21
03
2013
By Guest Blogger Sruli Yellin
[Eric's introduction: In the course of blogging over the past 8+ years, I've read hundreds or even thousands of cases. This case ranks in my top 1% of most interesting and memorable cases.
Today, we'd call this a cyberbullying case, but when the online attack occurred in 2004, we didn't have that terminology. The principal plaintiff, DC, was a high school student and an aspiring actor. He had a promotional website for his acting career, including a guestbook. His classmates discovered the website and posted hateful and threatening messages in the guestbook. In 2005, DC and his parents sued the school, the students who posted messages and their parents. A lot has transpired in the past 9 years, and I've found it hard to track everything and keep things straight. In this post, my RA Sruli Yellin sorts through the numerous developments.]
D.C. v. R.R. spans more than eight years in court; two appeals (including one to the California Supreme Court); a side suit for malpractice; and an expensive trip to arbitration. Prof. Goldman blogged the case twice (here and here) and discussed it in a recent talk on high schoolers using the Internet. To get a sense of how long this case has been running, it has already lasted over 1/3 of the lives of some of the litigants who were minors when the case was filed.
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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/02/resetting_one_o.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
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Categories : Cyberbullying, Digital IP Torts
21
03
2013
By Eric Goldman
Habush v. Cannon, 2013 WL 627251 (Wisc. App. Ct. Feb. 21, 2013)
Can you imagine someone buying Google ($GOOG) AdWords keyword advertising triggered by your name? Most of us wouldn’t dream of it, usually because our names just aren’t valuable enough for anyone to bother. In contrast, some professional service providers, such as lawyers and doctors, tout their names in expensive advertising campaigns to consumers—and have competitors who would love to piggyback on that advertising to reach the same consumers. In a novel and persuasive ruling, a Wisconsin appellate court recent rejected a professional service provider’s attempt to use publicity rights to shut down a competitive keyword advertiser.
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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/02/buying_keyword.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
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Categories : Digital IP Torts, Keywords/Meta-tags, Rights of Publicity, Trademarks
21
03
2013
Attorney Marc Randazza hasn’t been quiet about his hatred for so-called revenge porn sites. The copyright and First Amendment lawyer blogged last year that entities like IsAnybodyDown (or the now defunct IsAnyoneUp) frustrated him to the point where he’d represent victims pro bono. “I want to hurt them bad,” he wrote. “If anyone out there has been scammed by these crooks, contact me.”
The larger battle is still ongoing, but Randazza scored a small, initial victory this weekend. In a Friday decision [PDF] at the Clark County, Nevada district court, Randazza Legal Group secured a $250,000 defamation judgment against IsAnyoneUp site founder, Hunter Moore. This particular defamation case was not related to Moore’s revenge porn activities, but it instead focused on statements Moore issued about James McGibney, the CEO of Bullyville.com. restraining orders against Moore in two states. (A longer summary of the situation is available on McGibney’s site.)
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The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/revenge-porn-site-founder-loses-250k-defamation-suit/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
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Categories : Defamation, Digital IP Torts
21
03
2013
Last year we covered the case of Linda Eagle, whose former employer, Edcomm, kept control of her LinkedIn account after firing her. In his October ruling, Judge Ronald Buckwalter of the District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania rejected the theory that taking control of a former employee’s LinkedIn account violated the anti-hacking provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. But in a Tuesday ruling, Judge Ronald Buckwalter found that seizing an employee’s LinkedIn account can constitute unauthorized use of the employee’s name and likeness under Pennsylvania law.
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The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/court-hijacking-ex-employees-linkedin-account-violates-pa-law/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
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Categories : Digital IP Torts, Rights of Publicity
21
03
2013
By Eric Goldman
Stayart v. Google Inc., 2013 WL 811793 (7th Cir. March 6, 2013).
\Would you be upset if people searching for your name are prompted to search for your name plus the name of an erectile dysfunction drug like Viagra or Cialis? For example, if you search for “Eric Goldman,” a search engine might suggest that you search for “Eric Goldman Viagra.” I suspect many of us would never discover that the search engines were doing this, and those who did would find it perplexing but amusing.
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The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/03/googles_search.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
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Categories : Digital IP Torts, Keywords/Meta-tags, Rights of Publicity, Trademarks
