"Ringless Voicemail" Vendor Wins Section 230 Defense Against FTC--US v. Stratics Networks

“Ringless Voicemail” Vendor Wins Section 230 Defense Against FTC–US v. Stratics Networks

[This is one of those opinions that is a slog to blog because the court’s statutory analysis made my head hurt. If this opinion confuses you, welcome to the club. FWIW, “Slog to Blog” would make a good band name.]…

Section 230 Protects Gmail's Spam Filter--RNC v. Google

Section 230 Protects Gmail’s Spam Filter–RNC v. Google

[My blogging queue has gotten backlogged. I’m slowly catching up. I hope you enjoy these 2,800 words on legal topics you assumed were definitively resolved over a dozen years ago.] Introduction This lawsuit is one of the many lawsuits around…

Court Enjoins Texas' Attempt to Censor Social Media, and the Opinion Is a Major Development in Internet Law--NetChoice v. Paxton

Court Enjoins Texas’ Attempt to Censor Social Media, and the Opinion Is a Major Development in Internet Law–NetChoice v. Paxton

Earlier this year, the Texas legislature enacted HB 20, a blatant attempt to censor social media service. The Texas law emulated a similar Florida censorship law. In June, a Florida district court enjoined based on the First Amendment and Section…

Texas Enacts Social Media Censorship Law to Benefit Anti-Vaxxers & Spammers

Texas Enacts Social Media Censorship Law to Benefit Anti-Vaxxers & Spammers

State legislatures are competing with each other to see who can enact the most ill-advised laws to impose censorship on the Internet. Florida made a splash enacting its social media censorship bill SB 7072, only to have a federal district…

Plaintiffs Request Preliminary Injunction Against Florida's Censorship Law (SB 7072)--NetChoice v. Moody

Plaintiffs Request Preliminary Injunction Against Florida’s Censorship Law (SB 7072)–NetChoice v. Moody

Last week, I blogged about Florida’s censorship law, SB 7072. Late last week, NetChoice and CCIA filed a preliminary injunction request. I hope the court strikes down the law quickly, decisively, and with all of the opprobrium (and/or mockery) it…

Consent Via "Clickwrap" Defeats Privacy Claims--Javier v. Assurance

Consent Via “Clickwrap” Defeats Privacy Claims–Javier v. Assurance

Javier got a life insurance quote from Assurance. It appears this page contained javascript served from a vendor named ActiveProspect (via a service called “TrustedForm”), which tracks each user on Assurance’s site and records the users’ keystrokes. For Assurance, these…

CAN-SPAM Requires Falsity or Deception, But What Do Those Words Mean?--Rad v. US

CAN-SPAM Requires Falsity or Deception, But What Do Those Words Mean?–Rad v. US

This is an unusual federal appellate ruling interpreting CAN-SPAM because it came to the court from the Board of Immigration Appeals. Rad was tried and convicted of violating CAN-SPAM. The Third Circuit affirmed his conviction in 2014. Rad was a…

One Minute Spent Reviewing a Junk Fax Received via Email is Not Injury for Article III Purposes

One Minute Spent Reviewing a Junk Fax Received via Email is Not Injury for Article III Purposes

This is a junk fax case. Plaintiff (Daisy), a corporation, used Vonage to receive faxes. It received a junk fax, but rather than receiving it on its fax machine, Daisy received the fax via email, as a .pdf. Daisy alleged…

Court Says California’s Anti-Spam Statute Doesn’t Regulate Affiliate Networks–Bank v. Hydra

This judgment followed a bench trial in a case over three unwanted email messages. The case was originally filed in 2010! The plaintiff is a lawyer suing pro se. The defendant is Hydra Group, which operated an affiliate network. The…

Best and Worst Internet Laws [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]

[In 2007, I guest-blogged at the group law professor blog Concurring Opinions. With the demise of that blog, I am now archiving my guest posts on my own blog. This post first appeared on February 15, 2007.] __ [Preface: I’ve already…