ericgoldman - Slashdot User

Submission + - Nursing Student/Blogger Expulsion Overturned (ericgoldman.org)

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Eric Goldman

on Monday August 10, 2009 @01:23PM

Eric Goldman writes: "Nina Yoder is a nursing student at University of Louisville. In March, she was expelled from her nursing program due to her blog post (PDF) to MySpace discussing her observations of a mom giving birth. Last week, a federal judge reinstated Yoder. Although the judge described the blog post as "vulgar," "distasteful," "offensive," "crass and uncouth," and an "abject failure" as an attempt at humor, he held that it did not violate patient confidentiality or the school's honor code requiring "professionalism.""

Submission + - Class Action Trademark Lawsuit Against Google (ericgoldman.org)

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Eric Goldman

on Tuesday May 12, 2009 @12:26AM

Eric Goldman writes: "Plaintiffs' lawyers in Marshall, Texas (a well-known hotspot for patent litigation) have brought a trademark infringement lawsuit (PDF) against Google over Google AdWords on behalf of all Texas trademark owners. This class action lawsuit represents a major frontal assault against Google's main source of revenue. However, as this post explains, Google might view this lawsuit as an opportunity, not a threat."

Submission + - Appeals Court Rules Against Google on Keyword Ads (uscourts.gov)

Submitted by

Eric Goldman

on Saturday April 04, 2009 @01:44PM

Eric Goldman writes: "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Google in Rescuecom v. Google, a trademark infringement lawsuit over Google's keyword advertising practices. The court said: "The Complaint's allegations that Google's recommendation and sale of Rescuecom's mark to Google's advertisers, so as to trigger the appearance of their advertisements and links in a manner likely to cause consumer confusion when a Google user launches a search of Rescuecom's trademark, properly alleges a claim under the Lanham Act." While this result hampers Google's ability to end trademark lawsuits early, the case is still at an early stage and Google could still win."

Submission + - Utah's Third Attempt to Regulate Keywords Fails (ericgoldman.org)

Submitted by

Eric Goldman

on Friday March 13, 2009 @01:49PM

Eric Goldman writes: "Slashdot previously reported on HB 450, the Utah Legislature's third attempt to regulate keyword advertising after the past 2 efforts failed miserably. The latest attempt barely passed the Utah House, aided in part by a "yes" vote by Representative Jennifer Seelig, who also happens to be a lobbyist-employee of 1-800 Contacts, the principal advocate of HB 450. Nevertheless, HB 450 died in the Utah Senate without a vote when the Utah Legislature adjourned last night. Despite the seeming good news, it would be surprising if the Utah Legislature didn't try a fourth attempt to regulate keyword advertising in a future session."

Submission + - Utah Trying to Restrict Keyword Advertising--Again (ericgoldman.org)

Submitted by

Eric Goldman

on Thursday March 05, 2009 @02:25AM

Eric Goldman writes: "The Utah legislature has tried to restrict keyword advertising twice before, with disastrous results. In 2004, Utah tried to ban keyword advertising in adware; that law was declared unconstitutional. In 2007, Utah tried to regulate competitive keyword advertising; after a firestorm of protests, Utah repealed the law in 2008. Despite this track record, Utah is trying to regulate keyword advertising a third time. HB 450 would allow trademark owners to block competitors from displaying certain types of keyword ads. In practice, this law is just another attempt by the Utah legislature to enact a law that doesn't help consumers at all but does help trademark owners suppress their online competition."

Comment CAN-SPAM Worked Exactly as Expected (Score 3, Informative) 301

by ericgoldman on Tuesday December 16, 2008 @08:34PM (#26140041) Attached to: CAN-SPAM Act Turns 5 Today — What Went Wrong?

Congress had no idea why spam was a problem and therefore did not draft legislation designed to address the problem. http://ssrn.com/abstract=487162 Instead, they took a shotgun approach of trying to legislate against a panoply of problems, which meant that the law was not designed to fix any single problem and therefore was not going to succeed even from day 1. Eric.

Comment 230 Applies Even if Content is Controlled (Score 4, Informative) 180

by ericgoldman on Saturday May 17, 2008 @04:00PM (#23447452) Attached to: Wikimedia Censors Wikinews

The post says "The US Communications Deceny Act section 230 grants providers of internet services (such as the Wikipedia and Wikinews) immunity from legal action related to their user-generated content provided they do not exercise pre-publication control." But this is factually inaccurate. 230 applies even if a website exercises editorial control prior to publication. See, e.g., Blumenthal v. Drudge. Eric.

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