By Davis Doherty Google Executives Answer for the Sins of Their Users in Italy PCWorld reports that on Feburary 24, an Italian court convicted three Google executives for violating privacy laws, handing down six-month suspended sentences to each. The ruling arose after a video depicting the bullying of a boy with Down Syndrome was posted to Google Video Italia; Google removed the clip within hours of receiving a complaint from the Italian police, two months after it was first uploaded. ... Read More...
Archive for February, 2010
California Superior Court Enters Judgement in Anti-SLAPP Suit By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited by Steven Primeaux MagicJack, LP v. Happy Mutants LLC, Case No. CIV 091108 (Sup. Ct. Cal. Marin County, Jan. 5, 2010) Opinion (hosted by Boing Boing) On January 5, 2010, the Superior Court of California for the County of Marin entered judgment against plaintiff MagicJack, reiterating its May 2009 holding that MagicJack had not established a probability of prevailing on its claims against Boing Boing and ruling ... Read More...
Board of Patent Appeals affirms rejection of Pfizer’s broadest patent claim to Viagra By Abby Lauer – Edited by Frank Sabatini Ex parte Pfizer, Inc., Appeal 2009-004106 (B.P.A.I. Feb. 12, 2010). Slip Opinion On February 12, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirmed a Patent Examiner’s rejection of claim 24 of Pfizer’s patent on the erectile dysfunction (ED) drug Viagra. The Board held that claim 24 of the patent was anticipated in the prior art by descriptions of the ... Read More...
School Punishment of Online Speech: Evans v. Bayer By Stuart K. Tubis – Edited by Frank Sabatini Evans v. Bayer, No. 08-61952-CIV-GARBER (S.D. Fla. February 12, 2010) Slip Opinion The District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted in part and denied in part defendant’s motion to dismiss. The court dismissed the claim for injunctive relief to prevent Bayer from maintaining records of the suspension and to compel him to revoke the suspension nunc pro tunc. The court held ... Read More...
By Joey Seiler Google Buzz Gets Privacy Groups Talking—and Filing Complaints When Google launched Buzz, its new social media function, on February 9, the Internet giant moved into Facebook territory by sharing information and connecting social groups. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s complaint to the FTC, Google may have also moved into Facebook territory by violating users’ privacy. (PaidContent covered EPIC’s FTC complaint against Facebook when the company changed its privacy settings in December 2009.) The New York ... Read More...
