Category: News
Ubid v. Godaddy and Weather Underground v. Navigation Catalyst: How the “Effects Test” Drove the Courts to Opposite Rulings on Personal Jurisdiction
Web sites can be accessed virtually everywhere. A frequent worry of website operators is that a court in some distant state will find that it has personal jurisdiction over them and force them to defend a suit far from home. While it often seems that courts are biased towards assuming...
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Zheng v. Yahoo!: U.S. Companies Not Subject to U.S. Restrictions on Disclosure of Private Emails if the Disclosure Is Made in a Foreign Country
Digital media law update: Plaintiffs who believe they have been wronged by acts committed by U.S. multinational corporations in foreign countries have long attempted to bring claims against such corporations in the U.S., and based on U.S. law. However, such plaintiffs face many hurdles. Some claims are dismissed for lack...
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U.S.A. v. Iconix: A Website’s False Disclaimer that It Collects Personal Information from Children under Age 13 Can Lead to Doubled Penalties from the FTC
The FTC's recent settlement against soft goods marketer Iconix Brand Group, Inc. shows the hazards of trying to skirt the hassles of compliance with the Childrens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501-6506. If your website privacy policy disclaims an intent to collect information from kids and asks...
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iMEGA v. Holder: Third Circuit Rejects Gaming Industry Group’s Constitutional Challenges to Federal Internet Gambling Law (UIGEA)
Internet gaming: On September 1, 2009, the 3rd Circuit handed down an opinion rejecting several facial challenges to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 (31 U.S.C. § 5361). This decision was on a suit brought by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association - iMEGA -- a...
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Employer Access of Employee Digital Communications and Federal Wiretap Laws: It’s Easier to Be Found Immune if the Communications Reside on Your Servers
Employers seeking to discover what their employees are doing and writing on the internet will can find themselves out of the reach of federal wiretap laws (under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ["ECPA"] and the Stored Communications Act ["SCA"]) so long as they limit their efforts to intercepting and accessing...
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Recent Federal Court Ruling Would Make It Easy to Sue Foreign Website Operators in U.S. Courts
A recent ruling shows how easy it can be for a company that markets its services via a website to find itself a defendant in a United States federal court. In a trademark infringement case brought over competing claims to the "LifeAlert" trademark, a federal judge ruled on December 29,...
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Leahy, Kennedy Call Out Mukasey on Crack Fear-Mongering
The Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected Attorney General Mukasey's call to advance legislation undoing the Sentencing Commission's reform of federal sentencing guidelines around crack cocaine, the Los Angeles Times reports. Not only that, the LAT notes that Senator Patrick Leahy actually had the political cojones to call the AG's tactics...
Read MoreSteroids, Antidepressants and Puritanism: When Are You “Not You,” And Who Really Cares?
An article in the Dallas Morning News on teen steroid use caught my eye because of a quote from an athletic trainer who says: It's easy for someone to cheat and win. With steroids, you're tricking your body. You're creating something that's not you, and that's why you're cheating. It's...
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Ca. 2d: Rejection of Philip Morris’ Proposed Punitive Damages Instruction Was Error
Philip Morris will get another crack at reducing the punitive damages award in a long-running case brought by a cigarette smoker, as the Second District Court of Appeal found there had been improper rejection of the cigarette company's proposed instruction on those damages. The case is Bullock v. Philip Morris,...
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Indiana Cigarette Tax Produces Dramatic Drop in Cigarette Sales
Cigarette sales in Indiana have dropped almost 18 percent in the nine months following the imposition of a 44 cent-per-pack tax, the Chicago Tribune reports. To my mind, this fairly dramatic behavior modification based on a small economic tweak says some interesting things about our ability to control drug use...
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