June 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Email * Spam cases are coming at a regular clip, and it’s tricky divining the latest state of the law. Two recent cases that caught my attention: – US v. Impulse Media Group, 2007 WL 1725560 (W.D….
May 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Spam * MySpace Inc. v. The Globe.com Inc., No. CV 06-3391 RGK (C.D. Cal. Feb. 27, 2007). This case has some personal interest because theglobe.com was one of my flagship clients before I left the law firm…
Pew 2007 Spam Survey
Pew has updated its periodic survey on user attitudes towards spam. Its conclusion: Spam continues to plague the internet as more Americans than ever say they are getting more spam than in the past. But while American internet users report…
Facebook’s Lawsuit Against Competitive Email Harvesting Continues–Facebook v. ConnectU
By Eric Goldman Facebook, Inc. v. ConnectU LLC, 2007 WL 1514783 (N.D. Cal. May 21, 2007) A universal truth of the digital era: a website displaying user email addresses will be targeted by email harvesters sweeping up those email addresses…
Utah’s “Don’t Email the Kids” Registry a “Financial Failure”
By Eric Goldman A couple of years ago, Utah and Michigan adopted laws creating “don’t email the kids” registries (called the “Child Protection Registry”–see Utah’s and Michigan’s). These laws allow parents to register email addresses held by kids and requires…
April 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman * Rebecca blogs on CollegeNET, Inc. v. XAP Corp., 2007 WL 927946 (D. Or. March 26, 2007), where a jury awarded $4.5M in damages under 43(a) because the defendant had a privacy policy saying it wouldn’t disclose…
When Congress Giveth, is the Dormant Commerce Clause Taken Away?–Free Speech Coalition v. Shurtleff
by Ethan Ackerman Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Shurtleff, 2:05CV949DAK (D. Utah March 23, 2007) Why do courts seem eager to use CAN-SPAM’s preemption language to give state email laws a free pass from the Dormant Commerce Clause? Utah’s courts…
Affiliate Spam Liability is Fact Question–US v. Cyberheat
By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Cyberheat, Inc., 2007 WL 686678 (D. Ariz. March 2, 2007) This case deals with one of the great unresolved Cyberlaw questions: when is an online advertiser liable for the downstream behavior of its media outlets?…
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…
Ezor on Email Blocklists
By Eric Goldman Jonthan Ezor has posted a short paper (10 pages + endnotes), Busting Blocks: Appropriate Legal Remedies For Wrongful Inclusion In Spam Filters Under U.S. Law, to SSRN. This article deals with thorny issues created by email blocklist…