Secondary liability conference Stanford thing

What if they called a conference on secondary liability on the Internet and no one told … well, me?

It happens.  I mean, that people could forget to tell me.  Imagine!  Whether the symposium itself really happened, well, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence.  Al I’m saying is I just can’t swear to it myself.  Nor could I fly to it myself because no one invited me, me, me!

But evidently in March of this year the Stanford Technology Law Review held a symposium called Secondary and Intermediary Liability on the Internet, “to discuss current and emerging issues in secondary and intermediary liability on the Internet. Panels focused on three areas of the law: Trademark, Copyright, and Privacy.”

You can check out the program and download audio of the three panels at the link.

I can’t but chuckle when seeing that my buddy Eric Goldman moderated the panel on “Emerging Issues of Secondary Liability in Trademark Law,” a panel that included my new friend Stacey Dogan (who moderated the panel I was on earlier this week).  Here are Eric’s notes from that day.

Why do I chuckle?  Because notwithstanding that he seems always to be writing about it, and here he is moderating a panel about it, Eric also always seems to be denying that there’s much of a “future,” so to speak, in secondary liability litigation.  He could be right.  Could be this is just an Internet thing. But someone out there wants to talk about this topic, and read about it, too, and the ones in the second category seem to always get Eric for the first category!  Just because he knows a bunch of stuff?

Trademark blogger Ron ColemanOf course, the best place to read about it, at least regarding secondary trademark liability, is Jane Coleman’s definitive treatise on the topic.  (Heck, she went to Stanford herself, even!)

Yes, that’s the one everyone’s using to prepare their presentations and papers and the topic and — with some exceptions — not citing or acknowledging.  Bloggers we trust, mostly.  But everyone else?

We know, people.  We have the server logs.  We can predict with 99% certainty what law firm is about to publish a newsletter, blog post or white paper, or file a brief, on the topic.  We know what obsolete law reviews are about to roll out obscure articles and which “well known” treatises are about to substantially “update” their offerings with enhanced treatment of secondary trademark liability whose outlines just happen to track the Jane Coleman treatise.

Internet thing!

Originally posted 2011-06-10 10:49:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Ron Coleman