- U.S. v. I.E.V.: “Annals of Tremendously Entertaining Alex Kozinski Opinions” [Kyle Graham] Judge Kozinski on video [Above the Law]
- FTC drops Google antitrust probe [Eric Goldman, James Grimmelmann, Geoffrey Manne, earlier here, here]
- Andrew Trask picks 2012′s ten most significant class action cases and interesting class action articles;
- “I’m quite certain no adults need Patrick Kennedy – of all people – dictating what substances they’re allowed to consume.” [Glenn Greenwald]
- U.S. Chamber annual worst-lawsuits list [and DC Examiner editorial] Family of Little League teen sued by spectator hit by ball is grateful for public support [Manchester, N.J. Patch, earlier]
- “Boy, 6, suspended from Silver Spring school for pointing finger like a gun” [WaPo, followup (school reverses), Tim Lynch/Cato] Lenore Skenazy nominates the craziest Free-Range stories of 2012;
- Toyota’s $1.1 B class action pact will encourage future shakedowns [Michael Krauss/PoL, Public Citizen]
Tagged as:
Alex Kozinski,
class actions,
Federal Trade Commission,
Google,
Little League,
Toyota
- “The patent, used as a sword” [NY Times, Flowing Data]
- Default judgment over 528 songs against contumacious defendant: “Website ordered to pay $6.6 million for posting song lyrics” [NLJ]
- “Monsanto Seed Patent Case Gets U.S. Supreme Court Review” [Bloomberg Business Week]
- New book tells story of Ira Arnstein, whose frivolous suits against Cole Porter, Irving Berlin et al set important precedent [WSJ]
- “Do it ‘on the Internet,’ get a patent, sue an industry — it still works” [Joe Mullin, Ars Technica]
- “Court rules book scanning is fair use, suggesting Google Books victory” [Timothy Lee, ArsTechnica]
Tagged as:
copyright,
Google,
music and musicians,
patent litigation
- Tenaha, Texas traffic-stop forfeiture scandal: town settles with ACLU [Thampy/Agitator; related, Steven Greenhut]
- A complaint about Progressive Insurance’s posture in an uninsured motorist claim goes viral on the Internet, and Ted Frank supplies a contrarian view [Point of Law and commenters, Consumerist]
- ABA again solicits nominations for its annual collection of top 100 law blogs;
- “Psychiatric staff ‘should have’ prevented the Aurora shootings. Thus Southern Poverty Law Center ‘should have’ prevented Oak Creek. Right?” [George Wallace]
- In Google-Oracle case, judge orders that the litigants disclose which private commentators they have financially backed [Paul Alan Levy and Scott Michelman, CLP; Timothy Lee, Ars Technica; Chris O'Brien, Mercury News]
- Suit based on cop allegations says town of Riverdale Park, Md. issued unlawful camera tickets [The Newspaper, Washington Post]
- Priceless: “Some Problems Inherent In Trying to Sell a Counterfeiting Machine” [Lowering the Bar]
- Maybe drive ‘em to polls too? Massachusetts agrees in lawsuit settlement to send dole recipients vote packs [Michael Graham, Boston Herald; Christian Science Monitor]
Tagged as:
forfeiture,
Google,
Massachusetts,
psychiatry,
red light cameras,
Texas
“The Delhi High Court has ordered 21 companies, which have already been asked to develop a mechanism to block objectionable material in India, to present their plans for policing their services in the next 15 days.” A private complaint had charged the internet firms with permitting the dissemination of material offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. [Emil Protalinski, ZDNet]
Tagged as:
Facebook,
Google,
hate speech,
India
At Cato at Liberty, I find that uncannily reminiscent of a famous Bastiat parody (& IEA, Tim Worstall).
More from Coyote: “left unsaid is how they would jack up their prices when at least two other companies (Bing, Mapquest) also provide mapping services online for free.” But note that the French case arose not from Google’s furnishing of its free map service to individual end customers, but from its furnishing of its map API to businesses that typically adapt it for use in their own sites; as commenters at BoingBoing and Reddit as well as news reports point out, Google has indeed introduced fees for its largest business users of this type (which has caused some of them to adapt by switching from Google’s API to OpenStreetMap, a free wiki-based map service).
Tagged as:
antitrust,
competition through litigation,
France,
Google
Max Mosley, former head of the Formula One racing organization, has been the subject of a number of lurid allegations in the European press. Now he is suing Google in France and Germany, and contemplating suit in California, “in an attempt to force the internet company to monitor and censor search results about” the allegations. “It is understood Google has removed hundreds of references to the defamatory claims after requests from Mosley’s solicitors. However, Mosley is attempting to force Google to monitor its search results so the material never appears” in the first place. [Guardian] More: Above the Law.
Tagged as:
Google,
libel slander and defamation,
search engines,
Streisand effect
- Behind the antitrust assault on Google [Jerry Brito, Josh Wright, more]
- Rapid rise of lawsuit lenders [WSJ] And a Searle Civil Justice Institute conference on third party financing of litigation;
- More law firms muscle into class action against e-book publishers [PaidContent] Fifth Circuit questions cy pres [Trask] And a new edition of the Federalist Society’s Class Action Watch is out;
- When the house painters announce they’re not leaving: “Britain plans to tighten anti-squatter laws” [NYT]
- “Courts Call Out Copyright Trolls’ Coercive Business Model, Threaten Sanctions” [EFF] “Righthaven’s Copyright Trolling is a Bankrupt Idea” [Cit Media Law] More: Vegas Inc.
- “Twombly is the Logical Extension of the Mathews v. Eldridge Test to Discovery” [Andrew Blair-Stanek via Volokh, Frank] “Four more reasons to love TwIqbal” [Beck] “O’Scannlain says 9th Circ has adopted ‘Iqbal lite’ pleading standard, ‘Same insufficient complaints, fewer dismissals!’” [@ScottKGraham on dissent in Starr v. County of Los Angeles, PDF]
- Florida farms sell raw milk as (wink) “pet food” [Sun-Sentinel]
Tagged as:
antitrust,
class actions,
cy pres,
food safety,
Google,
litigation finance,
pleading,
RightHaven
- Ninth Circuit: Holland America cruise line not responsible for customer’s swimming mishap at Mexican beach [Metropolitan News-Enterprise]
- “President Perry would mean high noon for trial lawyers” [Kurt Schlichter, Washington Examiner; Politico; Prof. Bainbridge ("If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him")] Christie praises Perry’s “laudable” record on liability reform [PolitickerNJ] “Perry’s ‘loser pays’ is an economic winner” [Patrick Gleason and Jason Russell, Washington Times; Mass Tort Prof; background] Missing the point on the Texas med-mal experience [Coyote, earlier here, here, etc.] A bad sign: Gov. Perry reaches out to Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio [NRO, background] Another: courting social conservative vote, he pledges interference in state marriage law Houston Chronicle.
- Alan Lange and Tom Dawson discuss their Dickie Scruggs book [Above the Law, background]
- Hospital pays $25M to settle lawsuit charging lack of Katrina preparedness [White Coat]
- Democratic majority on CPSC plans to ram through burdensome CPSIA testing and certification rule next month [Commissioner Nancy Nord, more]
- For matching willing buyers with sellers through Canadian pharmacy ads, Google agrees to pay fine of $500 million, a forfeiture geared to the revenue the pharmacies (not it) took in from the ads [Atlantic Wire, Chris Fountain]
- “Woman Won’t Have to Pay for Her Own Cavity Search” [Lowering the Bar]
Tagged as:
advertising,
CPSC,
CPSIA,
cruise ships,
Dickie Scruggs,
forfeiture,
Google,
hospitals,
Katrina,
Rick Perry,
same-sex marriage,
Texas
- Even before federal raid on Gibson, Lacey Act scared owners of vintage instruments: “I don’t go out of the country with a wooden guitar.” [Eric Felten/WSJ, AW, PoL, Trevor Burrus/Cato]
- Dear NYT contributor Bakan: getting your kids’ attention may not require overthrowing world corporate economy [Nancy French, NR "Home Front"] More: Sullum.
- “West Memphis Three” freed [Damon Root, Greenfield]
- Forest Labs case: after outcry, feds drop effort to force firing of drug company CEO not charged with wrongdoing [WSJ, WLF] Background: Charles Hooper & David Henderson, Hoover (“The FDA’s War on Drugs”), The Economist (“The government seeks to sack an innocent boss”, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steve McConnell/Drug and Device Law, Josh Wright/Truth on the Market]
- Google paid dearly in smartphone deal for our dysfunctional patent system [Gordon Crovitz] “Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents” [Timothy Lee, Forbes]
- Lawyer’s suit: Kasowitz firm ignored his “superior legal mind” [Lowering the Bar, Above the Law]
- “In Chicago, You Need a License To Help Others Get a License” [Mark Perry]
Tagged as:
cellphones,
Chicago,
child protection,
environment,
Google,
music and musicians,
patent quality,
pharmaceuticals
- Correct result, yet potential for mischief in latest SCOTUS climate ruling [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, my earlier take]
- Wouldn’t even want to guess: how the Howard Stern show handles sexual harassment training [Hyman]
- Philadelphia: $21 million award against emergency room handling noncompliant patient [Kennerly]
- Antitrust assault on Google seems geared to protect competitors more than consumers [Josh Wright]
- “They knew there was a risk!” Curb your indignation please [Coyote]
- Theme issue of Reason magazine on failures of criminal justice system is now online;
- “Why Your New Car Doesn’t Have a Spare Tire” [Sam Kazman, WSJ]
Tagged as:
antitrust,
autos,
broadcasters,
climate change,
crime and punishment,
emergency medicine,
global warming,
Google,
harassment law,
Philadelphia,
safety
- “Electronic Arts Has Right to Refer to John Dillinger in Its Video Games” [Volokh]
- Fans of “Civil Gideon” (constitutional entitlement to publicly funded lawyers in civil cases) glum that SCOTUS didn’t give idea much of a boost in Turner v. Rogers case last week [Concurring Opinions symposium, ABA Journal]
- Feds (in particular, the FTC) go after Google [AW, Manne & Wright/TotM, Stoll]
- “The Dept of Education, Yale, and the New Threat to Free Speech on Campus” [Greg Lukianoff/HuffPo] “In Making Campuses Safe for Women, a Travesty of Justice for Men” [Christina Sommers, Chron Higher Ed] Feds crack down on campus flirting and sex jokes [Michael Barone, D.C. Examiner] Heather Mac Donald on Yale hostile-environment complaint [City Journal, earlier] “Why Cross-Examination Rights Matter in Campus Sexual Harassment Cases” [Hans Bader]
- Trial lawyer propaganda coup? HBO airs plaintiff’s-side “Hot Coffee” documentary [Abnormal Use, Ted Frank/PoL, Schwartz/NYT, more, yet more]
- Financial institutions abroad will be pleased to be roped into U.S. regulatory schemes. Won’t they? [Dan Mitchell, Cato at Liberty]
- Proposal for judge-guided negotiations in NY med-mal cases leaves Ted Frank underwhelmed [PoL]
- “Virginia inmate sues after gruesome tries at sex change” [AP]
Tagged as:
banks,
civil gideon,
colleges and universities,
Federal Trade Commission,
Google,
hostile environment,
medical malpractice,
prisoners,
right of publicity,
videogames
“Finding that Google has no duty to provide accurate content on its website, a Utah judge has thrown out the novel case of a woman who claimed that faulty walking directions on Google Maps caused her to be hit by a car.” [OnPoint News, earlier here, etc.] The same post, updating another story we’ve noted, reports that a bill to make guidebook publishers liable for some injuries to tourists has died in the Hawaii legislature.
Tagged as:
Google,
Hawaii,
publishers,
roads and streets
- “Woman Sues Adidas After Fall She Blames on Sticky Shoes” [Lowering the Bar]
- Texas lawmakers file loser pays proposals [SE Tex Record] Actual scope of proposals hard to discern through funhouse lens of NYT reporting [PoL] Marie Gryphon testimony on loser-pays proposals in Arkansas [Manhattan Institute, related]
- Google awarded patent on changing of logo for special days [Engadget via Coyote]
- “Civil Gideon in Deadbeat Dad Cases Would Be ‘Massive’ Change, Lawyer Tells Justices” [Weiss, ABA Journal, Legal Ethics Forum]
- Amateur-hour crash-fakers in Bronx didn’t reckon on store surveillance camera [NY Post]
- “Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in Cobell Defend $223M Fee Request” [BLT]
- Show of harm not needed: FDA kicks another 500 or so legacy drugs off market, this time in the cold-and-cough area [WaPo]
- “Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Rough Justice Without Due Process” [Andrew Trask, WLF]
Tagged as:
Arkansas,
civil gideon,
crash faking,
FDA,
Google,
loser pays,
patent quality,
product liability,
slip and fall,
Texas,
Wal-Mart v. Dukes
- Maricopa-cabana: Sheriff Arpaio uses tank (with Steven Seagal along) to raid cockfight suspect [KPHO, Coyote, Greenfield, Balko]
- Malpractice reform in New York is about more than money (though it’s about that too) [Paul Rubin, TotM; NYDN]
- EEOC initiative combats alleged employer bias against unemployed job applicants [Bales/Workplace Prof, Hyman]
- After court rejection of Google Books settlement, where next? [Timothy Lee/ArsTechnica, David Post]
- When your lawyerly conduct has been eviscerated by Judge Easterbrook, you know it [Above the Law]
- Ninth Circuit rules on legality of keyword advertising using other firms’ trademarks [Coleman]
- Election showdown over future of Wisconsin Supreme Court [PoL, more, Esenberg, Althouse]
- Legal battle follows NYC’s attempted application of sidewalk bicycle ban to unicyclist [AP]
Tagged as:
advertising,
copyright,
EEOC,
Frank Easterbrook,
Google,
medical malpractice,
New York,
NYC,
Phoenix,
Wisconsin
