Recent Articles

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 1, 2010

March 09, 2010 01:59

The White House has released a summary of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, which includes an expansion of a classified Internet monitoring system called Einstein. In what we're sure is unrelated news, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned of a "rapidly...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of February 22, 2010

March 01, 2010 18:51

Last week, Microsoft sent a DMCA notice to Network Solutions complaining about cryptome.org, a website which "welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of February 15, 2010

February 23, 2010 16:20

Google has donated $2 million to Wikipedia. Though Wikipedia has been criticized for uneven quality and reliability, a 2005 study concluded that it was just as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica. In a statement announcing the donations, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called Wikipedia “one of the g...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of February 8, 2010

February 17, 2010 00:28

Facebook is getting new competition from a familiar source. With Buzz, Google has entered the social networking space. Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee says that judges should not be Facebook "friends" with attorneys who may appear before them. "When judges 'friend' lawyers who may...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 25, 2010

February 01, 2010 19:45

A federal judge has reduced the verdict in the only file-sharing case to have gone to trial in the United States. The case has now been tried twice. In 2007, a $222,000 judgment was awarded against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs over the Internet. Last year, another judge...A federal judge...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 18, 2010

January 25, 2010 19:27

We're fairly certain that New York Times Company Chairman Arthur Sulzberger doesn't read E-Commerce Law, especially after hearing the he planned to announce that the New York Times will soon begin charging for its online content. As we indicated last week, 77 percent of Internet users say they...

Website Lauding Defendant's "Worldwide Expertise" and Facilitating One-Way Contact to the Defendant Too Passive to Confer Jurisdiction

January 24, 2010 20:01

In Jensen v. Modern Aero, Inc., 2010 WL 88229 (Minn. App. Jan. 12, 2010), the Court of Appeals of Minnesota held that a defendant's website, which lauded defendant's "worldwide" expertise," listed a toll-free telephone number for defendant, and provided an electronic form for customers to contact...

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 11, 2010

January 20, 2010 14:47

We have often discussed the future of newspapers in a society that increasingly seeks news and information from the Internet. Nearly four years ago, we suggested that a "pay-for-online-content model is unlikely to work, given the number of free Internet news sources." It looks like we were right -...

Happy New Year!

January 04, 2010 16:34

Happy New Year! E-Commerce Law Briefs will return next weekend.Happy New Year!  E-Commerce Law Briefs will return next weekend.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of December 14, 2009

December 21, 2009 15:50

Last Monday, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will review a case in which three Ontario, California police officers and another employee complained that their employer improperly snooped on their text messages, many of which were sexually explicit. "While the case involves...