AP runs a story about “copyright oddities”–interesting historical materials on deposit with the Library of Congress. The oddities include items like a photo of a blood-stained program from Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot and a video of Henry…
By John Ottaviani James v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 04-2383 (7th Cir. 8/2/2005). This is not a technology case per se, unless scratch-off game cards that accompany french fry orders are considered “technology.” However, the contract principles that underlie this case…
The NY Times runs an interesting article about colleges rebranding themselves–which, in some cases, has dramatically improved their applicant metrics or other success metrics. For example, Arcadia University (formerly Beaver College–good choice to change the name!) doubled its applications. And…
Aharonian v. Gonzales, No. 04-05190-MHP (N.D. Ca.). This case got some press when it was first filed. The plaintiff’s basic contention is that it is unconstitutional for Congress to provide copyright protection for software. This is a pretty wacky claim,…
By John Ottaviani Professor David Post has an interesting article (free subscription required) in the August 3, 2005 issue of the National Law Journal, in which he reviews the “Sony doctrine” of secondary liability for copyright infringement. In Sony, the…
CLRB Hanson Industries LLC v. Google, Inc., Case No. 1-05-CV-046409 (Cal. Superior Ct. complaint filed August 3, 2005). Advertisers, including radio personality Howard Stern, have filed a new class-action lawsuit against Google for overcharging in AdWords. This represents the third…
Government Employees Insurance Co. v. Google, Inc., No. 1:04cv507 (E.D. Va. Aug. 8, 2005). Overview On December 15, 2004, Judge Brinkema made an oral ruling in this case and promised to produce a written opinion in “a brief amount of…
At the ABA Annual Meeting, I was on a panel with Rose Hagan of Google and Allison McDade of Dell. A couple of tidbits from the presentations that caught my attention: 1) Rose said that Google has now been sued…
By John Ottaviani Here are the slides from a presentation I gave Saturday on the “Implications of Grokster” at the American Bar Association meeting in Chicago. The more interesting part of the presentation is toward the end, discussing “what we…
The Century Lounge is a strip club located on Century Boulevard in LA right at the 405 freeway. Historically, it has advertised itself with a sign that says “Live Nude Nude Nudes” in earth toned psychedelia letters. Just about everyone…