Balough
November 14, 2019
(November 14, 2019) A photographer cannot sue for copyright infringement when his image was partially used without permission in an online article that criticized a newspaper article using with permission the full image. The court found the subsequent partial use constituted was fair use. Stephen Yang took a picture of Dan Rochkind or an article […]
Balough
October 28, 2019
(October 28, 2019) Make sure the tactics used by your social media influencers and product reviewers are not deceptive and the posts are accurate, or the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may come knocking. Two recent cases by the FTC emphasize this point. In the first, the FTC found Devumi, LLC and its owner engaged in […]
Balough
October 4, 2019
(October 4, 2019) The power of EU members to order removal of internet content extends worldwide, the European Court of Justice found. The ruling came in a case where Facebook was ordered to remove or block content not only from its Ireland-based server, but worldwide. The Facebook page was found by Austrian courts as harmful […]
Balough
September 2, 2019
(September 2, 2019) For the second time this year, Richard C. Balough has authored a book chapter for the American Bar Association. The new chapter is included in the ABA’s The Law of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Machines. The chapter discusses whether a work created by artificial intelligence may be patented or copyrightable in the United States. […]
Balough
August 9, 2019
(August 9, 2019) A class settlement with Google Inc. that would pay a couple million dollars to class counsel and a small contribution to privacy organizations was rejected by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. “The vista view of this case is not pretty,” the court said in its opinion sending the case back to […]
Balough
May 1, 2019
(May 1, 2019) A former employee who renamed his Twitter handle so that users would be redirected to his new employer’s site may be sued for conversion and replevin, a federal district court found. Gregory Johnson was an employee of Farm Journal, Inc., an agricultural media company that publishes The Packer and Produce Retail. His […]
Balough
April 8, 2019
(April 8, 2019) If you want to expand your business by giving away product and asking customers to post favorable reviews, don’t follow the UrthBox, Inc. marketing plan, or you will pay a hefty fine to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). UrthBox sells snack products via the web. Starting in 2016, the company offered a […]
Balough
March 29, 2019
(March 29, 2019) Just check one of four boxes on the Office Depot/OfficeMax PC Health Check Program and it will find malware on your computer, even though the result is not linked to any scan. Confused? The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) found this practice deceptive, too. To settle the case, the company and the program […]
Balough
March 28, 2019
(March 28, 2019) The European Union has modified its Digital Single Market directive on copyrights to make it easier for copyright holders to receive compensation when their works are used online in the member countries. The changes are in two areas: authors and performers whose work is posted online and press publishers. As to authors […]
Balough
March 21, 2019
(March 21, 2019) The question of damages in a copyright battle between Zillow and a professional photography company that takes pictures of houses for sale raises the important, but sometimes overlooked, question of whether to register images as a compilation or individually. The wrong decision could be costly. Zillow, the online real estate site, was […]
