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 30, 2014
How long does it take three appellate court staff members to change into and out of protective clothing for a poultry processing plant? Not long, so the appellants lost their appeal in the Seventh Circuit. The novel experiment conducted in chambers and privately videotaped was apparently conducted by Judge Richard Posner and detailed in a […]
Balough
March 21, 2014
The Illinois Supreme Court found in two separate cases that the state’s eavesdropping statute is unconstitutional. The statute makes it illegal to use an “eavesdropping device” to hear or record any conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. It also makes it illegal to use or divulge the conversation obtained using the […]
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 9, 2014
A federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a defamation case against television court commentator Nancy Grace for her comment about Michael Skakel, whose murder conviction was overturned and who is awaiting retrial, during a segment of Grace’s program. The court found the pleadings show the statement that Skakel’s DNA was found at the murder […]
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 21, 2014
Michael Jordan has scored again—this time at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals—but it’s no slam dunk. The appellate court found that a full-page spread by Jewel Food Stores, Inc., in a Sports Illustrated commemorative issue purporting to congratulate Jordan on being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was commercial speech, reversing […]
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 […]
