E-Commerce Law

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 23, 2009

"Netflix Inc is the latest media company to integrate with social networking website Facebook, whose huge community of young, tech-savvy users could help drive growth of the online DVD rental service's subscriber base"

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 16, 2009

There were a record number of cybersquatting cases in 2008.  "The most common business sector in which complaints arose was pharmaceuticals, due to websites offering sales of medicines with protected names. Other top sectors for complaints were banking and finance, Internet and telecommunications, retail, and food, beverages and restaurants.  The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) handled 2,329 cases under its dispute procedure for Internet page names. "

As we predicted nearly three years ago, newspapers are beginning to shift their focus to serving the Internet news audience.  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has produced its last printed edition and has become an Internet-only news source, "making it by far the largest American newspaper to take that leap."

Pac-Man is coming to Facebook.

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

Rocket Docket Awards Summary Judgment to Citibank in Cybersquatting Case

The Rocket Docket has posted a brief of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia's decision granting summary judgment to Citibank in a cybersquatting case brought under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(d).

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 9, 2009

Social networking websites and blogs account for nearly ten percent of the time people spend on the Internet.  People spend more time on social networking websites and blogs than they do on email and the use of such sites increased 63 percent from December 2007 to December 2008.

We've described how doctors have tweeted during surgery and how a reporter was permitted to tweet about a trial, now a "building materials company and its owner have appealed a $12.6 million verdict against them, alleging that a juror posted messages on Twitter.com during the trial that show he's biased against them."

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 2, 2009

"Operators of newspaper Web sites, blogs and chat rooms that allow readers to post anonymous comments using pseudonyms do not have to readily reveal the posters' identities in defamation suits, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday, further shaping an emerging area of First Amendment law in the Internet age."  In balancing "the First Amendment right to anonymous speech on the Internet with the opportunity on the part of the object of that speech to seek judicial redress for alleged defamation" the court followed a five-factor test which closely resembles the tests followed by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in dismissing Larry Sinclair's defamation suit.

In California, a judge has ruled that "Comcast customers who posted potentially libelous statements about Korbel Champagne Cellars anonymously on the Internet will be alerted that their identities will be revealed to Korbel if they don’t file a legal challenge."

We recently posted about the live-tweeting of a surgery and now a federal judge has permitted a reporter to live-tweet a racketeering gang trial.

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of February 23, 2009

"Facebook, angling to turn a recent user rebellion to its own advantage, called upon the users themselves . . .to help formulate what has been portrayed as a kind of "bill of rights" to govern the social-networking giant."

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.