Music Fans May Help Settle the Score in <i>Satriani v. Coldplay</i> Infringement Suit
A recently filed music copyright suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ' <i>Satriani v. Martin</i>, ' has revealed a new and unexpected application for the Web, namely, its potential as a forum for infringement analysis by amateur musicologists. Long before any party to this litigation will be required to submit expert reports or summary judgment briefs, YouTube postings have offered remarkably insightful analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the parties' respective cases.
e-Commerce Docket Sheet
QVC to Pay $7.5 Million to Settle Charges That It Aired Deceptive Claims <br>Credit Repair Companies Charged with Deceiving Consumers
e-Commerce Companies v. Hackers
The 21st century is clearly the age of cybercrime, and e-commerce companies of all stripes should be especially concerned because there are only two types of computer systems: those that have been hacked, and those that will be hacked.
Avoiding Dysfunctional Litigation
Attempts by plaintiffs in product liability actions to bootstrap consumer fraud claims to obvious claims of product defect must be rejected wholesale by the American judicial system. The author discusses why.
Jungle to Desert: Defending the Government Contractor
The key factor in succeeding with either the government contractor defense or the combatant activities exception is the ability to establish that the government exercised its discretion over the manner in which the contract was performed. A look at recent cases demonstrating that these defenses are invaluable tools in defending a broad range of claims against government contractors.
Defending Against Trade Secret Misappropriation Lawsuits
There are several often-overlooked strategies for defending against trade-misappropriation claims. The first I call the Trade Secret Per Se Doctrine. The second pertains to open-source software. Both of these strategies need to be fully considered in appropriate trade-secret misappropriation cases, to which e-commerce counsel are no strangers.
Wyeth: The Plaintiff's Perspective
The authors claim that <i>Wyeth v. Levine</i> is a major victory for consumer advocates and champions of the civil justice system. Here's why.
Lawful Data-Mining of Social Networks
Blogs simultaneously provide Internet users with social-network prospects and employers with a previously unavailable source of information suitable for employment-assessment decisions. And it's in this intersection on the Information Superhighway where often occurs a collision of worlds, perspectives and direction that frequently cripples or kills prospects, and individuals' aspirations. Employees of e-commerce companies aren't immune to such collisions, nor are agents of the companies who gather data on prospective or current employees, if they go about their work unlawfully, or in other improper ways that could lead to legal or other types of regulatory action.
Opinion: Supreme Court Botches Preemption Case
The Supreme Court handed down its decision last month in the case of <i>Wyeth v. Levine</i>, ruling that federal law did not bar plaintiff Diana Levine from suing pharmaceutical maker Wyeth over allegedly insufficient drug safety warnings, even though the warnings had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This decision establishes the troubling precedent that a sympathetic jury can now supersede the expert opinions of the FDA on what qualifies as adequate safety labeling.
