Earlier this year, we wrote about how publishing giant Reed Elsevier had decided to sue the band The Vandals, for supposedly violating a previous agreement not to use an album logo that parodied Reed's publication, Daily Variety:
While the band had agreed not to use the logo, images with the logo were being found on various websites, but it was other sites using it, not the band promoting it itself. Furthermore, it's clearly a parody, which should be legal (though it's complicated by the band's agreement to stop using the logo, so the contractual issues take precedence over the trademark/parody questions). What's amazing is that after all the negative attention being put on Reed over such a ridiculously minor issue, the company refuses to back down and is still pushing forward with the case. It's difficult to see why this makes sense in any way. Reed is a publishing giant. It hardly needs to win this lawsuit, and it's got nothing to do with protecting its trademark any more. Besides, this lawsuit has done a hell of a lot more to promote the old logo than anything that happened before.

Where this gets even more interesting (or potentially dangerous, depending on your opinion), is that the band's bassist, Joe Escalante, is a former entertainment lawyer who is representing the band in the case. Despite not being a litigator, he's been learning about litigation and even got himself admitted to practice law in Delaware, where the lawsuit was filed (the band is trying to get the case moved to LA). Escalante has been publicizing all of the aspects of the case, and the band is even holding a "fundraising" concert to fund the legal defense.

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Apple on Thursday loosened its restrictions on software developers who create apps for the iPhone and iPad.

We've been discussing for a while just how anti-transparent the USTR has been on ACTA negotiations, making totally bogus arguments, such as the idea that negotiators would walk away from the table if they didn't keep the document secret. Of course, it later turned out that it's been the US who has mainly been behind the secrecy. KEI has been pushing for more transparency on ACTA from the beginning, and famously had an FOIA request on ACTA denied due to ridiculously laughable claims of state secrets. However, a more recent request on any USTR discussions about transparency turned up an internal email from Stan McCoy, assistant USTR for intellectual property, entitled "Transparency soup," where he basically acknowledged the new (at the time) administration's request for more transparency, and laid out a "plan" for how to have the USTR pretend to be transparent, without actually being transparent. For the most part, the USTR has followed those plans, showing that it had already dug its heels in to be as opaque as possible, while paying lip service to transparency.

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U.S. Web surfers are spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google, according to new data from researchers at comScore ...

Slashdot recently pointed us to the fact that OSNews received a legal threat from Commodore USA for publishing an article that was highly skeptical of Commodore's Amiga plans. Slashdot focuses on the fact that the legal nastygram is obviously copied from ChillingEffects.org, including odd formatting and references. While that part is amusing, I don't think it's that interesting. While there's been some discussion about copyright on legal documents, in general, lawyers copy others' legal language all the time, and it's (mostly) considered to be okay.

What's more interesting to me is the threat itself. It's yet another case of someone getting upset about someone's opinion, and thinking that threatening a defamation lawsuit is somehow a good idea, rather than one that simply draws a lot more attention to the content they don't like. Just because someone says something you don't like, it doesn't mean it's illegal.

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Getting the word out promoting the benefits of science based medicine.

Guest: Dr. Steven Novella, academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine.

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Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Researchers report on the latest effort to tweak genes so that yeast cells can produce biofuel more cheaply and efficiently.

Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Space Adventures says it has reached "a unique agreement" with the Boeing Co. on future space transportation services.

Last year, we wrote about a lawsuit against Yahoo where Yahoo effectively lost its Section 230 safe harbors because an employee told someone they would takedown content, even if they didn't have to, based on Section 230. Taking that argument a step further, a guy named Scott P. sued Craigslist after the company did not successfully block fake posts made from someone pretending to be him, despite a customer service rep telling Scott that they would "take care of it." Craigslist did take down the posts, but there was simply no real way to promise that no new fake posts would ever get through again -- and, in fact, some did, leading to the lawsuit. Unfortunately, a court ruled that Craigslist may have lost its Section 230 protections for the same reason as the Yahoo/Barnes case. That seems odd, as the situation is somewhat different (promising to takedown content vs. supposedly promising never to let certain content go up again -- an impossible promise).

Craigslist is now appealing the ruling and the EFF has filed an amicus brief, pointing out that if this ruling stands, it actually goes against the deeper purpose of Section 230, which is to make service providers comfortable in moderating or taking certain steps to help users, without worrying about increasing liability on themselves. In other words, if such a ruling stands, then websites will be hesitant to help users at all for fear of losing Section 230 protections -- and that doesn't seem like a reasonable result.

Furthermore, as Eric Goldman noted back when the ruling first came out, this case is a perfect reminder of why Section 230 exists: to properly apply liability and not get people suing third parties: Overall, this case illustrates why 230 makes so much sense. The underlying problem involves a workplace harassment campaign that took place both online and off. Craigslist was just one of several tools used by the harasser(s) as part of the campaign. For example, the harasser(s) allegedly obtained a fake Hotmail account in the plaintiff's name, so why not sue Hotmail? The plaintiff didn't, even though the Hotmail account was an integral part of the scheme. Meanwhile, the people misusing the tools remain accountable for their choices. Most conspicuously, one harasser has already been criminally busted for his behavior in this matter. In light of the criminal bust, I don't understand why the plaintiffs think Craigslist should be part of the liability chain, and presumptively 230 reinforces its illogic by preventing the plaintiff from complaining about third party conduct. Hopefully the appeals court recognizes this and makes it clear that Craigslist is, in fact, protected.

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We were pretty skeptical two plus years ago when the details came out concerning the lawsuit between eBay and Craigslist over Craigslist's decision to exclude an eBay representative from its board to unilaterally diluting eBay and ignoring a proposed new board member, while holding board meetings without him. As we said at the time, it's quite clear why Craigslist did what it did, but that doesn't make it legal. And, in fact, a judge has now ruled in eBay's favor, rescinding the poison pill anti-takeover rules that Craigslist's board passed without eBay present. The whole situation really is a bit of a mess, and while I think Craigslist was wrong to take the actions it took here, it does make you wonder if eBay should recognize that having a board member on Craigslist's board is too big a conflict of interest. Updated: The original coverage of this news was a bit vague, but now the details are coming out, and the report is mixed: the dilution was rolled back, so eBay still owns the larger percentage, but eBay has been kept off Craigslist's board for now...

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A new virus based in e-mails with the subject line "Here You have" began running rampant Thursday, hitting corporate America hard.

If you have a Camp Rock fan in your house, then you probably already know that the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam released ...

It doesn't take photos, place calls or play 3-D movies, but the e-reader is this year's hottest gadget. It's easy to understand why: There are ...

Capitol Hill staffers have made progress stitching together cybersecurity proposals into a huge bill, aides said, with Senate leadership putting it on their short list for passage this year.

Adobe zero-day vulnerability in the wild, email virus shuts down big business, and when to Tweet and when not.

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william points us to a Gizmodo post highlighting a TSA poster that appears to be suggesting that people photographing airplanes at airports somehow have nefarious intentions: This really does seem bizarre. Is it really so evil to take photos of airplanes? Now, some might point out that they're just asking people to be "vigilant" (which is misleading anyway), but how does it help to suggest vigilance should be targeted at people doing an activity which is legal? It's the equivalent of crying wolf, and that doesn't help anyone.

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International Zune Pass, Google Instant search, Microsoft vs. the botnet, iTunes 10 as the last straw, and more.

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U.S. Web surfers are spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google, according to new data from researchers at comScore Inc.

Two fireballs that struck Jupiter this summer may have given the skywatchers who spotted them a great show, but the cosmic crashes also packed a punch on the gas giant.

AT&T touts network improvements under hail of criticism fiercewireless.com
Qualcomm studying use of MediaFLO technology to mitigate network traffic fiercebroadbandwireless.com
'Internet censorship is trade barrier', says Google exec theregister.co.uk
Internet video: broadband service provider threat or opportunity? fiercetelecom.com
Broadband Update: A call to support "Network neutrality" examiner.com
Jailbreakers find hole in Apple's iOS 4.1 just hours after release broadbandgenie.co.uk
No Verizon, not antenna, is iPhone 4's big problem msnbc.com
Mobilicity Sues Rogers Wireless Over Competition Law cellular-news.com
Acer: Apple products are "mutant viruses" electronista.com
Windows Phone 7 launching 11 October pocket-lint.com
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