Debunking Some Myths About Section 230 and Sex Trafficking (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Alex Levy [Eric’s introduction: Human trafficking expert Alex Levy is back, and this time, she busts some myths about the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017 (“SESTA”). Like my post this morning, her post was written before last week’s Senate hearing,…
Congress Is About To Ruin Its Online Free Speech Masterpiece (Cross-Post)
[Before last week’s Senate hearing on SESTA, I posted a version of this blog post on the ACS Blog. This has been partially superseded by my Senate testimony, which I’ll post more about shortly.] In 1996, Congress became concerned that excessive liability…
University Defeats Cyberbullying Lawsuit Related to Yik Yak–Feminist Majority v. UMW
The plaintiffs are students that run a feminist group at the University of Mary Washington, a public university in Virginia. In response to their public advocacy, they claim that they were cyberbullied via Yik Yak. (Examples of the posted Yaks: “these feminists…
Ninth Circuit Blesses Amazon’s Terms of Service
Plaintiff appealed from a district court order granting Amazon’s motion to compel arbitration based on an arbitration clause in its “Conditions of Use.” My blog post on the trial court ruling: “Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service–Fagerstrom…
Face Scanning Lawsuit Against Shutterfly Survives Motion to Dismiss
This is a lawsuit against Shutterfly alleging violations of Illinois’ biometric information privacy act. The plaintiff, who is not a Shutterfly customer, alleged that a photograph of him was uploaded (by a Shutterfly customer) to Shutterfly’s site and the uploader…
Doubling (& Tripling) Down on Trademark Protection For Secret Menu Items–In-N-Out v. Smashburger (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alexandra Jane Roberts Last week, California-based burger chain In-N-Out sued Denver-based Smashburger, alleging infringement and dilution of trademarks including DOUBLE-DOUBLE and TRIPLE TRIPLE (for, among other things, “hamburger sandwiches and cheeseburger sandwiches”). Smashburger recently applied to register…
Facebook Wins Appeal Over Allegedly Discriminatory Content Removal–Sikhs for Justice v. Facebook
[It’s impossible to blog about Section 230 without reminding you that Congress is on the cusp of gutting it.] I previously summarized this case: Sikhs for Justice (“SFJ”) is a human rights group advocating for Sikh independence in the Indian…
No “Contract By Tweet” for Plaintiff Who Pitches Movie Idea via Social Media
This is an idea theft case based on the idea behind “Creed” the movie, a spinoff of the famous Rocky movies. Jarrett Alexander alleged that he came up with the idea for Creed, drafted the screenplay, and put together a…
Catching Up on Ninth Circuit CFAA Jurisprudence (Internet Law Casebook Excerpt)
[Eric’s note: this is another excerpt from my Internet Law casebook. Venkat and I couldn’t blog last year’s chaotic and messy Ninth Circuit’s CFAA jurisprudence in real time. I nevertheless took one for the team and tried to make sense of the…
Global Content Removals Based on Local Legal Violations (Internet Law Casebook Excerpt)
[Eric’s note: I’m sharing an excerpt from my Internet Law casebook discussing transborder content removal orders, including the Equustek case.] From the Internet’s earliest days, the tension between a global communication network and local geography-based laws has been obvious. One…