LJN Newsletters

eBay Inc.'s savvy user agreement protects it from liability for defamatory postings on its Web site, an appeals court has ruled. But the court's decision left vulnerable other online content providers.

Canada Rejects Music Royalty Plan for Internet Canada's Supreme Court recently struck a blow to the music industry in ruling that Internet Service Providers…

Web search giant Google Inc. recently admitted that it may have illegally issued as much as $3.1 billion in shares after its planned initial public offering (IPO), and offered to buy them back at a significant discount.

Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, recently announced that it is suing dozens of online pharmacies allegedly selling counterfeit versions of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, and its cholesterol-lowering flagship drug Lipitor.

Nearly 2 years have passed since the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Specht v. Netscape Comm. Corp. threw what some thought was a large monkey wrench into online contract formation. The practical effect of the decision, however, has not been as significant as had been feared, and businesses operating in cyberspace continue to successfully reach online agreements with end users and customers.
As a close reading of the Specht ruling and other decisions make clear, "clickwrap" and other online agreements that meet certain basic requirements for contract formation are, indeed, enforceable.

For the second time in 2 years, the Supreme Court suspended the enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) ' in Ashcroft v. ACLU (II) ' sending the case back to the federal district court in Philadelphia for further scrutiny of "plausible, less restrictive alternatives" to restrict minors' access to adult material on the Internet.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court, while sidestepping the ultimate question of whether COPA is unconstitutional, strongly hinted that the statute's speech-restricting effects appeared overbroad in light of less restrictive, technology-based filters available today.

Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.

A recent bankruptcy court decision out of the District of Delaware found that a document contained on a Web site was an authenticated notice under UCC 9-404 notwithstanding the lack of affirmative action taken by the assignor or assignee. In re Communications Dynamics, Inc. WL 22345713 (Bankr. D. Del. 2003) is the first decision in which the authentication requirement to an account debtor in Section 9-404(a)(2) of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is interpreted. This holding adds a new element to the UCC's definition of authentication and seems to ignore the plain language of the Code. This decision could have an impact on the leasing industry as the definition of an account debtor under Section 9-102(a)(3) of the UCC includes not only a lessee but will also include a lessor in conjunction with its own accounts payable.