Microsoft Will Be an Adware Vendor
By Eric Goldman Microsoft is considering migrating some of its software titles to an ad-supported model instead of a consumer licensing fee model. This isn’t exactly a new idea–this development has been anticipated for at least a decade. However, if…
DMCA Online Safe Harbor Empirical Study by Urban and Quilter
By Eric Goldman Jennifer Urban of USC and Laura Quilter have released a working report entitled “Efficient Process or “Chilling Effects”? Takedown Notices Under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” To my knowledge, this is the first empirical…
Gonzales Seeks Harsher Criminal Copyright Infringement Standards
By Eric Goldman CNET reports that Atty. Gen. Gonzales has proposed new amendments to criminal copyright infringement, including: * criminalizing the “attempt” to infringe * requiring criminal defendants to pay “other victims of the offense” in addition to the copyright…
Amazon Pages and Google Library’s Fair Use Defense
By Eric Goldman I’m intrigued by Amazon’s and Random House’s introduction of a pay-per-book-page feature (Amazon is calling its feature “Amazon Pages”). From a legal standpoint, I wonder: will this announcement have any effect on Google’s fair use arguments for…
Is Sony’s DRM Spyware?
By Eric Goldman Sony’s DRM software generated lots of discussion and new information since my last post on the subject. The discussion (especially the many great comments I got in response to my previous post) has prompted me to change…
Search Engine Indexing Case–Newborn v. Yahoo
By Eric Goldman Newborn v. Yahoo, Inc., 2005 WL 2416336 (DDC Sept. 27, 2005) We got a new case on search engine liability for indexing content. The importance of the topic makes the case blog-worthy, even though this particular case…
Sony, DRM and Trespass to Chattels
By Eric Goldman A minor storm is brewing over Sony’s installation of DRM software on users’ computers when they play Sony’s CDs. Sony’s software is installed as a “rootkit,” a difficult-to-remove installation, and it supports Sony’s DRM, which really irritates…
Can Kids Bind Parents to EULAs?
By Eric Goldman Abramson v. America Online, 2005 US Dist. LEXIS 10095 (N.D. Tex. May 25, 2005). One of the great unresolved issues in Cyberlaw: if a kid downloads P2P file sharing software, are the parents responsible? This issue is…
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…
Amazon Not Liable for User Book Reviews–Hammer v. Amazon
By Eric Goldman Hammer v. Amazon.com, 2005 WL 2467046 (EDNY Sept. 27, 2005) This is a continuation of Hammer v. Trendl, 2003 WL 2146686 (EDNY Jan. 18, 2003). Hammer is a self-published author of handwriting analysis books. He had a…