I Don’t Heart SOPA or PROTECT-IP: A Linkwrap
By Eric Goldman Venkat and I have been covering SOPA and related topics. In case you missed our posts: * Why I Oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/E-PARASITES Act * Court OKs Private Seizure of Domain Names Which Allegedly…
Ad Network Avoids Contributory Copyright Infringement for Serving Ads to a Rogue Website–Elsevier v. Chitika
By Eric Goldman with comments from Venkat Elsevier, Ltd. v. Chitika, Inc., 2011 WL 6008975 (D. Mass. Dec. 2, 2011). Chitika’s brief supporting its motion for judgment on the pleadings. Elsevier’s opposition. Chitika’s proposed reply brief. As Venkat recently indicated,…
Spiritual Group’s Attempt to Unmask Online Critics Goes South–Art of Living Foundation v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Art of Living Foundation v. Does, 10-cv-05022-LHK (N.D. Ca.; Nov. 9, 2011) Art of Living Foundation is an organization based in India that is dedicated to teaching the spiritual lessons of “His Holiness Ravi Shankar.” Defendants…
Dangerous Copyright Office Proposal to Undercut the DMCA Online Safe Harbors
By Eric Goldman In light of SOPA and its capacity to destroy the current online safe harbor scheme, it seems almost quaint to keep worrying about 17 USC 512. However, unless SOPA/PROTECT-IP passes, 512 remains an essential part of the…
Can A Copyright Be Assigned By Email?–Hermosilla v. Coca-Cola
By John Ottaviani with comments from Venkat and Eric Vergara Hermosilla v. The Coca Cola Company, No. 11-11317 (11th Cir. Nov. 3, 2011). Can a copyright be assigned by an exchange of emails? Section 204(a) of the Copyright Act provides…
Why I Oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/E-PARASITES Act
By Eric Goldman [Note: I’ve been working on this post for about 2 weeks, so my apologies if my comments are duplicative of the intervening discussion about the bill] The DMCA online safe harbors have worked pretty well over the…
Good News/Bad News About the Number of Blogs Eligible for the 17 USC 512 Safe Harbor
By Eric Goldman My 2006 article about blog law included the following passage (footnotes omitted): few blogs satisfy the numerous technical prerequisites for § 512 eligibility, such as registering their websites with the U.S. Copyright Office. To assess this, on…
October 2011 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Copyright * MUST READ from Techdirt: MPAA Helped Police Seize ‘Pirated’ DVDs That Were Actually Fully Authorized. On the topic of errors in determining copyright infringement, the incident a powerful reminder both that even those “in the…
Righthaven Hit With Another Fee/Cost Award, This Time Nearly $120k–Righthaven v. DiBiase
By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. DiBiase, 2011 WL 5101938 (D. Nev. Oct. 26, 2011) There’s really not much to say about this one. In a brief opinion that speaks for itself, Judge Hunt awarded nearly $120,000 in attorneys’ fees…
Ex-Employee Converted Social Media/Website Passwords by Keeping Them From Her Employer–Ardis Health v. Nankivell
[Post by Venkat, with comments from Eric] Ardis Health, LLC, Curb Your Cravings, LLC and USA Herbals, LLC v. Ashleigh Nankivell, 2011 WL 4965172 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 19, 2011) Nenkivell worked for CYC as a “video and social media producer.” Her…