Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:16 pm

Traverse Internet Law on WebMaster Radio Tomorrow, by John W. Dozier

March 16, 2010

Join Traverse Internet Law at 5:20 PM Eastern on WebMaster Radio will be discussing, and taking calls about, the Google Bomb book and commercial email. Interested in compliance issues and the latest and greatest email issues? This chat may be for you.
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:17 pm

Traverse Internet Law at AdTech San Fran, by John W. Dozier

April 16, 2010

The Traverse Internet Law Federal Court Report reaches thousands of subscribers each month. We pick the best Internet lawsuits filed each month and explain what it means to your online business. And best of all....it's free. Just go to the Traverse Internet Law homepage and follow the directions for signing up. It's getting rave reviews. After all, where else can you find out who is being sued and for what?
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:17 pm

National Cyberlaw Bar Association Forming, by John W. Dozier

June 08, 2010

Finally, a professional group for true Internet lawyers. An organizational meeting of the Cyberlaw Bar Association is being held July 31 through Augst 1 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Here is the website for the bar association and conference: www.cyberlawbarassociation.com.

If you are an Internet lawyer, you need to be there.
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:18 pm

Internet Lawyer Summit in Vegas, by John W. Dozier

April 02, 2011

Traverse Internet Law is organizing the first Cyberlawyer Summit to be held May 11 and 12 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Eighteen of the leading Internet lawyers from across the country have been invited to this small, exclusive meeting focused on client development, synergistic opportunities and business operations. Many of the leading Internet law firms in the country are confirmed participants.

If your law firm is dedicated predominantly to cyberlaw, preferably with a litigation or dispute resolution slant, and you are interested in participating, then drop an email at cybertriallawyer.com (Traverse Internet Law) with information about yourself and your practice. Keep in mind that these meetings during the summit is going to involve mostly senior lawyers with decision making ability...the movers and shakers so to speak. If you are one of those, drop us a line. This is not an educational meeting for young lawyers or those new to the space. Very advanced knowledge and expertise, and seasoned internet law and business operational and marketing capabilities, will be helpful.
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:18 pm

Traverse Internet Law Data Loss Analysis, by John W. Dozier

April 15, 2011

Data loss has been a hot topic lately. When Epsilon lost the email addresses of millions to hackers, everyone was up in arms and awaiting an onslaught of lawsuits. But Epsilon did not provide services to the consumers victimized by this loss and the only basis for a lawsuit may be a claim asserted by consumers against those very prominent companies who entrusted their data to Epsilon.

At Traverse Internet Law we noted a decision handed down last week in Federal Court in California. The case is linked here: Claridge v. Rockyou, Inc. Note the real problem with proving actual damages in these types of cases. How did losing your data really cost you money? Mere allegations of speculative harm that might arise in the future is likely inadequate to sufficiently allege an injury in fact. Here the Court states its reservations about the injury being adequate but defers his judgment on the issue because of the evolving and unsettled nature of the law on this point.

Traverse Internet Law suggests that in any data loss case the best allegation of damages might be elements laying out an actual or imminently anticipated need to purchase fraud and id theft prevention or detection services from a credit bureau. Given the speculation surrounding what damages are really incurred in data loss cases, such a quantifiable cost with a seemingly reasonable motivation (to curtail phishing expeditions) seems to make the most sense for meeting the damages element threshold.

Tell us what you think. And is there any hope of Epsilon being held accountable for the data loss from consumers? Surely retailers of all sorts are going to look to Epsilon for compensation. Can consumers victimized do likewise?
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:21 pm

Medical Justice and Eric Goldman's Attack Site, by John W. Dozier

April 16, 2011

Eric Goldman is a professor at Santa Clara University and as a former general counsel to Epinions.com has a long standing view of free speech that is, to say the least, one sided. He seems to always support a very liberal interpretation of the scope of free speech in his blog posts, comments, lectures, and presumably in his classes. Now he has joined with UC Berkeley, that bastion of conservative and pro-business thought (tongue firmly implanted in cheek), to launch an attack website against an organization named "Medical Justice" that seeks to assist doctors being attacked by defamatory comments online. I would like to think that this site is truly focused on criticizing the tools offered by Medical Justice. For instance, Medical Justice encourages physicians to take copyright ownership of future comments made by patients so they can use a DMCA takedown notice if a comment is not to their liking and have it removed. I agree with Goldman that this approach is very problematic from a legal standpoint, raises some unanswered questions about the ability to waive constitutionally protected rights, and from a practical standpoint introduces a new risk to physician reputations. My opinion, and I have told many physicians exactly this, is that it is not a wise choice to use this tool or business practice to curb or curtail or prevent negative commentary. So in this sense, I agree with Goldman and his UC Berkeley free speechers. That is...substantively I agree with the primary legal arguments they make.

But the content on the website is misleading. It's not a balanced treatment of the problem. The site is an advocacy site...it advocates from the standpoint of free speech protecting a certain class of consumers and trumping all other rights to the extreme. And instead of offering real solutions, and recognizing that the playing field is unbalanced and against our medical professionals, it simply attacks one ill conceived effort to re-balance that playing field. So, in a nutshell, here is the real problem:

Physician after physician calls Traverse Internet Law to ask for our assistance. Some of these doctors are the tops in their fields with no malpractice claims, no ethics issues and no complaints for 40 years of practice. And then one day a patient who had an excellent outcome decides to criticize the doctor online and demands money from the doctor or the attack will escalate. As the doctor attempts to address the concerns of the former patient, it becomes apparent that there is no problem with the treatment and this is an extortion attempt. Since consumers generally conduct extensive research on doctors, criticism does not have to show up high in search results. Just about anyone can jump on the web and successfully "optimize" an attack against a physician so that it will show up high enough in search results to have an impact. The doctor cannot respond to the attack or criticism or defamation because HIPAA legally prohibits a specific response. And since details imply truth, any response would have to be generic in nature and not address the specific patient's complaints and appear unconvincing and make the problem worse. Now these complaints aren't what one would normally assume....a comment of dissatisfaction. And some of these complaints are all too often targeted at the deep pockets of doctors and include doctored photographs and outrageously false claims of sexual deviance or profoundly illegal actions. One "review" like this will offset 100 positive and honest reviews and place at immediate risk the economic viability of a physician's practice. So the doctor sometimes pays off the extortionist and the attacks cease. You can imagine, and rightfully so, that this is a ripe arena for extortionists to anonymously attack doctors and demand payoffs. Extortionists who have never been patients...but have access to a computer keyboard somewhere in the world. But more that happy to leave a "doctored" legacy that will live on forever in the online world and for generations to come unfairly impugn the character of a medical professional who has made a lifelong commitment to serve the public.


So instead of simply criticising the method by which a very serious problem is being attacked, and presenting the issue merely from the standpoint of free speech and copyright abuse, why not treat the issue in an holistic manner and offer some constructive solutions? The first obvious need is to amend the HIPAA law to permit doctors to defend themselves. Yes, even doctors should have their first amendment protected rights to free speech. Why not encourage Congress to recognize the free speech rights of physicians? So that the marketplace of ideas can operate without artificial impediments. So that the give and take of robust debate will effectively educate the consuming public. And so that free expression from all fronts and from all sides can be heard. That's free speech, Mr. Goldman. Tell your UC Berkeley friends that free speech isn't reserved exclusively for the consuming public, the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, those in despair, or the scofflaws of the web.

Now go launch a site that encourages Congress to amend HIPAA so doctors can exercise their free speech rights. Be a true advocate for free speech. If such a change was made to HIPAA Traverse Internet Law would lose a big part of our law practice...but it is still the right thing to do.

If you believe in freedom of speech, you should believe in freedom of speech for everyone.
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:21 pm

MySpace Murder in Virginia, by John W. Dozier

October 12, 2012

A suspect in the mass murder of four parents and teens in Farmville, Virginia has been arrested at the airport trying to flee to California.

In "Google Bomb" I call for changes to Section 230 immunity so that web sites have the ability to self police. Right now, as the law stands, their hands are tied.

We need change. Now.
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Re: Dozier Internet Law, by John W. Dozier

Postby admin » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:23 pm

Copyright Lawyer, Copyright Attorneys, and Copyright Lawyers, by John W. Dozier

Want to see our take on the most important Federal lawsuits dealing with the Internet and copyright infringement filed last week? We monitor the country daily and offer our thoughts about each. Just read on down to the bottom of this page and find out what practices are leading to lawsuits!

Copyright law protects original creative works, excluding purely functional work. As seasoned copyright lawyers, we sue (and defend suits), get websites pulled down without notice (and get them back up), and get competitors blacklisted from search engine advertising and organic indexed results (and get clients back into the engines). Cybertriallawyer.com copyright attorneys draft and serve “cease and desist” and copyright lawyer demand letters (and respond to them), assist local counsel as copyright attorneys, locate the right copyright infringement expert witness, and provide assistance and guidance throughout the entire process of protecting your valuable creative work (and defending against claims of copyright infringement asserted by other copyright lawyers and copyright attorneys). Copyright infringement (both sides of it) is a huge part of our practice as copyright attorneys. Consider just a sampling of the types of copyright infringement matters we deal with every day:

• Our client was sued for allegedly copying a competing website in Federal Court on the West Coast.
• Our client’s VP of Sales left the company and took with him a copy of the website, which he promptly launched.
• Our client’s VP of Sales left the company and took with him a copy of the website, which he promptly launched.
• Our client’s product photographs were taken and used by a competitor selling competing products.
• A major auction site refused to remove sites selling pirated versions of our client’s videos.
• Copies of our client’s poker site were being sold on major auction site with full license to resell to others.
• Furniture retailer’s high quality original photos were pilfered by a competitor.
• UK client had its E-book stolen and it was being sold on a competing website.
• Client’s content taken by a US competitor hosted overseas to avoid DMCA take down notice.
• Extensive documentation of educational site was taken by a competitor.
• Our client, after buying a website for six figures, found out the seller launched a competing replica site.
• A European based company copied our client’s website and attacked the integrity of our client on this site, using same meta tags and coding to get indexed high in organic search results.
• International immigration law website stole content from our client.
• Proprietary designs exhibited on our client’s website were taken and then, with the designs, two new sites launched to compete directly against our client.
• An accomplished author’s books were being copied and sold as e-books and used as content by websites.
• A major online merchant sued our client in Philadelphia for breach of contract, although the merchant had cancelled the contract and began a course of conduct including widespread copyright, trademark and patent infringement.
• Our European client had one of its volunteer chat moderators take the database of Q and A accumulated over many years and open a competing site in the US.
• A prominent retailer retained us after noticing that a smaller competitor’s site began looking more and more like its own over time, and the competitor had gone so far as to start replicating its content.
• Our client, a professional photographer, had some images taken by an industry site and demand was made for imputed license fees and the payment of attorney fees.
• Our publisher client’s photographs were sold to a competitor by the model and a DMCA takedown notice, cease and desist and demand letter were issued.
• A customer of our web developer client refused to pay for the work performed in building a website and we asserted a copyright infringement claim against the customer when the site was launched.
• A competitor of our client “scraped” its website and copied extensive materials later posted on a competing site, resulting in the issuance of a DMCA takedown notice and cease and desist letter.
• Our artist client found copies of some of her works on Ebay being sold without permission, and a cease and desist and DMCA takedown notice were issued to both Ebay and the seller.
• Our client’s stock market services site was copied and launched by a competitor overnight in violation of copyright infringement laws.
• Executives’ photographs were taken from the corporate website and republished online on a site attempting to extort money through disparaging allegations.
• Our client’s website was copied and hosted in a foreign country and the infringer obtained our clients membership list and sent emails reporting that our client had sold his business.
• A medical industry client continually is faced with “competitors” taking website content and we were retained to stop the practice.
• A college exceeded its license to use creative works of our author/client, and claims were asserted for imputed license fees and attorney fees.
• Our client’s website was copied and a competing copycat site launched to interrupt our client’s business.
• A global petroleum industry company retained us when its competitors were copying sections of its website focusing on employee and contractor recruitment for international projects.
• A competitor travel site copied our client’s website and meta tags and was using them as a redirect to generate higher organic results.
• A prominent televangelist with a robust online presence was being ripped off by licensees cutting out his website advertising when distributing his sermons.
• Our client, a businessman, wanted Usenet posts disabled from Google distribution since he never authorized the republication.
• A famous game website terminated a strategic relationship with our client, and we asserted that her contributions were copyright protected creative works for which she deserved compensation.
• Our syndicated national disc jockey client switched web developers and the old web developer asserted copyright ownership of his website.
• Our public employee association client had a falling out with its web developer and the developer took the website it had developed and sold it as its own work.
• An authorized distributor of a house product was terminated and it took our client manufacturer’s website photos and text, used both on its new website, and began selling competing products.
• An online e-marketer for whom we had written its terms of use had its entire website, including our contract, copied and launched by a competitor.
• Our retailer’s product descriptions were stolen and used on a competitor’s website.
• A major real estate industry blog’s content and code was stolen by a competitor.
• Our client found an online job request by a competitor looking for someone to steal its code and content.
• A competitor copied hundreds of images from our client’s site and placed them on its own site.
• An online retailer had its images and product descriptions taken by a competitor.
• Our theatrical design client had its work copied by competitors and sold online to unsuspecting clients.
• A music website was faced with potential copyright infringement claims from music posted by third parties.
• An employee claimed copyright ownership of the company website and threatened to resign and use the site to compete with our client.
• Our physician client’s website content was taken and used by a competing physician on his website.
• An artist retained our firm because his client asserted ownership over work he had done and tried to prevent him from licensing the work to other parties.
• A website owner was accused of using images on his website that had originally been posted by third parties without the appropriate license.
• An attorney practicing as a specialist took content from our attorney client and infringed on our client’s copyright rights by using the materials on his website claiming authorship.
• Both the Indian music label and Indian publishing society purportedly representing the label claimed separate damages against our client for unauthorized streaming of songs on his site.
• A client received a cease and desist from a competitor claiming copyright infringement on the concept and structure of its new website.
• An online fitness company took significant content authored by our client and used it on its own website.
• Product descriptions and images were taken from our client’s automotive industry website and used by a competitor.
• Images licensed from a photographer for use on our client’s website were the subject of efforts by the models to assert copyright infringement and unauthorized commercial exploitation claims.
• A gripe site complaining about our Central American real estate client used images, including our client’s logo, owned by our client.
• A recording artist’s girlfriend, running his website, stole the site when their relationship ended.
• Our online jewelry client selling “inspired by” jewelry was the recipient of a claim by a leading designer for copyright and trademark infringement.

Remember…as a copyright lawyer, we file suits (and defend suits), get websites pulled down without notice (and get them back up), and get competitors blacklisted from search engine advertising and organic indexed results (and get clients back into the engines). As copyright lawyers and copyright attorneys we serve and draft “cease and desist” and lawyer demand letters (and respond to them), assist local counsel, locate the right expert witness, and provide assistance and guidance throughout the entire process of protecting your valuable creative work (and defending against claims of infringement). Copyright infringement (both sides of it) is a huge part of what copyright lawyers do. Contact us and find out what we can do for you as your copyright lawyers and copyright attorneys.

We offer free consultations when you have a business copyright dispute and require an internet expert as a copyright lawyer, copyright attorney or copyright attorneys. Don’t you need the copyright lawyers that online businesses turn to when faced with a tough problem?

Copyright Lawyer Suit Summary

Set forth below is one of our summaries of a United States District Court federal lawsuit. If you are interested in reading about other lawsuits, in the order of most recent Federal Court filings first, you will find a link just below the case. Please understand that all facts, as well as references to the basis of the lawsuit, are our summarization of the allegations made by the party bringing the lawsuit. The facts may prove to be true or not true, and the plaintiff may or may not win the case. The bolded comments are Cybertriallawyer.com’s thoughts about the suit. Pay particular attention to the alleged conduct or practice that has resulted in the litigation. For a small business, litigation is expensive. As a copyright lawyer law firm, we are hired to file and defend suits nationwide, and we can also assist you in minimizing your risk in advance.

HERZBERG v. OFFICE FURNITURE INNOVATIONS, LLC, ET AL. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS (HOUSTON) 4:08-CV-00508

Let me see if I can get this right. The furniture store worked with a multimedia artist to come up with an image for the furniture store. When it was finished, the artist copyright protected it, and asked for an excessive license fee in the eyes of the furniture store. Do the concepts of a written contract, work made for hire, copyright assignment, and license agreement come to mind? Get the “little details”, like cost and ownership, in writing at the outset.

Plaintiff is a multimedia creator whose primary business is the implementation of theme-driven persuasion campaigns. In October 2006, Defendant Edison approached Plaintiff about designing and preparing an advertising piece for her furniture business. Defendant informed Plaintiff that she was interested in offering a donation to breast cancer research every time a potential customer sat in a display chair. Plaintiff agreed and began working on a unique design to suit Defendant Edison’s purposes. After Defendant Edison approved Plaintiff’s initial design concept, Plaintiff created an image that consisted of a single pink executive chair, arranged to face slightly toward the right and placed in front of a dark background. The phrase “Sit for the Cure” was digitally added to the top of the image. Plaintiff copyrighted his image. Defendant Edison ultimately refused to use Plaintiff’s image because of the cost of the licensing fee. In 2007 Plaintiff discovered that Defendants had started an advertising campaign, which included a website at http://www.sitforthecure.com, which featured a picture that was strikingly similar to Plaintiff’s image.

Plaintiff has filed suit against the Defendants in federal court in Texas, alleging copyright infringement, constructive trust, implied contract, conversion, fraud, and unfair competition. Plaintiff has asked the Court to order the Defendants to provide a full accounting of all profits and to award damages. Plaintiff has also asked that the Defendants be enjoined from using any material that infringes upon his copyright. Additionally, Plaintiff requested an award of attorneys’ fees and costs. Cybertriallawyer.com Cross-Reference Number 1041.

Want to see the latest court filings with Cybertriallawyer.com’s take on the cases? Visit the Cybertriallawyer.com Federal Court Report section dedicated to copyright infringement lawsuits: Copyright Infringement Case Notes. And, if you would like to browse trademark infringement, domain name dispute, and trade secret lawsuits, and get a good idea of who is getting sued for what, you can go to the Traverse Internet Law Federal Court Report Portal.
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