Utah Bans Keyword Advertising

Eric Goldman writes "Last month, Utah passed a law banning keyword advertising. Rep. Dan Eastman, the Utah legislator who sponsored the law, believes competitive keyword advertising is the equivalent of corporate identity theft, causing searchers to be (in his words) 'carjacked' and 'shanghaied' by advertisers. He also takes a swipe at the EFF, dismissing its critique of the law as 'criticism from the fringes.'"

Comments

Re:No, you miss the point

[dpiven]

But they are not the complete morons implied by most people's reaction to the Slashdot title for this story.

However, the combined cumulative effects of incestuous polygamy and living downwind from Dugway Proving Ground are beginning to exhibit themselves with a vengeance.

Aren't there already laws against unfair use of someone else's trademark? It strikes me that what this law may end up doing is making it illegal to say "My patented widget will turn your XBOX into a 100% effective chick magnet", even if that statement is 100% factual. There's got to be some existing legal argument why advertisers all over Known Space are not allowed to place the word "super" next to the word "bowl", even if the use of those two words is not even remotely infringing.

Re:Because illiterate tools are what /. is all abo

[iminplaya]

...wide interpretation of the 1st...

"wide interpretation"? Just how many ways can you interpret ...no law...? The interpretations we've been getting are way too narrow, and just plain wrong.