A Review of the NYT v. Microsoft AI-Copyright Ruling (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp., 2025 WL 1009179 (S.D.N.Y. April 4, 2025), might be the most important case pending on the legality of scraping public data to create training data sets to build…
A Takedown of the Take It Down Act
By guest blogger Prof. Jess Miers (with additional comments from Eric) Two things can be true: Non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) is a serious and gendered harm. And, the ‘Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and…
Amazon Isn’t Liable for Merchant’s Display of Bogus Contact Info–Hillman v. Amazon
Hillman says that an Amazon merchant, Cozy Castle Furniture, mistakenly displayed Hillman’s contact information on its page as if it were the merchant’s contact info. As a result, Hillman says she got hundreds of complaints per day about the furniture…
What is a “Social Media Platform”?–NetChoice v. Uthmeier
This is the post-SCOTUS remand of Moody v. NetChoice. To dispose of various motions, the court must construe the statutory term “social media platform.” Florida’s statutory definition: “Social media platform” means any information service, system, Internet search engine, or access…
NJ Supreme Court Blesses Lawyers’ Competitive Keyword Ads (With a Baffling Caveat)
We are at the terminal stage of a 250-year old democracy, so what’s on the priority list for regulators of lawyers? In New Jersey, it’s competitive keyword advertising by lawyers. Seriously? When I wrote on this topic in 2016, I…
Because the SAD Scheme Disregards Due Process, Errors Inevitably Ensue–Modlily v. Funlingo
This started out like every other SAD Scheme case. The plaintiff, a fast-fashion vendor operating under the brand Modlily, filed a complaint under seal against 20 defendants, got an ex parte TRO and asset freeze, and rolled to an unopposed…
ChatGPT Defeats Defamation Lawsuit Over Hallucination–Walters v. OpenAI
Mark Walters “is a nationally prominent radio show host who hosts two nationally syndicated radio programs and identifies himself as ”the loudest voice in America fighting for gun rights.”” Riehl is a journalist. Both Walters and Riehl are associated with…
A Roundup of Recent Section 230 Decisions Involving Sex Abuse or CSAM
Another lengthy blog post rounding up cases from the past few months involving CSAM or commercial sex and Section 230/FOSTA. Doe #1 v. MG Freesites, Ltd., 2025 WL 1314179 (N.D. Ala. May 6, 2025) Prior blog posts (1, 2). Previously…
Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Online Review of a Chicago Dater–D’Ambrosio v. Rajala
The plaintiff in this case is Nikko D’Ambrosio. He recently served time in prison for tax issues. Separately, he brought a lawsuit over the “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook group, run by Spill the Tea, “where women can…
YouTuber Loses Lawsuit Over Account Suspension–Hall v. YouTube
The court summarizes the facts: In April 2024, Hall became involved in a public feud with another YouTube user, “MoneyBoy Tr3y,” (Tr3y”) which led to the exchange of multiple DMCA takedown notices between the two. Hall alleges that Tr3y submitted…