$675,000 damages award upheld for illegally downloading 30 songs
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has upheld a jury’s $675,000 damages award for illegal downloading of 30 songs. The case began in 2007, when graduate student Joel Tenenbaum was sued by a number of record labels for downloading and distributing 30 songs using file-sharing services like Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa and LimeWire. The jury found ... Read the full post ...
The European approach to keyword advertising – a review
For a review of the approach in Europe to keyword advertising, see this report by Dorsey. ... Read the full post ...
Norway rules 3rd party trademark AdWords contrary to good business practice
The Norway Committee for Unfair Competition has found that the purchase and use of a competitor’s trademark as a Google Adword is in breach of good business practice. Bryn Aarflot reports that the committee stressed that the goodwill in a trademark is what causes the internet user to use the term as a search term in ... Read the full post ...
US FTC warns search engines on misleading ads
The US Federal Trade Commission has told various search engine companies to tighten up their practices when it comes to paid advertising that appears on a search results page, reports Graydon Head. In its letter to the companies, the Commission requests that the shading that sets the ads apart be prominent enough so that the background doesn’t get lost, ... Read the full post ...
Internet Hall of Fame announces 2013 inductees
Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and John Perry Barlow, founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are among the 32 inductees into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame. The inductees, being individuals who have made ground-breaking contributions to the global Internet, were announced by Internet Society (ISOC). ... Read the full post ...
Second Life avatars class action settles
A US federal judge has certified settlement of 43 million Linden dollars, or $172,000, of a class action by 57,000 Second Life property owners who lost their virtual property. Linden Research argued against the notion that virtual property was real ownership of tangible property, claiming instead: “Second Life users own copyrights in the virtual land and items ... Read the full post ...
New proposals for opening up second level .nz domain names
The .nz Domain Name Commission (DNC) has found there is no clear consensus for – or against – the proposal to allow registration of .nz domain names directly at the second level. A major concern expressed by some submitters to the DNC was that existing registrants could feel “forced” to incur extra costs in registering anyname.nz on ... Read the full post ...
Updates on the mass surveillance debate
IP Watch is gathering news from around the world about the the US’s secret programmes to collect the records of domestic telephone calls in the US and international internet activity - available here. ... Read the full post ...
Google Adwords in the UK: Use of competitors’ TMs as keywords OK… sometimes
See Reed Smith’s report of Mr Justice Arnold’s detailed judgement in the Interflora v Marks and Spencer case on trade mark infringement as it relates to keyword advertising. It is clear from the judgment that nothing is inherently wrong with bidding on and purchasing keywords that are trade marks of third-party competitors. However, if there is ... Read the full post ...
‘Fair use’ copyright exception proposed for Australia
The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended adoption of a broad, flexible exception to copyright infringement for ‘fair use’. Australia, like the UK, currently has only ‘fair dealing’ exceptions. These exceptions are limited to dealings for specific purposes, such as research, study, criticism, review, and news reporting. The ALRC’s Discussion Paper recommends that the new ... Read the full post ...
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