Web sites, social networks and other interactive service providers facilitate the display and exchange of a staggering amount of user-generated information, much of it idle chatter, meaningful commentary and helpful information, though some of it defamatory and offensive speech. Without certain protections, a site owner could face liability, and such a threat conceivably would have a chilling effect on the vibrant exchange of ideas on the Web.
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc. is but one more step in a long-standing battle that's likely to continue for some time; it's been five years already, and the court merely ruled on a technicality that allows the case to run longer still. Most Google users and advertisers are blissfully unaware of what's going on, and even many involved in Internet commerce don't understand the implications.
CLAIMS OVER PHOTOS, PERFORMANCE IN DVD
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/SAMPLED RECORDING
Internet gambling proponents suffered a major setback when a federal appeals court refused to strike down a 2006 law in which Congress banned all Internet gambling transactions that would be illegal in the gambler's state.
The New York Supreme Court, New York County, denied a motion to dismiss a complaint by a personal manager who seeks unpaid commissions from artists he managed.
The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, affirmed a quantum meruit award based on contract-negotiation representation that attorney Todd Musburger provided to talk show personality Gary Meier.
In the movie Field of Dreams, a mysterious voice assures the protagonist, a down-on-his-luck city-boy-turned-farmer named Ray played by Kevin Costner, that "if you build it, they will come." Today, however, in an age of instant, digital entertainment, curators of museums and historical sites must also wonder if anyone "will come" to their static displays to visit and donate ' and what will happen if they don't.
In one of its more insidious forms, recommendation marketing can involve a marketer paying Internet users to post disingenuous positive product reviews at online retailers' sites, also called astroturfing, in which advertisers or their agents pretend to be unaffiliated consumers, and spread misleading or false information to advance the advertiser's objectives.
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In last month's issue, the author began a discussion of nanomedical applications for disease diagnosis, therapy, and prevention, and of why the new technologies that make these advances possible are likely to change the practice of medicine. Now, he looks at more ways in which the use of nanomaterials in drugs and medical devices may affect the provision of health care and lead to new medical liability issues.
