Right of Publicity Class Action Lawsuit Against Facebook

A class of Facebook users who take issue with one of the site’s advertising methods — the “Sponsored Story,” which is created when a Facebook user “likes” a product or service and is shown to that user’s friends. In essence, if a user “likes” a brand, she becomes a spokeswoman for it.

The lawsui was first filed in California state court and removed to federal court in San Jose in March 2011. The named plaintiff didn’t want Facebook using her image and name to advertise products to her Facebook connections without her permission, she said in court documents filed Monday.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/02/14/suing-facebook-kind-of-sucks-plaintiff-says/

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Will Tort Lawsuits Be the Downfall of the National Football League?

An interesting posting from the Volokh Conspiracy.

http://volokh.com/2012/02/12/will-tort-lawsuits-be-the-downfall-of-the-nfl/

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The Saga of Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Copyright Statutory Damages

When Jammie Thomas-Rasset illegally shared 24 songs she downloaded from the Internet more than five years ago, little did she know that the act would launch her on a roller coaster ride through the courts. In three trials and two appeals, she's been hit with damage awards of $222,000, $1.92 million, $54,000, $1.5 million, and $54,000 again.

That last award was too low, argues Capitol Records, which has appealed the case and is seeking restoration of the $1.5 million award against the Native American mother of four from Brainerd, Minnesota, who works as a natural resources coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249821/eff_defends_54000_award_against_music_sharer.html

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Demand for Legal Services Sagging, Citi Report says

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/01/30/still-convalescing/

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Litigation Financing and Conflicts of Interest: A New Report on the Experience from Land Down Under

Since Australia’s high court in 2006 gave litigation funding its stamp of approval, the industry has grown significantly.

In a new report sponsored by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, an Australian law professor takes a look at how the practice — where businesses invest in high-stakes legal disputes, sharing the risks and potential rewards — creates conflicts of interest.

The conflict argument has been made in the U.S., which is still feeling its way in the field, but Australia’s track record is longer. And the report concludes that the country’s experience should be a lesson to the legal community here.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/02/10/australia-a-cautionary-tale-of-litigation-financing/

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Digital Espionage in China Requires Some Business Travelers to take Extraordinary Measures

As reported in the New York Times, when Kenneth Lieberthal of the Brookings Institute, travels to China he takes the following steps:


"He leaves his cellphone and laptop at home and instead brings “loaner” devices, which he erases before he leaves the United States and wipes clean the minute he returns. In China, he disables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, never lets his phone out of his sight and, in meetings, not only turns off his phone but also removes the battery, for fear his microphone could be turned on remotely. He connects to the Internet only through an encrypted, password-protected channel, and copies and pastes his password from a USB thumb drive. He never types in a password directly, because, he said, “the Chinese are very good at installing key-logging software on your laptop."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/technology/electronic-security-a-worry-in-an-age-of-digital-espionage.html

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Federal Court Grants Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Accelerated Briefing Schedule in case against FTC re Google

In response to EPIC's complaint and motion to compel the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a consent order against Google, a federal district court judge has ordered an accelerated briefing schedule. The FTC's Response to the EPIC briefs is due February 17, EPIC's reply is due February 21, 2012. The Court's deadlines reflect Google's imminent, substantial changes to the company's business practices. Google intends to consolidate the personal data of Google users across 60 services on March 1. EPIC contends that these changes constitute a violation of the consent order with the Federal Trade Commission. For more information, see EPIC v. FTC (Google Consent Order).


http://epic.org/2012/02/federal-court-grants-accelerat.html

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