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The Battle Between Facebook and Timelines

Back in September last year, Facebook was sued by Timelines.com for allegedly infringing the latter’s trademark right over the word “Timeline” in introducing the Facebook Timeline feature. Timelines.com is a website that allows users to record and share events,...

Supreme Court Decides Golan v. Holder

A law providing that millions of works created by foreign authors that had been in the public domain qualify for U.S. copyright protection was upheld on Saturday, January 18, 2012, when the Supreme Court decided Golan v. Holder (No.10-545).  The case involved the...

Beijing Requires Real Name Registration for Micro-blog Users

SINA WEIBO is the most widely used micro-blog in China, which has more than 300 million users by the end of 2011.  WEIBO is like the Chinese version of Twitter.  On December 16th, 2011, “Beijing Micro-blog Development Management Rules” were released by Beijing...

DOJ Reverses Stance on Legality of Online Poker?

For online poker aficionados, April 15, 2011, the so-called “Black Friday” is a date that lives in infamy. For those who are unfamiliar with the event, on Black Friday the owners of the three largest poker sites in the United States (PokerStars, Absolute Poker, and...

When does a website give jurisdiction?

A Massachusetts state court recently held that when a company has a website which directs consumers to in-state retailers that sell the company's products, it is sufficient for the court to take personal jurisdiction. In this specific case, the defendant, Salomon...

MTTLR Publishes Volume 18 Issue 1

On behalf of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, I am pleased to announce the publication of our Fall 2011 issue. Inside, you will find scholarship on the creativity effect in IP transactions, copyright reform, e-discovery, energy regulation,...

Louie and the Intermediaries

Louie C.K., the renowned comedian, released his latest comedy special in a most unorthodox way: charging $5 for an immediate, DRM-free download from his website. Instead of going with Comedy Central (which released his last special), HBO, or any other network, he...

Netflix to Join Facebook Feed

Netflix may now be able to use Facebook to further alienate its consumers while pursuing a lucrative revenue stream. The House amended the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) to relax written consent requirements for sharing information on movie rentals. This opens...

Concerns for Compensating Harms During Clinical Research

The first, and often only, financial concern of research participants is how much they are getting paid for participation.  In studies that do nothing more than measure reaction time to identify a number in a serial string of letters, there is little reason to be...

No Overtime for Overworked IT Workers?

On October 20th Senator Kay Hagen (D-NC) introduced the Computer Professionals Update Act (CPU Act) for consideration in the Senate. The bill seeks to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to expand the overtime exception for hourly workers to cover a wide swath of IT...

Expansion of Cyber Warfare… Possibly

In a small town outside Springfield, Illinois, a controversy emerged this past month as to whether or not the U.S. had fallen victim to its first known industrial cyber attack.  In a public water district, a water pump malfunctioned causing it to turn on and off until...

Opposition to SOPA Gaining Momentum

The Stop Online Piracy Act (along with the Senate version known as the Protect IP Act), introduced last month in the House by Representative Lamar Smith, aims to level a significant blow against offshore "rogue sites" that host copyright material. SOPA would allow the...

Samsung’s Potential Preemptive Strike to Avoid iPad Infringement

Apple’s litigious business strategy has been the source of discussion in the past, and the company seems to be continuing that trend in the iPad context. Android-based devices appear to be the biggest threat to Apple's market share dominance, and new competitors are...

Posts on the MTLR Blog are editorial opinion pieces written by student-editors of the Michigan Technology Law Review. The opinions expressed in these editorial posts are not espoused or endorsed by the University of Michigan or its Law School. To view scholarly Articles and Notes published by the Michigan Technology Law Review, please visit the MTLR home page.