For the first time since the 1980s, the FTC recently overhauled its guidelines and liability parameters for product endorsements and testimonials. These updated guidelines, which took effect Dec. 1, also cover the use of consumer endorsements and reviews. Entertainment companies that promote products ' and celebrities who blog and tweet ' through new media should consider how these guidelines may affect their marketing practices.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ruled that a music publisher's exclusive administration rights to songs by recording artist Lori McKenna didn't prevent Warner Bros. Records from getting the rights directly from McKenna for compositions on McKenna's Bittertown album.
The Sixth Circuit for the first time explicitly embraces the "fragmented literal similarity" test for determining whether there is substantial similarity between two works.
In a ruling of first impression, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware decided that photographs published on a foreign Web site weren't simultaneously "published" in the United States.
With popularity and subscribership rising, games like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, There and Second Life are big business. Growth has brought litigation. Indeed, some law firms have practice groups addressing this medium's issues.
Because the costs of data breaches can be so astronomically high, the importance of ensuring that e-commerce and other types of firms have insurance to cover such claims cannot be overstated.
Online objections to a corporation's products or services ' posted on "complaint" or "gripe" sites by former employees or consumers, or put elsewhere on the Web ' have a greater potential to be significantly more damaging to the target's operations than more traditional expressions of unhappiness.
For this year-end edition, because I believe that much of e-commerce law and strategy is no different from what is done in offline business (but people must be shown that it often is the same), I will follow suit and offer my own thoughts on the major trends that will affect online business in the next year.
In-depth analysis of recent rulings.
