Competition between Amazon’s third-party merchants is notoriously fierce. The online retail giant often finds itself playing the role of referee, banning what it considers unfair business practices (such as offering free products in exchange for perfect reviews, or targeting competitors with so-called “review bombing”). Last month, in the latest round of this push and pull, … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force released a guidance containing a list of best practices (and notable “bad” practices), all designed to improve the DMCA’s notice and takedown system for both senders and recipients of notices [See “DMCA Notice-and-Takedown Processes: List of Good, Bad, and Situational Practices”]. The document was … Continue Reading
Pinterest is the hot hot hot social media site that lets users create online “pinboards” of interesting or inspiring images. Although users may upload their own images to their pinboards, Pinterest emphasizes the pinning of images from third-party Web sites through the use of inline links. This of course generates yet a new series of … Continue Reading
The “copyright management” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 1202, prohibits the provision or dissemination of copyright management information that is false, as well as the removal or alteration of copyright management information. An issue that has divided federal courts is whether the scope of this section is limited to digital … Continue Reading
In 2007, Ticketmaster brought a multi-count complaint against RMG Technologies, a software company that supplied ticket brokers with software that enabled them to automatically and rapidly access Ticketmaster’s Web site, to the detriment of ordinary users seeking tickets to popular events. The Ticketmaster v. RMG complaint was notable for stating a series of claims that … Continue Reading
The cause of action for misappropriation of reports of breaking news, i.e., “hot news” misappropriation, has been around for going on a century, since the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918). In that landmark case the Court recognized a “quasi property” right in such reports on … Continue Reading
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