Ch 9

One of the major problems in pursuing an online defamation claim is that:

Discovering the identity of the person who posted the defamation is often extremely difficult

True or False: In 2003, Congress enacted the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, which effectively eliminated unsolicited emails.

False

True or False: Posting negative comments about other individuals on your social media is protected speech.

False

True or False: Similar to trademark infringement, a claim of trademark dilution in the online world requires proof that consumers will likely be confused by a connection between the unauthorized use and the mark.

False

Which of the following activities is prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act?

False information Deceptive information Sending messages to randomly generated e-mail addresses False return addresses Misleading information

Can the company use the candidates' social media websites to determine who they wish to hire?

In most states, yes, as only as they only use publicly available material. In most states employment decisions can be made using information on a candidate's social media. However, a breach of privacy may occur if the account is hacked into or otherwise accessed in a way in that would violate an expectation of privacy of the account owner.

Which one of the following is NOT a reason why lawsuits against cybersquatters are difficult to pursue?

Most cybersquatters have limited mastery of english

Hobbs owns a small Internet service provider and is sued by Allison because someone who pays Hobbs a monthly fee posted a defamatory statement about Allison. Will Allison prevail in court?

No, because the Communications Decency Act treats Internet service providers differently from print publishers.

Because you are suspected of sending out bulk unsolicited e-mail advertisements, your Internet service provider is asked by the FTC to supply information on what you do in foreign jurisdictions. Will you succeed in a lawsuit against your Internet service provider for illegally providing such information to the FTC?

No, because the U.S. Safe Web Act provides immunity to the ISP from liability for such action.

If the company wants to monitor the employees' emails, does it have give notice to them?

No, but it would be a good idea because notice generally eliminates the expectation of privacy. While it is not necessary in most cases to give notice of monitoring of employees, certainly any expectation of privacy would be eliminated by the notice. This may reduce unwanted behavior as well as cut down on potential litigation. The ECPA specifically allows the monitoring of employees' communications in the ordinary course of business. There is no requirement that notice is given to the employees, but it may make employees feel that their privacy is more protected.

Would monitoring web surfing of employees be treated differently than monitoring of emails?

Not usually. Generally the same rules apply to web surfing as they do to email monitoring. Employees are generally held to have no expectation of privacy when using the employer's computers or servers to surf the web.

Would Gary have a good case for wrongful termination in this scenario?

Probably not, since there is no expectation of privacy when an email is sent from the company servers. The ECPA specifically allows the monitoring of employees' communications in the ordinary course of business. The courts have consistently held that there is no expectation of privacy for emails on a company server. This is true regardless of whether there is a specific company policy or not.

Would the company be allowed to monitor the emails of his employees?

Probably, the ECPA specifically permits employers to monitor employees' communications in the ordinary course of business. The ECPA specifically allows the monitoring of employees' communications in the ordinary course of business. There is no requirement that notice is given to the employees, but it may make employees feel that their privacy is more protected.

Which of the following activities is NOT prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act?

Sending junk mail via the USPS.

Which agency investigates consumer complaints of privacy violations?

The Federal Trade Commission.

Typosquatting

The act of buying domain names that are similar to well-known domains, except for slight misspellings.

Cybersquatting

The act of registering a domain name that is the same as, or confusingly similar to the tradement of another and then offering to sell that domain name back to the trademark owner

Which of the following does NOT have to be true for the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act to apply.

The domain name is in another language

True or False: Cyber torts include online defamation.

True

True or False: Using another's trademark in a meta tag will normally constitute trademark infringement.

True

Because the federal CAN-SPAM Act only applied to e-mails originating in the United States, Congress enacted the _________________

U.S. Safe Web Act

Situations in which people have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

When they enter their personal banking information online When they disclose online credit information to obtain a loan

Could the company require that the candidates divulge their passwords so that they can see what is on parts of the websites that are not publicly available?

Yes in most states. While there is a trend by states to enact legislation to protect individuals from having to disclose their social media passwords, this has only been adopted by a few states.

If the candidates were already working for the company, would the company be allowed to monitor their email communications that were during work made through their social media accounts?

Yes, if the interceptions were made in the ordinary course of business. As long as the monitoring was done in the ordinary course of business, it would likely fall into the "business-extension exception" to the ECPA.

Loss of _________ occurs when another party uses a domain name similar to yours.

goodwill

Alchin pays for and downloads a new exercise app on his smartphone. He believes that because he paid for it, he can legally make copies and sell them to his friends at the gym. He is wrong because:

he only obtained a license to use, not ownership of the app.