International Law

Friday Morning Fraud News

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William Zale, writing at Trade Regulation Blog, has a nice summary of the recent eBay and Tiffany's lawsuit:

"Famous jeweler Tiffany failed to establish that online marketplace eBay engaged in false advertising under the Lanham Act in connection with the sale of counterfeit jewelry on its site, the federal district court in New York City has ruled. 

eBay allegedly engaged in false advertising by

(1) referring to Tiffany merchandise in promotional features on the eBay home page and Jewelry & Watches page and

(2) purchasing "Tiffany" as a keyword to indicate the availability of Tiffany merchandise on eBay via "sponsored links" on Internet search engines such as Yahoo! and Google."

Good article about false advertising, read it.

Chris Carey, writing at Shares Slueth, announces his and Mark Cuban's securities fraud site"

"Today we begin our grand experiment -- independent Web-based reporting aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate chicanery.

Call it journalism. Call it investigative blogging. Call it what you will.

More than 13,000 companies are listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Analysts for brokerages and independent research firms track fewer than half of them. Overburdened examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission review only a fraction of the filings that come their way."

Cuban and Carey, I believe, are engaged in short selling their panned picks.  This will be very interesting to follow.

Tom Stafford, writing at Mind Hacks, has an article on magicians and persuasion.

"This is what most impresses me about professional magicians.

The slight of hand and the perceptual tricks are cool, but its the cognitive magic, the shaping of expectancies through narrative, that makes them seem so wondrous."

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).