Balough
May 3, 2014
Google, Inc. has changed its privacy policy and no longer will scan kids’ accounts set up through their schools to give data to advertisers and to place ads with emails and search results. Previously, Google scanned both the Gmail accounts and Google Search for kids established through the Google Apps for Education program in order […]
Balough
April 15, 2014
Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner is no second banana to the Banana Lady. Not only did Judge Posner write an opinion affirming the dismissal of the Banana Lady’s copyright infringement lawsuit, but he also pealed back her long history of filing frivolous lawsuits and failure to pay judgments against her. Catherine Conrad is a self-employed […]
Balough
April 9, 2014
The operators of jerk.com may be the real jerks—and may be violating federal law—according to charges levied by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in an administrative complaint. The FTC accused Jerk, LLC, the operator of jerk.com, with harvesting personal information from Facebook to create profiles labeling people as a “jerk” or “not a jerk,” and enabling […]
Balough
April 2, 2014
Two provisions in eBay’s User Agreement are not enforceable contract provisions but simply general descriptions of how eBay operates. The Ninth Circuit affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a case involving eBay’s automatic bidding system. The Plaintiff had argued that eBay breached its User Agreement and violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law. […]
Balough
March 17, 2014
An advertising campaign soliciting former dental patents as potential clients for a law firm is commercial speech, which is not protected under the Texas anti-SLAPP statute. The law firm, Mauze & Bagby, P.L.L.C. (M&B) “ran television, radio, and internet advertisements and developed a website that strongly implied, or even accused, Kool Smiles of performing unnecessary, […]
Balough
March 4, 2014
An actress’s brief appearance in an anti-Islamic film may be copyrightable, entitling the actress to an injunction requiring Google to remove the film from YouTube, the Ninth Circuit found. Cindy Garcia was cast in a minor role in a film called “Desert Warrior,” an Arabian adventure film. She was paid $500 and read from four […]
Balough
February 19, 2014
Beware of a malware computer program that encrypts all of your computer data and holds it for ransom, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and FBI warn. Called Cryptolocker, the program locks all of a computer’s data. In order to unlock the data, the user must pay a ransom demand sent by email to be paid […]
Balough
January 30, 2014
Need to talk to your kids about internet use? The Federal Trade Commission has issued an updated guide to help with the conversation. “Net Cetera Chatting with Kids About Being Online” provides advice to parents on how to talk with kids about mobile apps, using public Wi-Fi securely, and recognizing text message spam. The guide […]
Balough
January 28, 2014
The posting by a news service of a recording and transcript of a call with financial analysts is a “fair use” and not copyright infringement, the Second Circuit found. Bloomberg L.P., a financial news and data reporting service, posted a recording and transcript of an earnings call minutes after the call conducted by Swatch Group […]
Balough
January 28, 2014
Yelp, Inc. must turn over the identity of anonymous posters who gave bad reviews asserting, apparently falsely, that they were former customers a carpet cleaning service. The Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s decision requiring the online reviewing service to comply with a subpoena to identify seven posters who gave negative reviews of […]
