By Eric Goldman Flava Works, Inc. v. Gunter, No. 11-3190 (7th Cir. Aug. 2, 2012). Prior blog post on district court ruling. myVidster is a “social bookmarking” website that allows users to link to videos hosted elsewhere on the Internet…
By Eric Goldman [Note: this post is intended for readers who teach the IP Survey course or related courses. If that’s not you, you might want to skip this post.] I’m sure many of you are aware of the Georgetown…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re: Bittorrent Adult Film Copyright Infringement Cases, 12-1147(JS)(GRG) and 12-1154(ADS)(GRB) (E.D.N.Y.; July 31, 2012) P2P lawyers have come under a lot of fire lately for their tactics. As detailed here by Ars, the Fifth Circuit…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] State v. Melchert-Dinkel, A11-0987 (Minn. Ct. App.; July 17, 2012) The State of Minnesota prosecuted a Minnesota nurse for engaging in Internet conversations with people who were contemplating suicide. The individuals who…
By Eric Goldman [I’ve added some bonus content to the end of this Forbes cross-post] In 1996, Congress enacted a powerful statutory immunity for user-generated content, located at 47 U.S.C. 230 (“Section 230”). Section 230 says that websites aren’t liable…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] WEC Carolina Energy Solutions LLC v. Miller, et al., 2012 WL 3039213 (4th Cir.; July 26, 2012) We’ve blogged about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act being stretched by plaintiffs in civil…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Thomas v. Taco Bell Corp., SACV 09-01097-CJC(ANx) (C.D. Cal.; June 25, 2012) Thomas allegedly received unauthorized text messages as part of an advertising campaign for Taco Bell’s Nachos BellGrande (“[a] large platter…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Klumb v. Goan, 09-cv-115 (E.D. Tenn.; July 19, 2012) Klumb, described by the court as “a wealthy man,” met and married Crystal Goan, a law student who later became a lawyer. As the court describes it,…
By Eric Goldman David v. CBS Interactive Inc., CV 11-9437 DSF (C.D. Cal. July 13, 2012). The complaint. When the Grokster Supreme Court opinion came out in 2005, there was a lot of confusion about the relationship between copyright “inducement”…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Low v. LinkedIn, 11-CV-01468-LHK (N.D. Cal.; July 12, 2012) This case involves the fact that LinkedIn put users’ unique identifiers into its URLs, allowing advertisers (and others) to associate that unique identifier with users–and, potentially, access…