial Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman [Eric’s note: I am still experimenting with how to write for different audiences. Below is the first draft of a post I wrote for my Forbes Tertium Quid blog. You’ll see it’s written for a lay audience,…

Now Available: My Internet Law Syllabus and Reader for Fall 2012

By Eric Goldman I posted my syllabus and my course reader (a $7.50 download at Gumroad) for Fall 2012. If you teach Internet Law (or hope to), email me if you’d like a free copy of the reader plus my…

The Newest Olympic Sport: Evasion of Geolocation (Guest Blog Post)

By Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble The Olympic Games can be credited for spreading awareness about and generating excitement for sports that might otherwise be unknown in various parts of the world. The global promotion of sports is one of the…

Video Embedding Site Isn’t a Contributory Copyright Infringer, But Sideloading Could Be Direct Infringement–Flava Works v. myVidster

By Eric Goldman Flava Works, Inc. v. Gunter, No. 11-3190 (7th Cir. Aug. 2, 2012). Prior blog post on district court ruling. myVidster is a “social bookmarking” website that allows users to link to videos hosted elsewhere on the Internet…

P2P Infringement Lawyer Faces Possible Sanctions For Disregarding Court Order Regarding Subpoenas – In re: Bittorrent Adult Film Copyright Infringement Cases

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re: Bittorrent Adult Film Copyright Infringement Cases, 12-1147(JS)(GRG) and 12-1154(ADS)(GRB) (E.D.N.Y.; July 31, 2012) P2P lawyers have come under a lot of fire lately for their tactics. As detailed here by Ars, the Fifth Circuit…