By Eric Goldman Virtual Worlds * After a remarkable run as media darlings, Second Life is now experiencing some of the inevitable backlash. Case in point: Wired’s “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.” In this…
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * According to this study, up to 40% of search queries are “re-finding queries” (i.e., the searcher is trying to re-find previously viewed information). The implication: “Because people repeat queries so frequently, search engines should…
By Ethan Ackerman In June, privacy advocates generally celebrated the Sixth Circuit’s important 4th Amendment ruling in US. v. Warshak. But hot on its heels, the Ninth Circuit sobered the tone rather quickly in US. v. Alba, declining to find…
By Eric Goldman Douglas v. US District Court ex rel Talk America, No. 06-75424 (9th Cir. July 18, 2007) In this case, the plaintiff initially procured telephony services from AOL, which subsequently sold its telephony business to Talk America. Talk…
By Eric Goldman Burgess v. American Express Co., 2007 NCBC 15 (N.C. Superior Ct. May 21, 2007) David Fish points to an interesting new ruling on the subject of advertiser liability for pop-up advertising (I’m inferring that the pop-ups were…
By Eric Goldman The EFF, Lycos and I have filed an amicus brief in the Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com case urging the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc. See the EFF’s news release about the brief. Other…
By Eric Goldman Patent litigation is hot, but I rarely see much discussion about the fee agreements used by patent litigants. So I was very interested to hear Stephen Susman (from the well-known Susman Godfrey firm) speak at the May…
By Eric Goldman Parker v. Google, Inc., No. 06-3074 (3d Cir. July 10, 2007) Parker v. Google was one of the troika of district court opinions involving Google and copyright from Q1 2006 (along with the Perfect 10 and Field…
By Eric Goldman Phillips v. Google Inc., 3:2007-cv-01236 (N.D. Tex. complaint filed June 4, 2007; removed from state court July 11, 2007) By now, it seems that most defamation plaintiffs know about 47 USC 230 when suing online intermediaries based…
By Eric Goldman The Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley has submitted its response to Roommates.com’s request for an en banc rehearing by the Ninth Circuit. Other documents in the case: * Roommates.com’s En Banc Request * The original…