Court Dismisses School Districts’ Lawsuits Over Social Media “Addiction”–In re Social Media Cases
[Warning: this is a 5,600 word blog post]. There are two critically important cases over “social media addiction” pending in California state court and as an MDL in the federal Northern District of California. It is an all-out brawl in…
Courts Are Rejecting Attempts to Weaponize Laws That Protect Consumer Reviews
In 2014, California enacted AB2365, sometimes called the “Yelp law,” codified at Cal. Civil Code 1670.8. The law prohibits businesses from suppressing consumer reviews (on Yelp or elsewhere). Its main substantive terms: (1) A contract or proposed contract for the…
Meme Law Alert! Meme Use In Political Ad Isn’t Fair Use–Griner v. King
The plaintiff in this case owns the copyright to the well-known “Success Kid” meme, a photo of a cute 11-month old boy named Sam. The defendants are former Rep. Steve King and his reelection campaign committee. Wikipedia calls King “far-right,”…
MA Supreme Court Blesses Uber’s TOS Clickthrough Formation–Good v. Uber
This opinion addresses the aftermath of an Internet lawyer’s nightmare. In Kauders v. Uber Techs., 486 Mass. 557 (Mass. Sup. Ct. Jan. 4, 2021), the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down Uber’s TOS because it wasn’t properly formed. Maybe I missed…
Instagram Defeats Lawsuit Claiming It Was a “Breeding Ground” for Sex Traffickers–Doe v. Backpage
This opinion came out in March but just showed up in my alerts. Doe claims she was sex-trafficked on Instagram. Section 230 preempts her lawsuit against Facebook: “Ninth Circuit precedent interpreting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C….
TIL: “Texas Tamale” Is an Enforceable Trademark–Texas Tamale v. CPUSA2
This case hit my alerts because of its discussion about keyword advertising, but first, I have to digest how the court got there. [Reminder: per Wikipedia, a tamale “is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa, a dough made from…
Misidentified Person Loses Defamation Claim Against Tabloid–Bloom v. A360
Elon Musk “secretly” fathered twins with his subordinate Shivon Zilis. When the news came to light, it triggered a “tabloid feeding frenzy.” US Weekly published two articles on the story and posted to Instagram. Unfortunately, the photo US Weekly used…
Ninth Circuit Does More Damage to Section 230–Calise v. Meta
This is a lawsuit over scammy ads from Chinese advertisers. The plaintiffs claim Facebook “affirmatively invites” scammy ads by “actively soliciting, encouraging, and assisting scammers it knows, or should know, are using its platform to defraud Facebook users with deceptive…
Facebook Makes Some Progress Against a Scraper–Meta v. Voyager (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Companies looking to stop web scraping have suffered a losing streak in the Northern District of California recently. In February, Meta lost on Partial Summary Judgment against Bright Data on its breach of contract claim….
YouTube Isn’t Liable for User Uploads of Animal Abuse Videos–Lady Freethinker v. YouTube
YouTube’s TOS restricts the uploading of content depicting animal abuse, defined as “content that shows the malicious infliction of serious physical or psychological harm that causes an animal to suffer.” The TOS provides additional details about what YouTube considers impermissible…