College Course Description Aggregator Loses First Round in Fight Against Competitor in Scraping Case — CollegeSource v. AcademyOne

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] CollegeSource, Inc. v. AcademyOne, Inc., 10-3542 (E.D. Pa.; Apr. 22, 2011) This is a scraping case between CollegeSource and its competitor AcademyOne. It looks like it’s part of a long running dispute…

Another Ruling that the Americans with Disabilities Act Doesn’t Apply to Websites–Ouellette v. Viacom

By Eric Goldman Ouellette v. Viacom: The magistrate report: 2011 WL 1882780 (D. Mont. March 31, 2011). The judge’s approval of the magistrate’s report: 2011 WL 1883190 (D. Mont. May 17, 2011). The original complaint (he filed an amended complaint…

Thoughts on the Lawsuit Over the @OMGFacts Twitter Account — Deck v. Spartz, Inc.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Deck v. Spartz, Inc., 2:11-cv-01123-JAM-DAD (E.D. Ca.; Apr. 26, 2011) (Complaint) (Agreement) An Associated Press story reports on the lawsuit over the @OMGFacts Twitter account. (Here’s a link to the story with comments from Professor Goldman.)…

Twitpic Modifies Terms and Claims Exclusive Rights to Distribute Photos Uploaded to Twitpic

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] I posted about the dispute between a photographer and Agence France-Presse over images AFP allegedly downloaded via Twitpic and used without permission. AFP argued that the license terms of Twitter or Twitpic authorized its use of…

Another Defense-Favorable Righthaven Ruling–Righthaven v. Choudhry

By Eric Goldman Righthaven v. Choudhry, 2011 WL 1743839 (D. Nev. May 3, 2011) This lawsuit involves the “Vdara Death-Ray” image published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which has been the basis of numerous Righthaven lawsuits. In this case, Choudhry…

Cease & Desist Letter to iTunes Isn’t Covered by 17 USC 512(f)–Red Rock v. UMG

By Eric Goldman Rock River Communications, Inc. v. Universal Music Group, Inc., 2011 WL 1598916 (C.D.Cal. April 27, 2011) We continue to get more cases telling us what 17 USC 512(f), the cause of action for bogus copyright takedown notices,…

Copyright Takedown Notice Isn’t Actionable Unless There’s an Actual Takedown–Amaretto v. Ozimals

By Eric Goldman Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc., 2011 WL 1753479 (N.D. Cal. April 22, 2011). My initial blog post on this case. The virtual horses and bunnies are back. This is the lawsuit between two vendors of…

Republishing Entire Newspaper Story is Fair Use–Righthaven v. CIO

By Eric Goldman Righthaven, LLC v. Jama, 2011 WL 1541613 (D. Nev. April 22, 2011). See my comprehensive blog post on Righthaven from October. [Note: A month ago, the judge orally dismissed the defendant in this case. Yesterday, the judge…

YouTube and its Amici File Their Briefs in the Viacom v. YouTube Appeal

By Eric Goldman I’m catching up with the YouTube-side briefs in the Viacom v. YouTube appeal. (See my analogous post on the Viacom-side briefs). Once again, Michael Barclay has been kind enough to organize the briefs into a single post….

Announcing DoctoredReviews.com, a Website Against Doctors’ Efforts to Squelch Online Patient Reviews

By Eric Goldman I’m pleased to announce the launch of DoctoredReviews.com, a website that addresses Medical Justice’s form contract that seeks to restrict patients’ online reviews of doctors by taking a prospective copyright assignment in the patients’ unwritten reviews. Medical…