From the monthly archives:

April 2009

Judge Gants Holds StubHub Not Protected by CDA Section 230 (relying on Roommates.com Decision)

April 24, 2009

On January 26, 2009, in what may have been Judge Ralph Gants’ last opinion before departing Suffolk Superior Court for the Supreme Judicial Court on January 29, 2009, Judge Gants ruled on a number of issues in the New England Patriots lawsuit against StubHub.com. The claims are based on the fact that StubHub provides an

Read the full article →

"Sign This Contract. By the Way, We Can Modify It At Any Time." Is This Enforceable?

April 22, 2009

Here’s an interesting case out of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas.  In Harris v. Blockbuster the court refused to enforce an arbitration provision in Blockbuster’s online click-wrap agreement. The reason was that Blockbuster’s click-wrap contract was unilaterally modifiable by Blockbuster.  Here is the key paragraph, which is still on the Blockbuster Online

Read the full article →

First Circuit: Judge Gertner, You Do Not Have the Authority to Permit Webcasting in Your Courtroom

April 17, 2009

The First Circuit’s decision upholding the RIAA’s challenge to Judge Gertner’s decision to permit webcasting of a motion hearing in the RIAA v. Tenenbaum case was issued on April 16, 2009, very shortly after oral argument. The First Circuit, interpreting a D. Mass. Local Rule, held that U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner’s interpretation of the

Read the full article →

First Circuit Affirms Preliminary Injunction in Copyright Case

April 13, 2009

Here is the First Circuit’s recent decision upholding a preliminary injunction in a copyright case  out of D. Puerto Rico.  The sole issue on appeal was the holding on substantial similarity.  The products were stuffed animals, specifically, frogs.  Or, more specifically, the Puerto Rican tree frog, the Coqui.   I’ve tried to find a picture of

Read the full article →

John Perry Barlow, Co-Founder of EFF, Poet, Musician, Lyricist for the Dead, Retired Wyoming Cattle Rancher and Public Intellectual . . .

April 11, 2009

has filed a most unusual “expert witness report” in the Tenenbaum case.  This will surely raise some novel admissibility issues under Daubert/FRE 702 standards.  And that, constant readers, is the understatement of the day.  More surprises to come from the Nesson/HLS defense team, I have no doubt. Share This:TwitterFacebookStumbleUponDiggDelicious

Read the full article →

Boring Lawsuit We Missed the First Time Around ….

April 11, 2009

How many residential driveways are there in the USA? I have no idea, but I would estimate tens of millions. So it figures that someone whose driveway was videotaped by Google and put on the Internet for all to view (!?) on Google Street View would sue Google for invasion of privacy and trespass. Copy

Read the full article →

Oh, Sweet Irony, How Thou Doest Tease Me

April 9, 2009

Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner issued an order permitting the webcast of a scheduled in-court motion hearing in the RIAA/Tenenbaumcopyright downloading case.  The RIAA challenged the order, arguing that a federal rule prohibits the webcast.  Here is yesterday’s audio of the First Circuit oral argument, with Harvard Law Prof. Charles Nesson arguing for

Read the full article →

"Copyright in the Age of YouTube"

April 8, 2009

Great article by Steven Seidenberg in the February 2009 ABA Journal on the legal tensions between user-generated content sites (UGC, in the lingo) and the content owners under the “notice and take down” regime established by the DMCA. Interesting fact from the article: On YouTube alone ten hours of video content are put online every

Read the full article →

DOJ to Senator Ted Stevens: “We Deeply Regret That This Has Occurred”

April 8, 2009

It’s not often that the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes a sitting U.S. Senator, obtains a conviction at trial, and then concludes it has no choice but to voluntarily dismiss the charges and let the former defendant walk free, totally vindicated.  But that’s what happened in United States v. Ted Stevens, the government’s case against

Read the full article →
Page 1 of 2
1
2