Cross posted from CL&P Blog
By Paul Alan Levy
In a recent series of demands, a purveyor of “nutraceuticals” called mynutritionstore.com threatened to sue Julia Forte over consumer criticisms appearing on her web site 800notes.com, a forum for identification and discussion of telemarketers based on their phone numbers. (The specific dispute is summarized here) Mynutritionstore’s [...]
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The Associated Press unleashed a firestorm in the blogosphere last week when it claimed that Drudge Retort, a left-wing alternative to the conservative blog Drudge Report, had committed copyright infringement by linking to and briefly quoting several AP articles. Bloggers everywhere were surprised to learn that the AP expects bloggers to pay for the privilege [...]
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In a victory for the free speech rights of bloggers, Kentucky has settled a lawsuit with political blogger Mark Nickolas, whose critical comments about then-Governor Ernie Fletcher resulted in the state “blacklisting” all blogs on state-owned computers. Under the settlement, Kentucky officials agreed to no longer single out blogs for special treatment.
Public Citizen filed suit [...]
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There’s some buzz about our win this week against Autodesk and its attempt to keep entrepreneur Timothy Vernor from selling second-hand copies of its software on eBay. A federal judge refused to dismiss Vernor’s lawsuit against Autodesk and in doing so made it pretty clear that Vernor had a right to sell legally obtained, copyrighted [...]
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Posted in Internet, Litigation on May 21, 2008 | 3 Comments »
When Seattle resident Tim Vernor put a used copy of software for sale on eBay, the software’s maker, Autodesk, demanded that eBay cancel the listing. Although Vernor was selling an authentic, original copy of Autodesk’s software, the company pointed to a “license agreement” contained in the software’s box that prohibited anyone from selling or giving [...]
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A federal bill effectively creating a “market” for pollution? A new U.S. fuel economy proposal that lags behind the rest of the world? These are just some of the topics we address in the latest issue of Public Citizine, an online sampling of articles from Public Citizen’s member newspaper, Public Citizen News. Take a look!
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Journalist and blogger Ed Brayton (left) was a little curious after the U.S. government struck a deal with the European Union and other countries that compensates them in exchange for the U.S. passing online gambling laws that interfere with international trade as governed by the World Trade Organization. Brayton, who also happens to be an [...]
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Public Citizen racked up another victory for Internet free speech last week when a federal judge in Michigan dismissed a trademark claim filed by a Michigan company against the consumer Web site InformercialScams.com. Lifestyle Lift, which markets cosmetic surgery through infomercials, was trying to make the somewhat ludicrous assertion that InfomercialScams couldn’t use its name [...]
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According to Oregon, the law is the exclusive property of the state. When Justia.com, a website devoted to making the law available for free online, tried to post copies of the Oregon Revised Statutes, it received a cease-and-desist letter from the state’s Legislative Counsel Committee threatening a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
There is nothing preventing [...]
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Larry Sinclair gained some noteriety when he put up a YouTube video earlier this year and spun a pretty outrageous tale that involved cocaine, Barack Obama and oral sex, not necessarily in that order. All this from an admitted felon, drug dealer and smuggler of illegal aliens. Needless to say, Sinclair has a slight credibility [...]
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