Court Issues Blow to Hot News Doctrine, AP Calls it a Win
An interesting debate about the “Hot News” doctrine has arisen from a court ruling, or the overturning of a ruling rather, that says TheFlyOnTheWall.com can get away with reporting financial stock ratings as originally reported by Wall Street firms. The … June 21st, 2011 by admin
Righthaven Complaint Dismissed in Key Case
Righthaven, the company often referred to as a “copyright troll,” which has essentially made a business out of suing bloggers and media outlets over alleged copyright infringement, was dealt a big blow by a Las Vegas judge, who dismissed a key suit filed by the company. That case would be Righthaven LLC vs. Democratic Underground, LLC, along with the counter-case Democratic Underground,... June 15th, 2011 by admin
NJ Supreme Court: Journalists’ Shield Law Doesn’t Apply to Message Boards
A very interesting ruling came out of the Supreme Court in New Jersey, seemingly drawing a line between “journalistic” channels and other information channels. Where that line is exactly, is not entirely clear. It’s even more interesting when you consider that social media has played such an enormous role in news in the last several years (a trend that only seems to be growing). The... June 7th, 2011 by admin
The Fall Of The Cookie Monster
Users no longer have to fear the cookie monster! Following fears of invasion of privacy and controversy over consent to cookies, a law has been passed that states that users must opt in to accept cookies in order to be shown behaviourally targeted ads. Previously users had the option to opt out, consent was often automatically assumed. As of 25th May, the new EU privacy law came into action which... May 25th, 2011 by admin
What Happens When You Sue Facebook? Ask Lamebook
How many times have you laughed out loud, literally, or, on the other hand, shook your head in disgust over your friends’ status updates on Facebook? I’m not usually a gambler, but I would bet that everyone is recalling specific instances right about now. What are some silly examples of what your friends have said on Facebook? Tell us your story in the comments. Jonathan Standefer and Matthew... May 15th, 2011 by admin
Despite New Panda Guidelines, Google Still Burying Authoritative Results
There are a lot of elements of Google’s Panda update to discuss, and we’ve certainly discussed many of them over the last few months, but let’s not lose sight of the reason the update was launched to begin with – to improve search quality. Do you think Google’s search results are better now? Tell us what you think. While quality is often in the eye of the beholder, there... May 14th, 2011 by admin
The Cookie Crumb Trail
This morning as I sat dunking my custard cream (sole survivor of a Royal Wedding souvenir selection box special) into my morning cup of coffee reviewing digital law updates in my twitterstream, I noticed a tweet from @ICOnews that I’ve been waiting for for months. Finally, the ICO has today published its long-awaited guidance on the practical steps to be taken by businesses to comply with the new... May 9th, 2011 by admin
Facebook Sued for $1.00 After Labeling David Fagin a Spammer
After being blocked by Facebook from sending friend requests, David Fagin has decided to sue the company for…a dollar. It sounds silly, but Fagin, actually brings up some fairly interesting points. He even went so far as to issue a press release. It begins: There aren’t too many words that exist in Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary that conjure up more offensive and sleazy images than... April 25th, 2011 by admin
Fleet Foxes Front Man Robin Pecknold Encourages File Sharing
Fleet Foxes front man Robin Pecknold is cool with file sharing, and free music downloading. The band has an album coming out on May 3rd, but and it would seem he’s more interested in people hearing it than paying for it. He is reported to have told the Sunday Times that music “has no inherent value,” adding, “How much money does one person need before it’s just a number... April 19th, 2011 by admin
Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights: Yay or Nay?
With all the privacy concerns over the last year, it is not really surprising that Social Networking User Bill of Rights have been proposed. Although the idea of this type of Bill of Rights has been around for some time, no idea has ever had the power to stick. Do you like the idea of a social networking user bill of rights? Tell us why or why not. A group of people representing various constituencies... April 10th, 2011 by admin
Google Bids $900 Million For Nortel Patents
Although the timing may be coincidental, Larry Page’s new career as CEO of Google has gotten off to an interesting start. Google announced this morning that it’s bid $900 million for about 6,000 patents and patent applications owned by Nortel. Before anyone gets too excited: this development shouldn’t signal that Google intends to either branch into telecommunications equipment... April 4th, 2011 by admin
Yahoo Found Guilty of Linking in Italy
Remember when an Italian court convicted three Google execs over a video uploaded to YouTube that featured a group of school kids bullying an autistic child? David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes(3 out of defendants) were convicted for “failure to comply with the Italian privacy code.” Now in a case that has some similarities to that has also appeared in Italy, involving one... March 24th, 2011 by admin
Google Books Deal Blocked
Barring more legal maneuvering, the proposed Google Books Settlement – which would have cleared the way for Google to scan, digitize, and distribute millions of works – will not stand as is. This afternoon, Judge Denny Chin rejected the settlement, agreeing with opponents that it would give Google an unfair advantage. U.S. Circuit Judge Chin expressed his opinions in a court document refreshingly... March 22nd, 2011 by admin
Copying an Entire Article Without Permission – OK in Some Cases?
Last month, we asked whether full article-copying could be ruled as fair use. We now know the answer. Yes, it can. Do you think duplicating an article in its entirety without permission is OK in some cases? Comment here. Righthaven, a company whose business model relies on copyright lawsuits for newspapers, has essentially lost its second fair use case. The first one was over a partial article sampling,... March 22nd, 2011 by admin
Google Faces $600,000 Fine In France
Over the years, Google’s had to appear in French courts several times, and it now looks like a recent case didn’t go so well. Google’s been found guilty of breaching copyright laws, and unless something changes, the company faces a fine of almost $600,000. Granted, in objective financial terms, that wouldn’t mean much to Google, which has a market cap of about $191 billion.... March 8th, 2011 by admin
