Eleventh Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Palmucci v. Twitter
This case is before the same district court judge who handled Fields v. Twitter and Copeland v. Twitter. It involves the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, but “[t]here are no allegations in the AC that Abaaoud, Laachraoui, or any of the…
Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Stupid–eTrailer v. Automatic Equipment
The plaintiff is a retailer of “motor vehicle accessories.” The defendant manufactures towing supplies and has previously distributed its goods to the plaintiff. The plaintiff created product shots and obtained copyright registrations for some of them. On the right is…
Another Appellate Court Rejects “Material Support for Terrorist” Claims Against Social Media Platforms–Crosby v. Twitter
This suit involves the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. The shooter Mateen claims to have self-radicalized by consuming terrorist content on social media. After the shooting, ISIS claimed responsibility. The plaintiffs didn’t sue Mateen or ISIS but instead sued…
Section 230 Applies to ADA Closed Captioning Claims–National Federation of the Deaf v. Harvard
Harvard publishes a lot of video online, both on servers it operates and through third-party services like YouTube. Only some of that video has “timely, accurate closed captioning.” The National Federation of the Deaf sued Harvard for ADA violations and…
An Email Inbox Isn’t a “Place” for Purposes of Florida Privacy Law–Hall v. Sargeant
One of the most venerable cyberlaw questions: is cyberspace a physical place, and does it matter legally? For purposes of Florida’s privacy invasion law, a federal district court answers: no and yes. This case involves long-running litigation and drama between…
Recap of the Copyright Office’s Section 512 Study Roundtable
On Monday, I participated in a Copyright Office roundtable regarding their long-delayed report on Section 512. The roundtable was intended to update the study’s record from 2017, when progress stalled on the report. Thus, the topic nominally was to discuss…
How Have Section 512(f) Cases Fared Since 2017? (Spoiler: Not Well)
On Monday, I’m participating in a Copyright Office workshop on Section 512. The workshop supports the Copyright Office’s long-pending Section 512 report, which started in 2015 but stalled out in 2017. To freshen up the project, the workshop will cover…
Online Marketplace Defeats Trademark Suit Because It’s Not the “Seller”–OSU v. Redbubble
Redbubble is an online marketplace for artists. It outsources many of its functions. Its artist-vendors “are automatically connected with a third-party manufacturer to make the goods.” Redbubble also uses third-party services to package/ship goods and process payments. It appears much…
Blogger’s Screenshot of a Newspaper Page Qualifies as Fair Use–Clark v. TransAlt
The photo at issue depicts a dockless bike on a sidewalk. The New York Post published an article on dockless bikes and included the photo. You can get a sense of that story from my screenshot of the NY Post…
New Paper Announcement: “Copyright’s Memory Hole”
I’m pleased to announce a new paper, “Copyright’s Memory Hole,” co-authored with Northeastern Law professor Jessica Silbey. The paper is still in draft form, and Jessica and I plan to do a major edit to the paper this summer. So…