Balough
December 15, 2013
The subjects of defamatory statements cannot force Ripoff.com to remove the posts from the website. A federal judge found that the Communications Decency Act (CDA) limits the ability of an aggrieved party to sue an internet host for defamatory statements posted on its website by third parties. The plaintiffs in the case attempted to circumvent […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A village trustee can obtain the name of an anonymous internet poster who allegedly posted defamatory statements about her son during a contested election campaign. The poster, Hipcheck 16, made the posts on a website of a local newspaper during Buffalo Grove trustee Lisa Stone’s election campaign. The trustee sought the name of the poster […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
There are no First Amendment rights in the virtual world, at least not in Sony’s Playstation 3 Network. Plaintiff was barred from the Playstation virtual world for violations of the user agreement for the Network, including posts on its public forums. He sued Sony claiming that his First Amendment free speech rights were violated by […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Sears’ current tagline “Where Shopping Revolves Around You 24/7” might be better phrased as “Where We Spy On You 24/7.” Under a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order, Sears Holdings Management Corporation (SHMC), owned by Sears, Roebuck and Company and Kmart Management Corporation, agreed that it failed to adequately disclose that a computer tracking program […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Protecting intellectual property rights in the virtual world of Second Life was discussed by Richard C. Balough at the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE)’s first annual Intellectual Property Law Seminar. The two-day seminar in Chicago featured presentations by experts in intellectual property law as well as a panel discussion by federal court judges, including […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Google’s practice of recommending and selling keywords that incorporate trademarks may violate the Lanham Act by causing confusion in the marketplace, a court of appeals has found. The Second Circuit reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a case brought by Rescuecom Corp. The appellate court said the trial court misinterpreted the appellate court’s earlier decision […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A federal judge has temporarily stopped the marketing and use of a spyware program that tracks computer keystrokes of its unsuspecting victims. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping CyberSpy Software, LLC from marketing, selling, and allowing access to information gained from its RemoteSpy program. In a complaint, the FTC […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
The Virginia Supreme Court has reversed itself as well as the conviction of a spammer, finding the state’s anti-spam law overly-broad and therefore unconstitutional. In February, 2008, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Jeremy Jaynes for violating provisions of Virginia’s anti-spam statute that prohibited falsifying or forging electronic mail transmission information or other […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Hiding a competitor’s trademark in metatags and printing them with white ink on the website constitutes “willful” trademark infringement under the Lanham Act. McGills Glass Warehouse is an internet-based retailer of stained-glass supplies. It embedded the registered trademarks “Venture Tape” and “Venture Foil” in its website metatags and on the pages by “printing” them in […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Target will modify its website so it is accessible to the blind and will pay $6 million to settle a class action lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In agreeing to make the changes to the website and to set aside $6 million for claims in the case, Target did not admit any liability. […]
