E-Commerce Law

This Week in Law #78

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be appearing on Episode 78 of This Week in Law.  The show streams live at http://live.twit.tv/ from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. ET and will be produced as a podcast thereafter.

The show is hosted by Denise Howell and Evan Brown.  I'll be appearing with Lauren Gelman, the founder of Blurry Edge Strategies and an internationally-recognized cyberlaw expert.

We'll be discussing the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Verner v. Autodesk and a number of other topics. You can suggest topics for the show by using the thisweekinlaw del.icio.us tag, using the #TWiL78 tag on Twitter, or leaving a comment here.

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 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.

Ninth Circuit: Roommates.com Not Entirely Protected by Section 230

The Internet is buzzing with news of yesterday’s decision in Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 879293 (9th Cir. 2008). A number of commentators have posted summaries and analyses of the decision, so we will not duplicate their efforts here. (This post will presume that the reader has some basic familiarity with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and the facts and procedural history of the Roommates.com case.) However, we do feel the need to comment on a few aspects of the opinion.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of December 31, 2007

Monday is the expected launch date for Wikia Search, a user-influenced search engine expected to compete with Google.  "According to its creators those searching topics will be able to rank search results using open-source software in order to improve the filtering of search results. The idea is to introduce transparency into the search engine process. However Google supporters argue it will allow humans to manipulate the search process and that computer-generated results are the fairest way to provide people with information."

(Link:  Possible Google rival soon to be launched at vnunet.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 December 10, 2007

A Georgia couple has filed a second Internet defamation lawsuit, this time against a person who posted allegations that the couple is involved in illegal drug activity. The couple previously filed a $1 million suit against the website that published the post. Unless we’re missing something, the couple’s attorney is probably going to get an education on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

(Link: Web site post leads to second law suit at Rome News-Tribune.com)

A Texas appellate court has ruled that an anonymous blogger has a First Amendment right to anonymity in a defamation lawsuit unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that it has suffered actual financial losses due to the defendant’s defamatory postings.

(Link: Court upholds Paris blogger's anonymity at Houston Chronicle)

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 December 3, 2007

"Two newly published studies report an accelerating threat of Internet financial crime, the latest evidence of the growing danger.

The Ponemon Institute reports that the average cost for a business victimized by a data breach rose 30 percent this year to $6.3 million. A separate Federal Trade Commission report issued this week estimates that more than 8 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2005, based on comprehensive survey data collected and analyzed during the past year and a half."

(Link:  Rising cost of Internet financial crimes tallied 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 November 26, 2007

In 2005, 8.3 million Americans were victims of identity theft but more than half of the victims suffered no out-of-pocket losses.

(Link: 8.3 million Americans victims of ID theft at washingtonpost.com)

"The Universal Digital Library, a book-scanning project backed by several major libraries across the globe, has completed the digitization of 1.5 million books and on Tuesday made them free and publicly available."

(Link: Online library offers 1.5 million works and counting at CNET News)

Many Facebook users are complaining about the social networking site’s new advertising program that publishes their online purchasing history. The program, launched in early November, gives the user two opportunities to "opt out" of the program and prevent his or her recent purchases from being displayed to Facebook friends. Early on, a technical problem prevented one of the opt out messages from being displayed and many users simply didn’t notice the other. Facebook says that it has repaired the glitch but many users are still bothered by what they characterize as an invasion of privacy.

(Links: Users decry Facebook tracking and Facebook fixes ad-sharing glitch at SiliconValley.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 November 12, 2007

"Rupert Murdoch plans to give away the digital version of the Wall Street Journal, making News Corp. the latest company to give up on paid subscriptions."

(Link:  Wall Street Journal to stop charging for web content at CNET News)

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 November 5, 2007

Facebook has launched ad programs based on user profiles and behavior.

(Links: MySpace expands ads targeted to details on user profiles and Facebook unveils program to target ads based on user behavior 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.