E-Commerce Law

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of April 28, 2008

MySpace has obtained a default judgment against "spam king" Sanford Wallace.  Wallace had failed to respond to written discovery or sit for a deposition.  "'It is...a defendant's responsibility to respond to discovery, obey court orders, and avoid dilatory tactics," the court wrote in its order. "Taking all of the above factors into account, a default is appropriate. The court finds that Wallace's noncompliance is due to willfulness, fault, or bad faith...Wallace has had every opportunity to avoid the sanction of default. (He) has never provided any explanation for his behavior to the court.'"

(Link:  MySpace wins suit against 'spam king' at CNET News)

A federal judge has rejected the RIAA's "making available" argument in its copyright infringement suit against a husband and wife.  "While the couple lacks legal representation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it filed an amicus brief on behalf of the couple . . . .  The EFF argued against the RIAA's "making available" position, saying in a statement that it 'amounts to suing someone for attempted distribution, something the Copyright Act has never recognized.'"

(Link:  Court rejects RIAA's 'making available' priacy argument at CNET News)

"Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit challenging New York State's new law forcing online retailers to collect sales tax on shipments to state residents."

(Link:  Amazon Sues Over State Law on Collection of Sales Tax at nytimes.com)

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 April 21, 2008

Apparantly, we're about to reach the end of the Internet.  Accordingly to AT&T, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010.

(Link:  AT&T:  Internet to hit full capacity by 2010 at CNET News)

Sixteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, "Web sites ending in the Soviet ".su" domain name have been rising - registrations increased 45 percent this year alone. Bloggers, entrepreneurs and die-hard communists are all part of a small but growing online community resisting repeated efforts to extinguish the online Soviet outpost."

(Link:  Back in the USSR:   Soviet Internet domain name resists death at SilliconValley.com)

An advertiser has sued Google Inc. in federal court in California alleging fraud in connection with Google's AdSense program.  "The plaintiff in the case, David Almeida, had signed up for Google ads to promote his private investigation business in Massachusetts. Because he did not want to buy AdSense ads, Almeida said he left the maximum per-click bid blank, believing 'optional' meant he could opt out of the AdSense program by doing so. Instead, it turned out the AdWords bid applied when he did not exercise that option, and he should have put 'zero' into the box to opt out, said his attorney, Brian Kabateck. "

(Link:  Google accused of deception in selling AdSense keyword ads at washingtonpost.com)

eBay has sued Craigslist for "unfairly diluting" its interest in the community ad site. 

(Link:  EBay sues Craigslist ad website at BBC News)

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of April 14, 2008

The New York state legislature has passed a law which will require online retailers to collect sales tax on items shipped to New York.  The so-called "Amazon Tax" might lead other states to enact similar measures, though some lawmakers believe such laws would not hold up in court.  Representatives of Amazon.com are reviewing the bill, anticipating that it will be challenged in court.

(Links:  NY Lawmakers Approve Internet Tax at WebProNews and N.Y. to tax goods bought on Amazon at Computerworld)

"A Texas woman has sued Blockbuster Inc. alleging the video rental company transmitted her personal information to Facebook.com through the Web site's Beacon marketing program. . . . In her complaint, filed April 9 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Harris claims that Blockbuster violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits a video store from disclosing information about a person's video rentals or purchases."

(Link:  Blockbuster sued over Facebook ad feature at SilliconValley.com)

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 April 7, 2008

Early this week, stock market investors were emboldened by news of several potential corporate deals in the works.  However, one of those potential deals is still very uncertain - Yahoo (YHOO) again rejected Microsoft's (MSFT) $44.6 billion bid to purchase the company.  Microsoft has give Yahoo a three week deadline to agree to a takeover or face a proxy fight and has entered into talks with News Corp. (NWS) about a making a joint offer to purchase the company

(Links:  Deal news could lift stocks, Yahoo says "No" to Microsoft, again, Big rally on Wall Street at CNN Money and Murdoch And AOL Join Fight Over Yahoo at washingtonpost.com)

"Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds."  The so-called "grid" system is 10,000 times faster than current broadband connections and is "[t]he latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the internet.  "[T]he grid could also provide the power needed to send sophisticated images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call."

(Link:  Superfast internet may replace world wide web at Telegraph.co.uk)

Virginia is the first state to require public schools to offer Internet safety courses for students of all grade levels.

(Link:  Virginia first state to require Internet safety lessons at SilliconValley.com)

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 31, 2008

Surprise, surprise:  A recent article suggests that children are using social networking sites designed for adults.  "Research into internet use has found that, among children with internet access, more than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds claimed to have a profile page on a social networking website. This is despite nominal age restrictions aimed at preventing pre-teens from using such sites."

(Link:  Adult social networking sites attract young users at guardian.co.uk)

Equally surprising is the suggestion that social networking sites don't generate large amounts of revenue when compared to other equally popular websites.  Fox Interactive, the Internet division of News Corp., may fall $100 million short on its $1 billion revenue forecast.  Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have tens of millions of users but generate relatively little revenue.  For example, the 80 million unique monthly visitors to MySpace generate well under $1 billion in revenue for News Corp. whereas Yahoo! has just over 50% more visitors and generates more than seven times the revenue.  Virtual communities don't generate substantial revenue, e-commerce sites that sell real-world products and services do (e.g., Amazon).

(Link:  News Corp. (NWS) Finds Out Social Networks Are Bad Business at 24/7 Wall St.)

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 24, 2008

"A security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook's popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the Web site's privacy controls."

(Link:  Technician bypasses security to view private Facebook photos at SilliconValley.com)

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 17, 2008

We thought JuicyCampus might be the next Internet gossip site to suffer from unwanted legal scrutiny and it turns out we were right:  New Jersey law enforcement officials have been investigating JuicyCampus for at least a month and claim that the site violates the state's Consumer Fraud Act.

(Links:  Gossip Gone Wild at ABC News and College gossip site under scrutiny at Yahoo! News)

A Vermont court has applied Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in dismissing a defamation suit brought against the operators of iBrattleboro.com.

(Link:  Libel Suit Tossed Against Local News Site at Media Law)

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 10, 2008

Google has purchased Doubleclick.

(Link:  Google closes $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition at SilliconValley.com)

By year's end, TiVo will deliver YouTube content to users' televisions.

(Link:  TiVo, YouTube will deliver videos to DVR users' TVs at SilliconValley.com)

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 3, 2008

The Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed the nation's first felony spamming conviction.  Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in Loudoun County, Virginia and sentenced to nine years in prison for sending more than ten thousand unsolicited emails to AOL subscribers.  His conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Virginia in September 2006.

(Link:  Virginia court upholds prolific spammer's conviction at SilliconValley.com)

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 25, 2008

Some eBay sellers called for an extension of an eight-day boycott meant to protest recent fee increases and rule changes.  eBay says that the boycott has had no impact on the company's bottom line.

(Link:  EBay says sellers boycott had no effect on listing at SilliconValley.com)

"Nearly half of all teenagers bought no compact discs in 2007, accelerating the music industry's painful transition from CDs to digital downloads, according to a report released Tuesday."

(Link:  More teens ignore CDs in buying their tunes at SilliconValley.com)

After a six year battle, eBay has settled the "Buy It Now" patent case.  "The deal with MercExchange of Great Falls, Va., gives eBay control of three disputed patents, including the "Buy It Now" feature that enabled shoppers to buy items at a fixed price with a click of the mouse."

(Link:  EBay patent case settled at SilliconValley.com)

"Leading Internet scholars at Harvard Law School will head a task force exploring the safety of users at MySpace and other popular online hangouts amid growing fears that youngsters have become targets of sexual predators. The creation of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force is part of an agreement that MySpace, a unit of News Corp., reached with all attorneys general except Texas' in January."

(Link:  MySpace picks Harvard scholars to lead task force on Internet safety at SilliconValley.com)

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.