October 2007

Real Business and Law in Virtual Worlds: What’s a Virtual World?

October 31st 2007

Part 1 in a series of 3. Virtual worlds are online environments where people interact with others using graphical representations of themselves called avatars. These avatars can be just about anything, and you can be male or female, tall or short, green or blue. You design what you want, and can change it whenever the […]

Patriots vs. StubHub: Do Anti-Scalping Laws Prevent Beneficial Markets?

October 28th 2007

The case: In November 2006, The New England Patriots sued Ebay’s StubHub claiming they encouraged ticket holders to resell game tickets, contrary to a “ticket holder agreement”. That same month, StubHub countersued claiming that the Patiots were restricting lawful commerce. Last week the Patriots were granted a discovery request forcing StubHub to turn over contact information […]

Colorado Rockies Can’t Have Rocktober Trademark……(Sorry guys)

October 25th 2007

Sports Illustrated reports the Colorado Rockies baseball team filed a trademark application with the USPTO seeking exclusive rights to their fans’ rallying cry “Rocktober.” But there are three fatal problems with this claim.

Congress Stretches Copyright with Foolish Simpsons Parody

October 24th 2007

//Though a  silly story, how can I pass-up this combination of Fair Use issues,  the Simpsons, and our duly elected representatives?// Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee issued a press release on October 12th which insulted political opponents using the copyrighted images of Simpsons characters. The release was so sophomoric and lacking in […]

Justice Thomas’s View of the Internet

October 22nd 2007

Timed to coincide with the release of Justice Clarence Thomas’s autobiography, the First Amendment Center has published an online symposium concerning Justice Thomas’s First Amendment jurisprudence.   This includes an analysis of Justice Thomas’ decisions concerning Electronic Media decisions. (He’s an originalist, and uses traditional 1st Amendment thinking regardless of media.)  As you might imagine from the […]

The NFL Gives Its Media Properties “Unique Access”

October 20th 2007

This summer, the nation’s most popular spectator sport took an unusual step. The NFL put in place a policy to prevent news organizations from distributing over 45 seconds of video shot at League facilities per day.  About the same time the NFL also imposed restrictions on player blogs.

FFIA Press-Shield Law May Expand Copyright Use As Loophole

October 17th 2007

EFF Civil Liberties Director, Jennifer Granick, provides an excellent review of the Free Flow of Information Act (FFIA). Introduced by Senators Specter, Lugar, and Schumer the bill seeks to establish a federal journalist-shield privilege. The bill provides broad protection to anyone engaged in the regular gathering, writing or publishing of news or other matters of […]

Snitching, Censorship and Spying: You Are the Web 2.0 Scoop

October 16th 2007

Consumer generated content is all the range in the web 2.0 world. It’s now taking a new form as both governments and those who hope to expose governments to greater scrutiny “want to know what you know”. As governments get good at online intelligence, I believe we will find that making censorship and data gathering […]

Trademark Holders Should Now Consider .ASIA Registration

October 14th 2007

This week trademark holders began registering for .ASIA domains. This new top level domain provides regional coverage for 73 countries including Austrialia and New Zeland.  The region has more than 400 million internet users, compared to 320 million in Europe and 230 million in North America. Trademark  holders should pay special attention to this issuance because it […]

Google Files for Dismissal of American Airlines Adwords Trademark Suit

October 14th 2007

Google’s motion is an attempt to scrape away the assorted claims made by American before any stick legally or in public opinion. This article summarizes the complaint, the response, and presents perspectives which may be useful in considering this case.