The 4th Amendment in your inbox
By Ethan Ackerman While the 4th Amendment gets litigated more often than, say, the 10th Amendment, it is still rare when a court finds federal law unconstitutional for inadequately protecting a 4th Amendment interest in email’s privacy. Earlier this week,…
AutoAdmit Fiasco Turns Into a Lawsuit–Doe v. Ciolli
By Eric Goldman Doe v. Ciolli, 307CV00909 CFD (D. Conn. complaint filed June 11, 2007) AutoAdmit is a message board for law students and related groupies. It’s a relatively untamed corner of cyberspace. The site owners have espoused a relatively…
Steinbuch v. Culter Update: Cox Out, Cutler Bankrupt
By Eric Goldman Two updates in the always-interesting Steinbuch v. Cutler case. 1) Steinbuch v. Cutler, No. 05-970 (D.D.C. May 16, 2007). Ana Marie Cox, the Wonkette blogger–who was brought into the suit merely for linking to the allegedly tortious…
Judge Kozinski Talks About Cyberlaw
By Eric Goldman Last October, Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit chatted with me in my Cyberspace Law course for 75 minutes. If you listen to the recording, you’ll hear Judge Kozinski’s humorous thoughts on receiving gifts when he…
February 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman * The California Highway Patrol (which, for reasons unclear to me, has investigatory power here) has concluded that the Angelides campaign did not break any laws when they reverse-guessed URLs on Schwarzenegger’s website and found an unrestricted…
Steinbuch’s Second Battlefront Against Cutler Shut Down
By Eric Goldman Steinbuch v. Cutler, 2007 WL 486626 (E.D. Ark. Feb. 7, 2007) Everyone’s favorite blog law case, Steinbuch v. Cutler, spilled over to a second front. While the lawsuit over Cutler’s blog posts continues in DC, Steinbuch initiated…
Griping Blog Post Leads to Lawsuit–BidZirk v. Smith
By Eric Goldman BidZirk, LLC v. Smith, 2006 WL 3242333 (D.S.C. Nov. 7, 2006) Despite all of the hype about blog law, the reality is that we’ve had comparatively few blog-specific lawsuits. As a result, we give extra attention to…
Amazon’s Display of Book Cover Doesn’t Violate Publicity Rights—Almeida v. Amazon.com
By Eric Goldman Almeida v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2006 U.S. APP. LEXIS 17989 (11th Cir. July 18, 2006) Introduction Product photos on e-commerce websites’ product pages are a notorious liability trap. During my tenure at Epinions, product page photos were the…
Stay at Home Mom K’s Johnny Damon’s Right of Publicity Claim
By John Ottaviani Last week, ESPN.com reported yet another unsuccessful and ridiculous attempt to use trademark law to stifle negative commentary. According to the article, Ann Sylvia, a Massachusetts mother of two children, has operated an on-line store on eBay…
Ebates Sued for Trespass to Chattels–Sotelo v. Ebates
By Eric Goldman Sotelo v. Ebates Shopping.com, No. 06C-2531 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed May 5, 2006) The Collins Law Firm has filed a third class action lawsuit over adware, this time targeting Ebate’s Moe Money Maker client software. The complaint…