by Paul Alan Levy Yesterday I discussed a lawsuit filed by Amazon seeking relief against over a thousand anonymous individuals who offered to sell their services posting phony positive reviews about products available for sale on Amazon. The theory of Amazon's complaint is that the users are all registered Amazon users and hence forbidden from […]
Author Archives: Paul Levy
by Paul Alan Levy The problem of false reviews bedevils web sites that invite customer reviews as a basis for other consumers to judge goods and services available to them on the market. Disgruntled merchants can be counted on bring defamation claims against false negative reviewers, but few merchants feel they have any incentive to […]
You would probably assume that Ben Carson and his presidential campaign would be thrilled that so many people across America are creating T-shirts, mugs and other items touting his candidacy for the presidency, saying “Ben Carson for President 2016" or using more creative slogans, plastering his face on such items. And you would think that […]
by Paul Alan Levy Med Express, a Medina Ohio company that faced serious and widespread online obloquy during the spring of 2013 for filing a libel suit against two eBay users who posted mildly negative (but entirely truthful) feedback, has been ordered to pay nearly $20,000 in attorney fees and expenses for the work of […]
by Paul Alan Levy Louisiana lawyer David Groner has made a few mistakes. Which was the most serious? David Groner's Misconduct Toward Clients At some point time before January 18, 2007, one of Groner’s associates filed a lawsuit on behalf of some clients in the wrong venue; the defendants moved to dismiss. Groner’s firm nevertheless […]
by Paul Alan Levy This spring I reported on a decision of the Virginia Supreme Court that overturned a contempt citation against Yelp for honoring its users First Amendment right to post pseudonymous criticisms of a Virginia merchant called Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, because Hadeed refused to present any evidence that the reviewers had made any […]
by Paul Alan Levy Techdirt carries a discussion of a recent decision dismissing a class action complaint filed against Yelp on behalf of Yelp users contending that, because their reviews provide content that allows Yelp to profit through the sale of advertising, reviewers are employees who are entitled to payment for their labor under the […]
The New York Times carries a story about the punishing pace that Amazon staff have to endure as the company squeezes every ounce of productivity out of them. Work-life balance? What's that?
by Paul Alan Levy Several years ago, the notorious Hollywood mouthpiece Martin Singer sent a demand letter to the San Diego Reader, in reaction to its having inquired about a pending law suit, threatening to sue it in the event that any story it might write about the subject of the inquiry and further threatening […]
by Paul Alan Levy A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a Ninth Circuit decision, Multi Time Machine v. Amazon.com, that undid a great deal of progress made in that court undoing the adverse effects of that Court's decision in Brookfield Communications v. West Coast Video; last week, I noted that Amazon had sought […]