Podcasts

Video: This Week in Law Episode 56

Posted on April 17, 2010
Recording today’s episode of This Week in Law was super fun. I enjoyed the conversation with Denise Howell, Carolyn Wright and Merlin Mann. Neato discussion about copyright, Twitter, Creative Commons and other awesome stuff. And you can even hear Denise rap at about the 47 minute mark...

How Twitter?s grant to the Library of Congress could be copyright-okay

Posted on April 15, 2010
Twitter is giving a copy of the archive of all tweets from the beginning of time to the Library of Congress. The inevitable outrage has ensued. One big concern is privacy. You gotta admit it’s creepy (and evokes Big Brother) to know that all your tweets will belong to the feds...

UDRP loser did not commit fraud on USPTO by saying it was exclusive user of mark

Posted on April 15, 2010
Salu, Inc. v. Original Skin Store, Slip Copy, 2010 WL 1444617 (E.D.Cal. April 12, 2010) This is kind of a wonky trademark/domain name case. So if that’s not in your wheelhouse, don’t strain yourself. Plaintiff sued defendant for infringement of plaintiff’s registered trademark...

Wife posts pics with boyfriend on MySpace, loses child custody

Posted on April 12, 2010
And you should have heard what the judge said in open court! Lipps v. Lipps, 2010 Ark. App. 295, 2010 WL 1379803 (Ark. App. April 7, 2010). [Read the opinion] This is one of those cases that’d do well as a movie on Lifetime Television for Women...

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Nefarious LinkedIn use finally makes it to the courts

Posted on April 05, 2010
TEKsystems, Inc. v. Hammernick, No. 10-99819 (D. Minn., Filed 3/16/2010). [Link to Complaint (PDF)] Here is an interesting lawsuit that is bound to convince some employers that social media is causing the sky to fall (to the extent they’re not thinking that already)...

Emails sent through Yahoo account using work computer protected under attorney-client privilege

Posted on March 31, 2010
The New Jersey supreme court has held that emails an employee sent to her lawyer using her company-issued computer and a personal Yahoo account are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., — A.2d —, 2010 WL 1189458 (N...

Kentucky Supreme Court: gambling domain names did not have standing

Posted on March 23, 2010
Com. ex rel. Brown v. Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Ass’n, Inc., — S.W.3d —, 2010 WL 997104 (Ky. March 18, 2010) Back in 2008 the Commonwealth of Kentucky took an extraordinary step in its battle against online gambling...

Anonymous sender of beer pong email gets to remain unknown

Posted on March 20, 2010
A.Z. v. Doe, 2010 WL 816647 (N.J. Super. App. Div. March 8, 2010) Even if you do just a cursory review of cases that deal with online anonymity, you are bound to come across a 2001 New Jersey case called Dendrite v. Doe. That case sets out a four part analysis a court should undertake [...

Supreme Court clarifies basis for why copyright suits over unregistered works should be dismissed

Posted on March 03, 2010
Image via Wikipedia Supreme Court overturns Second Circuit, holding that a copyright plaintiff’s failure to register the work before filing suit does not deprive the court of subject matter jurisdiction. Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, Slip. Op., 559 U...

Forwarder of defamatory email protected under Section 230

Posted on February 28, 2010
Hung Tan Phan v. Lang Van Pham, — Cal.Rptr.3d —, 2010 WL 658244 (Cal.App. 4 Dist. Feb. 25, 2010) Defendant, a veteran of the Vietnamese military, forwarded an email to some other Vietmamese veterans which apparently defamed another veteran...

File extensions cannot be trademarks

Posted on January 28, 2010
Autodesk, Inc. v. Dassault Systemes Solidworks Corp., 2009 WL 5218009 (N.D. Cal. December 31, 2009) One of the issues in the case of Autodesk, Inc. v. Dassault Systemes Solidworks was whether Autodesk could claim trademark rights and the letters “DWG”...

Wait just a second . . . isn?t online gambling illegal?

Posted on January 26, 2010
Wong v. Partygaming Ltd., — F.3d —, 2009 WL 4893955 (6th Cir. December 21, 2009) The Sixth Circuit’s recent opinion in the case of Wong v. Partygaming is interesting if you’re a civil procedure wonk and care about things like which law applies to determine the enforceability of forum selection clauses in website terms and conditions [...

Lawsuit against state officials for privacy violation moves forward

Posted on January 21, 2010
Welch v. Theodorides-Bustle, — F.Supp.2d —, 2010 WL 22365 (N.D. Fla., January 5, 2010) Plaintiff sued the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and a number of state officials for violation of the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, 18 USC §2721-25...

Court orders anonymous GQ blogger and accused hacker to be identified

Posted on January 19, 2010
Advance Magazine Publishers v. Does 1-5, No. 09-10257 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 22, 2009) Someone accessing the Internet using an AT&T IP address hacked into Conde Nast’s computer system and acquired and published copies of editorial content and the images that were to be in the December 2009 issue of GQ...

BitTorrent site liable for Grokster style inducement of copyright infringement

Posted on January 14, 2010
Columbia Pictures v. Fung, No. 06-5578 (C.D. Cal. December 21, 2009). This case came out three weeks ago, but it’s pretty significant and hasn’t gotten the coverage and analysis it deserves. Of course Professor Goldman covered it in a timely manner...

Injunction against defamatory content could not reach website owner

Posted on January 07, 2010
Blockowicz v. Williams, — F.Supp.2d —, 2009 WL 4929111 (N.D. Ill. December 21, 2009) (This is a case from last month that has already gotten some attention in the legal blogosphere, and is worth reporting on here in spite of the already-existing commentary...

Browsewrap website terms and conditions enforceable

Posted on January 05, 2010
Major v. McAllister, — S.W.3d —, 2009 WL 4959941 (Mo. App. December 23, 2009) The Missouri Court of Appeals has issued an opinion that reflects a realistic grasp of how people use the web, and also serves as a definitive nod to self-responsibility...

Some thoughts on jurors doing internet research ? keep the process clamped down

Posted on January 02, 2010
People v. Carmichael, — N.Y.S.2d —, 2009 WL 5126920, (N.Y.A.D. 4 Dept., Dec 30, 2009) A recent decision from a New York appellate court gives us occasion to think about the problem of jurors doing web research to find information relating to the case...

Website drives off with Section 230 win over Chevy dealer

Posted on December 31, 2009
Nemet Chevrolet sued the website Consumeraffairs.com over some posts on that website which Nemet thought were defamatory and interfered with Nemet’s business expectancy. The website moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the Communications Decency Act at 47 U...

Court denies motion to dismiss AdWords trademark infringement case

Posted on December 09, 2009
FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. Les Parfums, Inc., — F.Supp.2d —, 2009 WL 4609268 (E.D.N.Y. December 8, 2009) FragranceNet.com sells perfume online. It sued several of its competitors, claiming trademark infringement and other causes of action like unfair competition and unjust enrichment, over the defendants’ alleged purchase of variations of the term “fragrancenet” to trigger sponsored links on [...

Death scene photos posted on the web did not subject coroner to liability

Posted on November 05, 2009
Werner v. County of Northampton, 2009 WL 3471188 (3rd Cir. October 29, 2009) (Not selected for official publication). Plaintiff’s son died in the family home. No one seems to know for sure whether it was an accident or suicide. Even Plaintiff gave conflicting statements to the court — in his complaint he said it was not [...

Robbery conviction overturned because prosecutor played YouTube video during closing argument

Posted on November 04, 2009
Miller v. State, 2009 WL 3517627 (Ind. App. October 30, 2009) Appellant Miller and his dad robbed Wedge’s Liquor Store in Logansport, Indiana back in November 2007. During the robbery Miller pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at the clerk’s face...

In New Hampshire, your landlord has to give you free* cable

Posted on November 03, 2009
Hey, let’s watch HGTV and get some ideas for the apartment! It’s not like we have to pay for it or anything. Anyone who has ever been a landlord will think the New Hampshire Supreme Court may have lost its mind. Those who like TV and broadband access a lot may think otherwise...

Relationship status and the law: it?s complicated

Posted on November 02, 2009
Online statements by mother were critical evidence in paternity case Watermeier v. Moss, 2009 WL 3486426 (Tenn. Ct. App. October 29, 2009) Under Tennessee law a man can petition the court to determine that he is the father of a child born to a woman who is married to someone else...

Court upholds eBay forum selection clause

Posted on October 26, 2009
Tricome v. Ebay, Inc., 2009 WL 3365873 (E.D. Pa. October 19, 2009) Everyone who signs up to use eBay has to assent to the terms of eBay’s User Agreement. Among other things, the User Agreement contains a forum selection clause that states all disputes between the user and eBay must be brought to court in Santa [...

Web photos inadmissible as evidence in case against deer hunter

Posted on October 16, 2009
State v. Ness, — N.W.2d —-, 2009 WL 3296676 (N.D. Oct. 15, 2009) Another day, another state supreme court decision about whether web-found evidence is admissible. Yesterday our discussion was about a MySpace posting in a murder trial. (The evidence in that case was admissible...

MySpace posting was not improper character evidence at murder trial

Posted on October 15, 2009
Clark v. State, No. 43S00-0810-CR-575 (Ind. October 15, 2009). [Download the opinion] Defendant Clark killed his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter. At his murder trial, the prosecution introduced the following post Clark had made to his MySpace page: Society labels me as an outlaw and criminal and sees more and more everyday how many of the people, while growing [...

Web host did not breach contract by terminating rude customer

Posted on October 11, 2009
Mehmet v. Add2net, Inc., — N.Y.S.2d —-, 2009 WL 3199876 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept. October 8, 2009) Plaintiff website operator didn’t pay his monthly hosting fees on time. He called the hosting company and said he’d be sending a check, but in the meantime the web host exercised its right under the hosting agreement to suspend Plaintiff’s [...

Group sex photos case heads to trial

Posted on October 07, 2009
Peterson v. Moldofsky, No. 07-2603, 2009 WL 3126229 (D.Kan. September 29, 2009) Defendant took pictures of his ex-girlfriend “engaged in various sex acts with two other people.” Later he emailed some of the photos to his ex-girlfriend’s mother, ex-husband, ex-in laws, boss and co-workers...

MySpace drinkin? photos causing real life problems again

Posted on September 22, 2009
Last time it was probation being revoked. This time it’s children being taken away. A recent Texas case shows how irresponsible social media use can have some unpleasant consequences. Mann v. Department of Family and Protective Services, 2009 WL 2961396 (Tex...

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