Liability for Labeling Software as Spyware
Ben Edelman’s latest research describes various efforts by software vendors to curtail characterizations of their software as spyware (or a synonym). These bigfoot letters often attempt to distort the information marketplace by forcing the removal of unflattering but potentially accurate…
Who Gets Indexed in Google News?
I still have no idea how Google decides which news sources are among the 4,500 indexed in Google News. Google News’ FAQ has the following: “What if I don’t see my favorite news source in Google News? We’re as shocked…
Utah Amends Spyware Control Act
Last week, the Utah governor signed HB 104, the amendment to Utah’s Spyware Control Act. The amendment is, in fact, a nearly complete rewrite of the prior law. I blogged on the proposed law last month, and since then further…
Utah Governor Signs HB 260
Not a surprise, but today the Utah governor signed HB 260, the ridiculous Internet service provider-as-filterer law. See my earlier critique (I think there are other objectionable aspects of the bill; I tried to control myself). Anyone want to make…
Batzel v. Smith Dismissal
Politech reports that Batzel v. Smith has been dismissed for procedural reasons. See multi-page TIFF here (I had problems viewing this with my browser–if anyone has a cleaner version, please advise). UPDATE: Evan Brown of InternetCases.com converted the TIFF to…
New 47 USC 230 case–Roskowski v. Corvallis Police Officers’ Association
Roskowski v. Corvallis Police Officers’ Association, 2005 WL 555398 (D. Ore. Mar. 9, 2005). Messy disputes between the former Corvallis Chief of Police and the police officer’s association. The Association set up a website to disseminate its gripes with the…
Copy of Marvel v. NCSoft Ruling
CE Petit has posted a copy of the court’s March 9 opinion in Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corporation (CV 04-9253-RGK). The opinion is rather unremarkable—mostly it deals with motions to dismiss, so the standard for upholding the pleadings is pretty…
Ruling in Marvel v. NCSoft
NCSoft has won some favorable rulings in its lawsuit with Marvel. Marvel sued NCSoft because users could use NCSoft’s software in its City of Heroes MMORPG to generate characters that looked like Marvel characters. From the news/press reports, it appears…
Another Dumb Utah Law
The Utah Legislature is at it again. (See my critique of their efforts to regulate spyware/provide some extra bucks for a few local companies at the expense of free competition). The Utah legislature has passed another sloppy and ill-conceived law…
More Amicus Briefs in MGM v. Grokster
Yesterday was the deadline for respondents’ briefs in MGM v. Grokster. So far, EFF’s website shows 18 amicus briefs filed in the case on respondents’ side, making for a total of 46 amicus briefs. I joined the brief drafted by…