Sounds Like an Inherent Problem in the Advertising Model, to Me. Reuters reports that "Google sued over 'click fraud' in Web ads." From the article: "Google has said it credits advertisers who have fallen prey to click fraud, but Click Defense charges that the company has not done enough to warn advertisers about the risks it presents or to protect them against it."

File Sharing Back in the Cross-Hairs. The AP reports that Feds Crack Down on Global Internet Piracy." From the article: "FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said. Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom." Reuters has this report, while internetnews.com weighs in with this.

Finally, Reuters speculates on the expected fall-out from the Grokster ruling in "BitTorrent may be next target for copyright cops." From the article: "Cohen recently created a search engine on the BitTorrent home page, which could be seen as encouraging piracy. And in a manifesto on his Web site from several years ago, he stated that one of his goals was to 'commit digital piracy.'"

Two Front War... Reuters reports that "AMD Japan files suit against Intel Japan." From the article: "The latest action in Japan follows a March ruling by Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that Intel had violated antitrust laws by offering rebates to five PC makers that agreed either not to buy or to limit their purchases of chips made by AMD or other rivals."

More in the Linux Saga. The AP reports that "Judge Won't Throw Out SCO Slander Lawsuit." From the article: "Lindon-based SCO says Novell hurt its business and reputation by publicly and emphatically denying it sold copyrights when it allowed SCO to take over the business of servicing Unix technology, an operating system used by large corporations."

News From Around the World. The AP reports that "India to tighten cyberspace laws." From the article: "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a special meeting of software company representatives Tuesday that stringent punishment would follow any breach of secrecy, illegal transfers of commercial information and other cyber crimes."

Processor Wars Heat Up. The Washington Post reports that "Firm Alleges Intel Tied Clients to Exclusive Deals." From the article: "AMD's suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, charges that Intel pushed manufacturers into exclusive or near-exclusive deals by making price cuts and rebates available to manufacturers only if they agreed to limit purchases from AMD."

Too Bad This Didn't Come Out Sooner. I would have been interested to hear the various IPL panelists' thoughts. Marty reports on the recent Second Circuit decision in the WhenU.com case in "2d Cir in WhenU: Sale and Placement Of Pop Up Ads Is Not Trademark Use."

They Kept the Napster Name... ... why not Grokster? Reuters reports that "Sony BMG eyes Grokster version despite court ruling." From the article: "'I'm hopeful we will move forward with a legitimate version of Grokster,' Andy Lack, chief executive of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, said in an interview. 'It won't be called Grokster, and it certainly won't be what Grokster is today,' he added."

Did Anyone Expect Them Not to Like the Ruling? Reuters reports that "Film, music companies hail Grokster ruling." From the article: "But entertainment executives said the strength of the Supreme Court decision in the case against Grokster could prompt file sharing networks to begin using filtering software that would ensure songs and videos downloaded across their networks are not illegal copies."

Dairy Industry in the Cross-Hairs. The AP reports that "Group to sue dairy over weight-loss claim." From the article: "The physicians committee, which advocates a vegan diet, asks a district court in Virginia to issue an injunction banning the ads. The filing claims that most scientific evidence shows people will either gain pounds or remain the same weight when increasing dairy consumption."

Even More on Grokster. Salon.com has an article entitled "Supreme Court's unsound decision from NYU professor Siva Vaidhyanathan. From the article: "If anyone infringes, it's Google: The company caches millions of Web pages without permission (again, giving copyright holders the option of protesting). And soon it will offer millions of copyrighted books in electronic form without payment or permission. How would Google fare in a post-Grokster world? The publishing industry no doubt wonders. And it just might sue to find out."

Grokster Round-up. The AP reports on today's decision in "Court: File-sharing services can be liable for music theft." Reuters has this report. The AP has industry reaction in "Grokster Decision Worries Tech Industry."

Grokster Overturned. The Supremes have handed down their opinion in MGM Studios v. Grokster, and have sided with the movie studios.

More on the Spyware Wars. The AP reports in "Little Agreement on Spyware Guidelines." From the article: "Symantec Corp. sought to pre-empt a lawsuit by filing one itself, asking a federal court to declare that it had the right to call Hotbot.com Inc.'s toolbar adware. Hotbot did not respond to requests for comment."

How Long Until UDRP Decisions No Longer Make News? Reuters reports that "Saint-Exupery estate wins 'cybersquatting' case." From the article: "The literary estate of French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery on Friday won a cybersquatting case to evict a Virgin Islands operator whose Web Site sells memorabilia linked to the creator of 'The Little Prince.'"

Guess I Won't Be Using Sprint. Hot on the heels of this morning's IPL panel on spyware comes the AP's report "Major Advertisers Caught in Spyware Net." From the article: "Melinda Tiemeyer, spokeswoman for Sprint PCS, said Internet users have clicked on ads delivered by adware, meaning they find them useful. Sprint is OK with using adware because users, she said, accept it in exchange for phone service offers and discounts." (How about a class action against the people who actually click on these ads, making themprofitable?)

So Do You Think They Have Special Training Classes for This? The AP reports in "Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs." From the article:

Copyright law requires photo labs to be on the lookout for portraits and other professional work that should not be duplicated without a photographer's permission. In the old days, questions about an image's provenance could be settled with a negative. If you had it, you probably had the right to reproduce it.

Now, when images are submitted on CDs or memory cards or over the Web, photofinishers often have to guess whether a picture was truly taken by the customer — or whether it was scanned into a computer or pilfered off the Internet.

Guess I'll Get to Keep My Crackberry. Reuters reports in "RIM NTP workaround for use in all BlackBerries -CEO." From the article: "RIM said it had developed a technology to work around the NTP patents, which it could use as an alternative, but it gave few details."

Eyes on the EU. Reuters reports in "Showdown looms over patenting bill." From the article: "Member states and the European Parliament are looking at a bill on patenting inventions that use software. The legislature's legal affairs committee is due to debate the bill on Monday and vote on Tuesday."

It's Over. Law.com reports in "Long-Running Patent Fight Winds Down With Decision in 'Festo' Case." From the article: "One of the longest and most controversial patent battles may have come to an end with a federal court's ruling that SMC Corp. did not infringe Festo Corp.'s rodless cylinder."

What, Does Apple Have a "Sue Me" Sign on its Back. Bag and Baggage reports: "On Monday, a lawsuit was filed in Vermont alleging that Apple's iPod infringes this U.S. patent (no. 5,864,868) for '[a] computer system and method for controlling a media playing device.' The patent holder is David Contois of eMusicGear.com."

What's Good for the Generics... The AP reports in "Drug Patents Don't Bar Rival Research - Yahoo! News." : "It means that big drug companies will have more flexibility to start experimenting with potential therapies so long as they cannot feasibly be marketed until after a competitor's patent expires. Lower courts will have to sort out just how much leeway the companies will have."

Circuit Split? I guess it's possible to distinguish this case from the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in the NWA case, as the 9th Circuit was concerned with the underlying copyrighted work, while the Sixth Circuit's decision involved the copyright to the audio recording, nevertheless, it appears that the circuits are taking vastly different approaches to musical sampling cases. The AP reports in "Court Won't Review Beastie Boys Lawsuit." From the article: "The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to dismiss Newton's lawsuit alleging copyright infringement. The appeals court reasoned that the short segment in 'Pass the Mic' was not distinctive enough to be considered Newton's work."

Sounds Like the Huck Finn Case Earlier. Copyfight points us to yet another case of rights holders pulling the plug on a musical for unusual casting here. From the write-up: "a stage production of Grease was halted by the rights organization because the female cast was going to play female students in an all-girls school putting on a performance of Grease."

Interesting UK Ruling. Internetnews.com reports that "Court Tosses Patent Case Against Corbis, Getty." From the article: "Regarding the point of sale issue, the judge cited a previous case which determined that the material object must be offered for sale at a particular location, and, specifically, did not include the hard drive of a computer. Because users of Getty's service download digital files onto their hard drives, it didn't infringe, he found."

Blame it on the Lawyers... Wired reports that "Music Muffled in Star Wars Game." From the article: "As musicians, the characters play pretend, virtual instruments like the slitherhorn, ommni box or the nalargon, but are limited to a handful of canned tunes. Lawyers at Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts envision a legal nightmare if musicians were to re-create music copyrighted in the physical world."

I Question How Many Will Limit Themselves to the New TLD. The AP reports that "Internet Group OKs 'Xxx' Web Addresses." From the article: "ICM contends the 'xxx' Web addresses, which it plans to sell for $60 a year, will protect children from online smut if adult sites voluntarily adopt the suffix so filtering software used by families can more effectively block access to those sites. The $60 price is roughly ten times higher than prices other companies charge for dot-com names."