September 2010 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Contracts * Hutchison v. Yahoo, 2010 WL 3706571 (9th Cir. Sept 20, 2010). AT&T’s early termination fee wasn’t a penalty, even as applied to a termination with only 2 weeks of service left. * Evan Brown: Software…
Tip for Clean Living: Don’t Use a 14 Year Old’s Self-Portrait in Advertising for Porn–Lara Jade Coton v. TVX
By Eric Goldman Coton v. Televised Visual X-ography, Inc., 2010 WL 3768039 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 16, 2010). The initial complaint. Lara Jade’s blog post on the court victory. Comprehensive recap from Plagiarism Today, who has been tracking the case all…
Anti-Scraping Lawsuit Largely Gutted–Cvent v. Eventbrite
By Eric Goldman Cvent, Inc. v. Eventbrite, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96354 (E.D. Va. Sept. 14, 2010). Given the amount of scraping taking place every day all over the web, scraping lawsuits are surprisingly infrequent. In this ruling, a…
Software Vendor Trumps First Sale Doctrine via License–Vernor v. Autodesk
[Post by Venkat, with some comments from Eric below] Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc., Case No. 09-35969 (9th Cir. Sept. 10, 2010) [pdf]. The Ninth Circuit last week issued an opinion in one of the two cases addressing whether a transaction…
July-August 2010 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman IP * As expected, Rosetta Stone appealed its trademark loss against Google. My previous blog post. * Reality Blurred successfully counternoticed to overcome CBS’s DMCA takedown notice for the Survivor contract/rule book. * Doctor’s Associates, Inc. v….
Google Avoids Liability for Failed Google Search Appliance Installation–Market America v. Google
By Eric Goldman Market America, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 2010 WL 3156044 (D. Del. Aug. 9, 2010) This lawsuit comes from an unhappy Google Search Appliance (GSA) customer, Market America, who (like many unhappy systems purchasers) claims that Google and…
Baidu Can Maintain Negligence Claims Against Register.com for Lax Security Practices Which Allegedly Facilitated Cyber-Attack – Baidu v. Register.com
[Post by Venkat] Baidu, Inc. v. Register.com, Inc., Case no. 10 Civ. 444 (DC) (S.D.N.Y.) (July 22, 2010). Background: Baidu registered the domain name with Register.com, a domain name registrar, which provided Baidu with “Internet traffic routing services.” A third…
E-SIGN Prevents Enforcement of Emailed Contract Terms–Buckles v. Investordigs
By John Ottaviani Buckles Management, LLC v. Investordigs, LLC, No. 10-cv-00508-LTB-BNB (D. Colo. July 23, 2010). It has been about 10 years now since Congress adopted the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (commonly known as “E-Sign”)….
Judge Denies Facebook’s Request for Judgment on the Pleadings and Strikes Power.com Counterclaims — Facebook v. Power.com
[Post by Venkat, with additional comments by Eric] Facebook v. Power Ventures, Inc., Case No. C 08-05780 (N.D. Cal. July 20, 2010) Background: Facebook and Power Ventures (Power.com) have been locked in a battle over whether Power.com should be allowed…
eBay Venue Selection Clause Upheld in Texas
By Eric Goldman In re eBay, Inc., 2010 WL 2695803 (Tex. App. Ct. July 8, 2010) In Comb v. PayPal, 218 F. Supp. 2d 1165 (N.D. Cal. 2002), PayPal defended a putative class action by invoking the arbitration clause in…