Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 4

By Eric Goldman Blogs and Boards * Reuters on the wild-and-wooly world of investor message boards. * KingCast.net v. Friends of Kelly Ayotte, 2010 WL 4683829 (D.N.H. Nov. 2, 2010). Blogger’s unsuccessful lawsuit to gain mandatory access to a candidate’s…

Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Proposal of Class Notice via Twitter, SMS, and Email — Jermyn v. Best Buy

[Post by Venkat] Jermyn v. Best Buy, No. 08-Cv-00214-CM-DCF (S.D.N.Y.; Dec. 06, 2010) Plaintiffs brought a class action against Best Buy alleging that Best Buy failed to honor its price-match guarantee. The court certified the class with respect to New…

Amazon Isn’t Liable for Rogue Affiliate’s Keyword Ad Buys–Sellify v. Amazon

By Eric Goldman Sellify Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2010 WL 4455830 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 4, 2010). The initial complaint. Christopher Maki runs Sellify, which in turn runs a website/eBay store called OneQuality.com. An Amazon affiliate, “Cutting Edge Designs,” purchased the keywords…

October 2010 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Copyright * Greg Sandoval discusses copyright trolls with Cindy Cohn. You may recall I had an “interview” with Cindy as a guest lecture in my Internet Law course. And a belated congratulations to Cindy for her recognition…

Auction Platform Protected by 47 USC 230 for a Rogue Auction–Simmons v. Danhauer

By Eric Goldman Simmons v. Danhauer & Associates, LLC, 2010 WL 4238856 (D. S.C. Oct. 21, 2010) Proxibid provides an online auction platform similar to eBay, except that Proxibid vets auctioneers before they can conduct an auction. Danhauer used Proxibid’s…

First Sale and Exhaustion Doctrines in IP Conference, Nov. 5, SCU

By Eric Goldman I’ve mentioned our First Sale and Exhaustion in IP conference before, but now it’s less than 3 weeks away. If you were thinking about coming, now is a good time to confirm your spot. As regular readers…

Class Action for Misleading Pop-up Ads Against McAfee Survives Motion to Dismiss — Ferrington v. McAfee

[Post by Venkat] Ferrington v. McAfee, Case No. 10-cv-01455-LHK (N.D. Cal. Oct. 5, 2010) There have been a few rulings involving class actions from customers alleging that an online merchant partnered with a third party who improperly piggybacked on to…

Washington Anti-Online Gambling Law Survives Dormant Commerce Clause Challenge — Rousso v. State

[Post by Venkat, with brief comments from Eric] Rousso v. Washington, Case No. 8040-1 (Wash. S.Ct. Sept. 23, 2010) Professor Goldman blogged recently about a case from the Washington state Supreme Court interpreting the state’s online gambling laws: “P2P Gambling…

Fifth Circuit Blesses Vistaprint’s Rewards Program Sign-Up Process — Bott v. Vistaprint USA Inc.

[Post by Venkat] Bott v. Vistaprint USA Inc., No. 09-20648 (5th Cir.; Aug. 23, 2010). I recently blogged about an online rewards program class action which survived a motion to dismiss. (In re: Easysaver Rewards Litigation: “Internet Rewards Program Class…

Online Ticket Resellers Get Significant 47 USC 230 Win–Milgram v. Orbitz

By Eric Goldman Milgram v. Orbitz Worldwide, LLC, ESX-C-142-09 (N.J. Super. Ct. Aug. 26, 2010) Introduction It’s been a relatively quiet year for 47 USC 230, in a good way. We’ve had a few minor aberrational rulings (Subway v. Quiznos,…