Bleg: Please Help Me Prepare for the Blog’s 20th Blogiversary
In February, this blog will celebrate its 20th anniverary. I’ll make together a series of posts to celebrate the milestone, and I would benefit from your help. I would be grateful if you could email me (egoldman@gmail.com) your thoughts about…
DC Circuit Says the TikTok Ban Is Censorship, But Upholds It Anyway–TikTok v. Garland
The D.C. Circuit held that Congress’ TikTok ban survived a variety of Constitutional challenges, including a First Amendment challenge, even if strict scrutiny applies. The decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, with uncertain prospects, so this is…
Amazon Must Defend “Yelp Law” Claim–Ramos v. Amazon
I support statutes that restrict businesses from contractually “gagging” their customers’ reviews. This pernicious business practice emerged around 15 years ago. Eventually, both state legislatures and Congress banned the practice. The flagship law in this area is the Consumer Review…
Attempt to Weaponize Section 230(c)(2)(B) Fails on Ripeness Grounds–Zuckerman v. Facebook
Ethan Zuckerman, a professor at UMass Amherst, wants to code and offer an app he calls Unfollow Everything 2.0, “which would automate the process of unfollowing friends, groups, and pages on a user’s Facebook social media profile.” Because he expects…
Judge Rejects SAD Scheme Joinder–Toyota v. Schedule A Defendants
Toyota brought a SAD Scheme case against 103 defendants before Judge Daniel in the Northern District of Illinois. (Seriously, Toyota? Using abusive IP enforcement tactics? Do better). As I recently mentioned, Judge Daniel is calling out overreaching joinder allegations in…
Snap’s TOS Withstands an Unconscionability Challenge–Howard v. Snap
A Snap user connected with another Snap user, bought drugs offline from the other Snap user, and overdosed. Her estate sued Snap in Nevada for its alleged complicity in the death. Snap successfully invoked its TOS venue selection clause, sending…
High School Can Discipline Student for Undisclosed Use of Generative AI–Harris v. Adams
RNH was a junior last year at Hingham High School in Massachusetts. He got a perfect ACT store and hopes for early admission to Stanford. The school repeatedly told students about limitations on the use of Generative AI for school…
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Treated as General Partnership for Liability Purposes–Samuels v. Lido DAO
Yay, I’m blogging about more crypto losses. 🙄 An investor bought LDO tokens issued by the Lido DAO (“Decentralized Autonomous Organization”), which is an Ethereum staking service capitalized by token sales, and lost money. Everyone apparently agrees the tokens were…
Section 230 Applies to Gamer’s Complaints About Griefing–Haymore v. Amazon
This is a pro se/in pro per lawsuit. Andrew Grant Haymore played the MMORPG “New World” and used the New World discord server, from which he was banned. He alleges the ban diminished his investment of 10k hours and $1,700…
Courts Are Echoing The Third Circuit’s Repeal of Section 230–Huckabee v. Meta
Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel. He claims that CBD advertisers featured his name, photo, and likeness in Facebook ads. An example of the ads is displayed on the right. As…