In the early "wild west" days of the Internet, legal remedies always seemed a step behind the intellectual property dilemmas presented by the new technological medium. Congress has gradually responded by enacting new laws to tackle high-tech loopholes, and the courts have creatively applied traditional concepts in an effort to prevent unscrupulous people from exploiting others' Internet-based intellectual property.
Grip sites tell a business what some customers think, even though their opinions are not necessarily those that the business wants to hear ' and certainly not those that it would want other customers or potential customers to hear. They could serve as a warning system to companies that their products or services are not being well received and that they are suffering from bad word of mouth. Gripe sites also, theoretically, add to the public good as forums for discussion and create better-informed customers. But there are, or should be, many other and better ways to obtain this information, such as through a company's own Web site and toll-free customer service numbers.
False Endorsement/No Preemption
Song Copyright/Implied License
Video-Game Statutes/Unconstitutionality
The recording industry estimates that music piracy has cost it billions of dollars during the past 15 years. Facing the potential for an industry-wide collapse, the RIAA undertook its aggressive litigation campaign to protect itself and its constituents from copyright infringement by suing individual file sharers. After fighting a public relations battle over some of its tactics, the RIAA has chosen to temper its aggressiveness. The RIAA is instead forming relationships with ISPs that maintain the online accounts of the consumers.
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/RULE 12(b)(6) DISMISSAL
THEATRICAL OPTIONS/FUTURE ENFORCEABILITY
In January 2008, the California Supreme Court decided that the doctrine of severability of contracts could be applied to the state's Talent Agencies Act (TAA). Under the supreme court's ruling, a personal manager's activities as an unlicensed talent agent may be severed from the manager's legal activities, the latter still being commissionable from the artist by the manager.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York refused to grant a judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial for the former business manager of musician Yngwie Malmsteen in a suit by the musician over missing income.
Was Marilyn Monroe domiciled in New York and not California when she died in 1962? If it was California, the company succeeding to her rights might have publicity rights after her death, if that state's statute extending publicity rights back from when the statute originally took effect was constitutional. The new California statute is retroactive as well as prospective. Monroe, of course, never heard of publicity rights, which were enacted in California in 1984. If it was New York, there are no publicity rights, only privacy rights, which ended with her death.
The battered economy appears to have caught up with e-commerce, by the way the U.S. Census Bureau's estimated retail sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 look.
The polished and plugged-in e-commerce attorney, though well aware of options for enterprises he or she advises, may not think readily of using social media tools a marketing-savvy client may employ for business. But those tools are available to everyone, and using them may bring a big boon. Social networking can turn virtual possibilities into very beneficial realities.
