tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1312262 2009-12-02T17:56:58-08:00 John W. Dozier, Jr., Esq., Internet Lawyer, President of Dozier Internet Law PC (PEER ratings: "AV" by Martindale Hubbell (Internet Lawyer), "Legal Elite in Intellectual Property" by Virginia Business Magazine and Virginia Bar Association, "SuperLawyer" by Superlawyer Magazine, and member of the Bar Register of Preeminent Attorneys in the law of the Internet), offers a balanced Internet lawyer perspective on the law of the web. Dozier Internet Law, the Internet Lawyer experts. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e201287604981d970c 2009-12-02T17:56:58-08:00 2009-12-02T17:56:58-08:00

We've been working hard the past month at Dozier Internet Law getting clients compliant with the new FTC rules on online marketing that became effective December 1, 2009. Many businesses in the online lead generation industry have apparently been taken in by some bloggers claiming, unfortunately in error, that the new regs do not apply to lead generation. "Unfortunately in error" because...most lead generation activities are, indeed, covered by the new affiliate marketing rules. Now, a lead generation business might ask...how that could be? We are not affiliate marketers. We earn our own keep, go out as entrepreneurs and generate...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e20120a6f5bfc9970b 2009-12-01T07:09:51-08:00 2009-12-01T07:09:51-08:00

Effective Dec. 1, 2009, the FTC has changed the playing field for online marketing. Mandatory commercial interest notices, new rules for endorsements...regulations and laws are just beginning to catch up to what had become standard business practice abuses. If you haven't had your lawyer review your content, assist you with the legal notices now required, and explain the expanded liability that now comes with using affiliate marketers, you may want to do so today. Or contact Dozier Internet Law and we would be happy to discuss the landscape. These changes are huge to most of the online marketing world.

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e20120a6d4d5e7970b 2009-11-24T21:04:24-08:00 2009-11-24T21:04:24-08:00

Effective next week, the North Carolina legislature has passed, and the Governor has signed, what appears to be the strongest and broadest CyberBullying law in the US. At Dozier Internet Law, Firm President John W Dozier Jr has been calling for stronger legislation to deal with cyberstalking and cyberbullying. The following conduct intended to intimidate or "torment" a minor is now illegal and criminal in North Carolina: 1) Building a fake website or social network profile. 2) Posing as a minor in a chat room, in an email, or in an instant message. 3) Following a minor online or into...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e20120a6c25fae970b 2009-11-21T19:47:02-08:00 2009-11-21T19:47:02-08:00

Wow is all we can say at Dozier Internet Law. Google has just launched a robust index and search engine for legal decisions in the US. You can search by jurisdiction, subject, etc. and it will return results by relevance. It's called Google Scholar. Law firms have paid for research tools that generate this information over the years. Now everyone can research in a quality way the court decisions and other legal commentaries on the issue you face in the locality you live. This is groundbreaking and, as Googlers state on their blog, a real benefit to the everday man...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e2012875c09c1d970c 2009-11-20T18:43:00-08:00 2009-11-20T18:43:00-08:00

The Dozier Internet Law Federal Court Report is the monthly report of key Internet lawsuits filed each month. Plenty of AdWords trademark infringement lawsuits have been filed each month. Now one comes with a slight twist. Cannon and Dunphy, a personal injury law firm, starting keying its adds off the personal names of the very unique name partners of a big competing law firm. The firm targeted was Habush, Habush and Rottier. Cannon is alleged to have keyed ads on Google off of each personal name. In Wisconsin there is apparently a law prohibiting the commercial exploitation of someone's personal...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e20120a6b9afcd970b 2009-11-20T05:00:00-08:00 2009-11-20T05:00:00-08:00

First, we previously commented on the suggestion by a Harvard professor that Section 230 changes should be considered. Then, Dozier Internet Law ran headlong into a free speech debate about whether the new Federal Trade Commission guidelines creating liability for false advertising could be an exception to Section 230 immunity. The fact that Section 230 "scholars" disagree is enough to convince me that the FTC may just not like the limitations it arguably (albeit not convincingly) must abide by in enforcing online consumer fraud. Now comes a new bill filed by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Dem. from Pa., which would...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e2012875bb79d4970c 2009-11-19T21:12:00-08:00 2009-11-19T21:12:00-08:00

At Dozier Internet Law we face off against the likes of the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Citizen often. These groups provide free lawyers to crooks and scofflaws and miscreants when they are caught in all kinds of, shall we say, compromising situations. Now we have a new entry. Thanks to Harvard and its Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the Legal Assistance Network for Online Journalists has just launched. Basically, it offers pro bono (free) lawyers to defend citizen journalists and tries to maintain anonymity for the scofflaws who attack the reputations of others by publishing lies. Their...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e2012875b6c1f2970c 2009-11-18T22:43:58-08:00 2009-11-18T23:05:18-08:00

Dozier Internet Law deals with sucks sites and gripe sites all the time for clients. I even spent a chapter on the issue in the Google Bomb book. So, here is the situation. A disgruntled lawyer who got fired five years ago from Levinson Axelrod launches a sucks site about the firm and it becomes the coveted and valuable first result in Google when the law firm is searched. It probably comes as no surprise that the lawyer, Edward Heyburn, handles personal injury in New Jersey and reportedly directly competes against his old law firm for clients. So, if Sears...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e2012875b68544970c 2009-11-18T21:02:24-08:00 2009-11-18T21:18:55-08:00

At Dozier Internet Law a good majority of our law practice deals with online marketing. It seems our days are spent working on compliance issues, structuring contracts and litigating advertising related disputes. Needless to say, given the evolving interest in this space by the FTC and Congress and the Department of Justice and the State Attorneys General, this is a growth industry for an Internet lawyer. Now comes the following from the US Senate: Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty use aggressive sales tactics intentionally designed to mislead online shoppers. These three companies exploit shoppers‘ expectations about the online purchasing process to...

Dozier Internet Law tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357c8c8e69e20120a63a1c3b970b 2009-10-29T16:21:32-07:00 2009-10-29T16:21:32-07:00

Dozier Internet Law protects the reputations of professionals and businesses online, so we do our best to keep up with the latest developments about social media comments. This case was handed down this summer. In US v. Voneida the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury conviction for postings by the defendant on his MySpace page. There is a federal law that prohibits the transmission in interstate commerce of any communications containing any threat to injure another person. In this case, the Defendant made generalized threats that the Virginia Tech students got what they deserved and stated his support...

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