Ninth Circuit Easily Rejects Another Jawboning Case–Huber v. Biden
I previously described the case: Twitter suspended Huber pursuant to its COVID misinformation policy. Huber claimed that Twitter took that action in league with the Biden administration. If this setup sounds familiar, that’s because at least a dozen cases riff…
Rounding Up Some Recent Editorial Transparency Developments
Editorial transparency is generating lots of legal activity. This post rounds up some recent developments. NetChoice v. Moody As expected, both sides appealed the 11th Circuit’s NetChoice v. FLA ruling to the US Supreme Court. Florida appealed the censorship provisions….
Does Possession of Memes Show Criminal Intent?–People v. Watts
This is a rape case. Law enforcement found the following items on the defendant’s phone (warning–explicit and offensive descriptions): three photos with accompanying text, which the State argued expressed “the idea that a male has a right to have sexual…
Section 230 Protects a User Sharing an Allegedly Defamatory Facebook Event–AH v. Labana
This case involves St. Francis High School, a Catholic high school in Mountain View located just a few steps away from my home. In the wake of George Floyd’s death during the early pandemic days, racial tensions were high and…
Got a Selfie With a Celebrity? Think Twice Before Using It In Ads–50 Cent v. Kogan
This is yet another blog post about 50 Cent a/k/a Curtis Jackson. This time, he “happened to be in the proximity” of the defendant’s cosmetic surgery clinic. Doing what, exactly? The opinion doesn’t say. While he was fortuitously in the…
Another Copyright Owner Learns Why It’s Better to Send DMCA Takedown Notices Before Suing–BMG v. Likee
Likee is a TikTok-like app that allows users to publish short videos, often set to music. Without sending DMCA takedown notices, BMG sued it for direct and contributory copyright infringement. The court dismisses those claims. Direct Infringement. The court says…
Constituent Blocking on Twitter Is Censorship–Felts v. Vollmer
It’s a simple question: can a government official block a constituent on social media? Based on the Knight First Amendment v. Trump ruling in the Second Circuit, it looked like the answer was a decisive no. Instead, since then, the…
Messaging App Isn’t Liable for an Offline Murder (Even Without Section 230)–Roland v. Letgo
This is a tragic case involving the marketplace app Letgo. Using an alias, Brown listed a stolen car for sale on the app. The Rolands agreed to meet Brown in person to buy the car. At the meeting, Brown tried…
9th Circuit Unceremoniously Dismisses Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google–Dreamstime v. Google
I previously summarized this case: Dreamstime sells stock photos. It had favorable organic indexing that made it some money, and it bought Adwords advertising that made it more money. Dreamstime was a big enough player that it got personal support…
Hello, You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Web Scraping Laws (Guest Blog Post, Part 2 of 2)
by Kieran McCarthy [Eric’s note: this is the second of a two-part series on the denouement of the hiQ v. LnkedIn case, which ended this week with a total loss for hiQ. The prior part explained the most recent ruling,…