Computer Law – Page 14 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Truth in Googling: Is Unfair Competition the Answer?

Post author:Andrew Spillane
Post published:May 12, 2010
Post category:Computer Law Intellectual Property Law

In my freshman year of college, a long-time friend of mine and I decided to drive down to Chicago. Shortly before heading to the Cadillac Palace to claim our seats for a comedy act performing there that night, my companion, being an Asian-food connoisseur, steered our walk downtown towards a Japanese restaurant in River North. The interior design was stunning: dark, vaulting ceilings; a vibrantly colored fish tank as a focal point in the back; and an elliptical-shaped sushi bar in the center emanating the colors of the ocean. I can also picture the black and red sign outlining the specials at the establishment’s door. More vague, however, is my memory of one crucial detail about the restaurant: it’s name.

My inability to recall the name of that restaurant has prompted a flurry of Google searches on River North Japanese restaurants. In the process, I have found many other places with likewise appealing aesthetics and succulent sushi, but my searches have returned no hits that appear to be the restaurant I was looking for. The interior design of the River North establishment I found myself at distinguished it from every other restaurant Google has returned to me. But those searches no less have provided me with other possible establishments awaiting my next trip to Chicago.

Now for a counterfactual. How would my searches have turned out if I did remember the name of the restaurant?

To Zone or Not to Zone

Post author:Ashanti Cook
Post published:March 1, 2010
Post category:Computer Law Intellectual Property Law Popular Culture & Law

After my property ASP, I ended up in an interesting conversation about zoning. I know nothing about zoning both because I am a 1L and because I am from Houston, the only city in the country (to my knowledge and pride) without zoning.

As I listened to a few anectdotes and told a few of my own, I was reminded of the “mainland” in Second Life (r) (SL). I think of what I have been told about the reason that Houston “is the way it is,” generally meaning that there is a lot of mixing of buildings for public and private use and much city sprawl. I also begin to think of the mainland on Second Life (R). A chaotic place to say the least.

In an effort to better understand the basics of zoning, I looked it up in the dictionary and on Wikipedia. Here is a bit of what I’ve found.

Does Google Buzz Violate COPPA?

Post author:Bruce E. Boyden
Post published:February 17, 2010
Post category:Computer Law Privacy Rights

Danielle Citron over at Concurring Opinions invited me to write a guest post expanding on a comment I wrote yesterday on her post on the Google Buzz story. I’m reposting it here with more of the links enabled, which got lost in translation:

Google’s new social networking service, Google Buzz, has obviously been all over the news lately, in part for various complaints about Google’s privacy practices. Those complaints have focused on the way in which Buzz, enrollment in which was automatic for Gmail users, initially defaulted to effectively sharing users’ email contacts with the public. EPIC has filed a complaint with the FTC arguing that this combination of automatic enrollment and “opt-out” of information-sharing was an unfair or deceptive trade practice in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.

But that’s not what caught my attention in Danielle’s post. What really set off alarm bells in my head was Danielle’s recounting how her children and their friends, all under the age of 13, suddenly had their Gmail accounts turned into Google Buzz accounts, and then proceeded to upload all sorts of information about themselves using the service. That raises the prospect that Google Buzz, by collecting such information without getting the appropriate parental consent, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. I haven’t seen any discussion of this issue anywhere else.

COPPA is one of the few privacy statutes with real bite: it has strict rules that require substantial effort to follow, and the FTC has shown itself to be a vigorous enforcer. Indeed, the FTC has gone after two social networking sites for COPPA violations recently, and in one case imposed a fine of $1 million. So is Google violating COPPA? The answer is unclear but there’s definitely risk for Google here.