Yahoo Wins Online Harassment Case Under 47 USC 230
By Eric Goldman Barnes v. Yahoo, 2005 WL 3005602 (D. Or. Nov. 8, 2005) Barnes claimed that her ex-boyfriend harassed her by creating Yahoo user profiles containing nude photos of her plus her contact info. Barnes also claimed that her…
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…
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…
Spitzer’s Witchhunt Nails Adware Executive Personally
By Eric Goldman In response to my post yesterday about adware witchhunts, a reader privately criticized me for analogizing the adware situation with manias where people’s lives were at stake. Ben Edelman made a similar point in his comment to…
Adware Witchhunt Gone Awry
By Eric Goldman Ben Edelman’s latest “research report”/attack salvo goes after Claria because an ad promoting a Claria product was delivered via alleged spyware. To connect Claria with the “spyware” vendor, Ben traces the money as follows: Step 1: Claria…
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…
Anti-Phishing Warning Protected by 47 USC 230
By Eric Goldman Associated Bank Corp. v. EarthLink, Inc., No. 05-C-0233-S (W.D. Wis. Sept. 13, 2005). [BNA subscription required] EarthLink’s “ScamBlocker” incorrectly identified Associated Bank’s website as a phishing site, so users trying to access the website saw a huge…
City of Heroes Lawsuit–New Ruling on False DMCA Takedown Notices
By Eric Goldman Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corp., CV 04-9253-RGK (C.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2005). Given the interest in this case, I’m surprised that this ruling appears to have been overlooked (I found it through BNA [subscription required]). In late…
Student Sues Term Paper Website (and its Host)
Macellari v. Carroll, no. 4:05-CV-04161-JPG (S.D. Ill. complaint filed Aug. 31, 2005). Blue Macellari, a student at Duke and Johns Hopkins, has sued a term paper vendor (Rusty Carroll/R2C2, Inc.) operating three websites (doingmyhomework.com, freeforessays.com and freefortermpapers.com) for copyright infringement,…