Blogger’s Use of Unaltered Copyrighted Photos Deemed Legal Fair Use By Tyler Lacey – Edited by Amanda Rice Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. v. Delsman, No. C 09-1468 SBA, July 17, 2009 The United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted the defendant blogger’s motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit following its determination that the blogger’s use of unaltered copyrighted photos is fair use and therefore not violative of copyright laws. The court held that Delsman’s ... Read More...
Blogger Status Fails to Provide Journalistic Protection under N.J. Shield Law By Ian B. Brooks – Edited by Amanda Rice Too Much Media, LLC v. Hale, Case No. MON-L-2736-08, (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. June 30, 2009) Slip Opinion The Monmouth County Superior Court of New Jersey held that the Defendant, blogger Shellee Hale, was not entitled to the protections of a newsperson under New Jersey’s Shield Law. Although Hale claimed that her posts on an Internet message board were ... Read More...
Social Networks Shielded from Liability for Sexual Assaults By Debbie Rosenbaum – Edited By Amanda Rice Julie Doe II et al. v. MySpace Inc., Case No. B205643, (Cal. Ct. App. June 30, 2009) Opinion On June 30, the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles affirmed the judgment of the lower court and held that online social networks and other websites cannot be held liable for a sexual assault on a minor that stems from an online meeting. The ... Read More...
Minnesota Jury Awards Nearly $2 Million in RIAA File-Sharing Suit By Anthony Kammer-Edited by Amanda Rice RIAA/Capitol v. Thomas-Rasset On Thursday, June 18, 2009, a federal jury in Minneapolis, MN returned a $1.92 million verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset for willfully infringing the copyrights of twenty four songs she had made available for download on Kazaa, a file-sharing program. The suit, brought by the Recording Industry Artists of America (“RIAA”), involved copyrights owned by subsidiaries of four major recording companies, Warner ... Read More...
California District Court Strikes at “Patent Trolling” By Tyler Lacey – Edited by Amanda Rice Diagnostic Systems Corp. v. Symantec Corp., June 5, 2009, No. SACV 06-1211 DOC (ANx) consolidated with No. SACV 07-960 DOC (ANx). Opinion The United States District Court for the Central District of California granted in part defendant MicroStrategy’s motion requesting a more detailed statement of how its software products infringe on plaintiff Diagnostic Systems Corporation’s (“DSC”) patents, denying only MicroStrategy’s request for monetary sanctions. The ... Read More...
