E-Commerce Law

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 18, 2010

We're fairly certain that New York Times Company Chairman Arthur Sulzberger doesn't read E-Commerce Law, especially after hearing the he planned to announce that the New York Times will soon begin charging for its online content.  As we indicated last week, 77 percent of Internet users say they would not pay for online news.  Unless every news outlet makes the same move, the pay-for-content model can't work.

One hundred charities were competing for votes on Facebook to win $1 million.

And this week's sign of the coming apocalypse:  now your dog can tweet.

Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

Photo Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drb62/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Website Lauding Defendant's "Worldwide Expertise" and Facilitating One-Way Contact to the Defendant Too Passive to Confer Jurisdiction

In Jensen v. Modern Aero, Inc., 2010 WL 88229 (Minn. App. Jan. 12, 2010), the Court of Appeals of Minnesota held that a defendant's website, which lauded defendant's "worldwide" expertise," listed a toll-free telephone number for defendant, and provided an electronic form for customers to contact the defendant, was insufficient to confer general personal jurisdiction over the defendant.  Accordingly, the Court affirmed the dismissal of negligence claims brought by the estate of a pilot who died in the crash of his small private airplane.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 11, 2010

We have often discussed the future of newspapers in a society that increasingly seeks news and information from the Internet.  Nearly four years ago, we suggested that a "pay-for-online-content model is unlikely to work, given the number of free Internet news sources."  It looks like we were right - in a recent survey of 2,000 adults, 77 percent said they wouldn't pay anything to read a newspaper's stores on the Web.

Sitting jurors are using the Internet to research their cases and causing criminal convictions to be overturned.

Facebook founder says people no longer expect privacy.  That would explain the social networking site's new privacy settings.

Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

Photo Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drb62/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  E-Commerce Law Briefs will return next weekend.