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How does the protection provided by copyrights apply to video games? This article reviews a recent court decision which offered an answer to that question in the context of the iconic video game Tetris and an extremely similar game on a...
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This article looks at a recent lawsuit alleging a number of violations by a group of defendants (which includes charitable organizations such as the National Wildlife Foundation and the National Cancer Society). The article expresses skepticism...
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Computer gaming (especially, famously, games by Blizzard) are a form of sporting entertainment in South Korea. Diablo 3 is a recent hit game release by Blizzard. South Korea's regulation of item trading in online multiplayer games, then,...
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This article reviews the tangled path of copyright litigation involving the RIAA and a file sharer on a peer-to-peer network. The case has been appealed multiple times, and the article points out how the lawyers for the defendant are now in a...
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This article reviews a recent California court decision which has important implications for the ability of plaintiffs in civil litigation to discover defendants' internet bulletin board postings. The case in question involved posts to...
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Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (a federal statute) grants immunity to websites for statements or advertisements made by website users. This article reviews an effort by the state of Washington to go after online prostitution...
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This article relates the background and court opinion of a New Jersey case where a hospital lost a motion to dismiss an employee's lawsuit stemming from that employee's termination. The termination in question was based on a Facebook post by...
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Warner Brothers has been aggressively sending DMCA takedown requests to various websites concerning a new movie it is releasing. This article points out the absurdity of some of these takedown requests, and speculates that the producer might be...
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This article relates a story about an SEO consultant turned trademark troll whose efforts to get a settlement from a former client were foiled by that client's resistance and a California court. The article notes several interesting takeaways...
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This article points to a disturbing trend in intellectual property lawsuits: ex parte decisions (meaning that only one side's arguments were necessarily heard) to enjoin the use of allegedly offending domain names. The result of these...
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Fears of intellectual property piracy was the motive behind many prominent copyright holders' support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. This article points to another means by which major copyright holders can thwart efforts of intellectual...
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This article reviews a case involving a private individual which seemingly validates a means by which many businesses can exercise control over their image online. In this case, a plaintiff alleged that a website hosting a video he did not want...
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What copyright rights does a Twitter user have with respect to their own tweets? This article reviews a recent court decision which confronted this question and (in the article's opinion) answered it very badly. The article explains why...
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This article points to a recent example from the Samsung v. Apple patent litigation to highlight the idea that large law firms' ability to throw bodies at a problem does not necessarily lead to more effective results. In this litigation, one of...
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This article notes the passage of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act ("CISPA") by the House of Representatives, and also explains what how the proposed legislation would operate. The article also highlights why CISPA raises...
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This article highlights a case which the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear and decide involving copyright law's first sale doctrine. The question on which the case will apparently turn involves the application of the doctrine to foreign...
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This article notes a new regulatory action being brought against Google by the Department of Justice about whether or not Google's Street View cars violated federal wiretap laws by collecting various data from wifi networks. The article reviews...
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From a business perspective, arbitration has many advantages over litigation, and, as this article points out, courts have recently been upholding arbitration clauses in websites' Terms of Use. This article reviews a recent Illinois court...
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IMDB, the online repository of actors and movies, recently was alleged to use an actress's credit card information (submitted to the site as part of a purchase of a premium profile) to discover and publish her birthday. This article reviews a...
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What was the effect of the Second Circuit's recent decision in Viacom v. YouTube on websites and other businesses relying on user-generated content? According to this article, not good at a minimum, and potentially dramatic. The article...
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This article concludes by pointing out that just because the internet makes it easier to set up marketing campaigns which appear similar to news broadcasts doesn't mean that the laws governing this type of advertising generally don't apply. As...
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Video games are popular. Patents might not be as popular, but, as the examples set forth in this article illustrate, they can certainly provide an incentive for innovation in video games. This article shares a handful of...
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In light of the recent news of employers demanding their employees' Facebook usernames and passwords, members of the House of Representatives attempted to create legislation to ban this practice (for social media generally). This article...
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This article adds to the debate over Pinterest and the possibilities of copyright infringement inherent in that app's technology. The article examines both recent changes to the site and recent changes to Pinterest's Terms of Use and concludes...
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This article analyzes the question posed by its title: are employers violating federal laws by asking for Facebook passwords? In short, the answer, as the article explains, is "probably not;" although asking for (and receiving, and then using)...
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Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides immunity to websites and other entities from various torts committed by users of those services. This article examines the recent trend of courts to limit the application of Section...
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Recently, reports have surfaced of companies asking (a better word might be demanding) to see Facebook accounts of potential employees; in some cases, companies go so far as to ask for employees' login credentials. This article explains why...
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As this article relates, Apple has recently been sued by a group of Chinese writers who allege unauthorized sales of e-books written by them via the Apple Store. Because these e-books were originally uploaded by users, Apple would initially...
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This article reviews a recent appellate court decision which interpreted the scope of the immunity provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (at least in terms of the Act's application in North Carolina). The case in question...
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This article notes that although social media raises privacy issues of real concern to its users (and society in general), it's easy to be too quick to jump the gun when claiming a privacy violation by one of the giants of the industry. The...
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This article shares how you can opt out of Google's new privacy policy (which tracks a significant amount of its users web surfing activities), and uses the furor over the alleged invasions of privacy inherent in the new privacy policy to detail some...
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Anyone who has practiced law, worked for someone who practices law or paid a lawyer's bill has likely heard of LexisNexis and WestLaw; these are the services on which attorneys do their research. This article details a copyright infringement...
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Digital music has had a significant impact on both the music industry and copyright laws. This article reviews a series of cases which have demonstrated both impacts. A number of artists have sued their record labels, claiming that...
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Technology has raised privacy concerns to a new level, especially where mobile marketers and mobile applications are concerned (although the lines between the two are often blurred). This article reviews the Mobile Marketing Association's...
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Rapid advances in social media and individualized data on the internet have led to a plethora of concerns relating to privacy. This article touches on another concern along these lines, as new technology from Facebook recognizes faces of...
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This article reviews an effort by Netflix to revise the Video Privacy Protection Act, which requires a video renter's express consent before a rental service can share such user's private video rental information. Why would Netflix lobby to...
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Why would an American lawyer call attention to a Russian court's decision? As this article explains, a Russian court's finding of copyright infringement against a social networking site over unlicensed popular music represented Russia's first...
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Google, like Facebook, is a company with a huge number of users and a dominant share of internet traffic. But similarly to Facebook, Google's recent actions are raising concerns among privacy advocates. This article details how Google's...
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This article highlights another action of Facebook, the giant social network, which could demonstrate an overly-cavalier attitude with its users' private data. The article explains how Facebook has entered into a partnership with Politico to...
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This article highlights the trend of courts continuing to crack down on perceived privacy violations online. It reviews a case where a Massachusetts court determined that a customer's zip code (submitted as part of a credit card transaction)...
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Carrier IQ has gathered a great deal of attention recently, as word has spread that it logs smartphone users' keystrokes and sends them to a remote location. This article reviews a disturbing implication of this practice--data which Carrier IQ...
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Do Facebook users have rights of publicity over their own profiles? This is the question a California lawsuit against Facebook seeks to answer. This article examines the foundations of that lawsuit, including a look at the relevant...
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Grooveshark is an internet music sharing service; its users upload songs, which other users can then listen to via stream. This article details a recent copyright infringement lawsuit against Grooveshark by Sony and Warner, two major music...
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One of Google's value propositions is that they do not tamper with their organic search results. As a business, this can be understandably upsetting when two of the top results for your company's name are scam.com and pissedconsumer.com. ...
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The Stop Online Piracy Act has been a recent source of controversy, with many decrying it as an industry-sponsored bill which will have the effect of stifling innovation on the internet. This article points to a new line of attack against SOPA...
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This article reviews a recent court decision in Oregon, which held that a blogger, although self-identified as a member of the media, was not covered by a state law protecting the identities of journalists' sources. The article explains how...
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This article reviews Verizon's recent decision to not allow Google Wallet to come pre-installed on Verizon's Galaxy Nexus phone. The article highlights some of the net neutrality concerns inherent in the decision (Verizon is part of a group...