When Does Online Criticism Become “Stalking”?–Ellis v. Chan
This is an online harassment dispute. Ellis, the plaintiff/petitioner, is the author of a poem called “The Dash”. She has achieved some degree of public figure status through the poem’s notoriety. The poem is about a person who speaks at…
Q3 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Content Regulation)
* United States v. Valle, 2014 WL 2980256 (S.D.N.Y. June 30, 2014). The highly unusual facts of this case reflect the Internet age in which we live. To prove the kidnapping conspiracy alleged in Count One, the Government relied on…
Q3 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (RTBF, Reviews, IP & More)
Right to Be Forgotten * U.S. Attitudes Toward the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’: 1. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe some version of the right to be forgotten is necessary. 2. Thirty-nine percent want a European-style blanket right to be forgotten,…
Washington State Supreme Court Hears an Interesting Privacy Case: Dillon v. Seattle Deposition Reporters
This is a super interesting case that’s working its way through the courts in Washington. In a nutshell, T-Mobile was a defendant in a breach of contract lawsuit brought by NetLogix in the Western District of Washington. T-Mobile was represented…
Congress May Crack Down On Businesses’ Efforts To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
Imagine a dentist telling her patients that they can’t write online reviews about her. Or a hotel deducting money from a newly married couple’s security deposit if any member of the wedding party blasts the hotel on Yelp. These types…
NLRB Invalidates Employer’s Blogging Policy And Reverses Firing Based On Facebook Posts
This is another NLRB Facebook firing case. The employer is a bar and restaurant whose employees were chatting on Facebook about owing amounts in taxes allegedly as a result of paperwork mishaps on the employer’s part. LaFrance, a former employee…
9th Circuit Creates Problematic “Failure To Warn” Exception to Section 230 Immunity–Doe 14 v. Internet Brands
Doe sued Internet Brands, Inc., the owner of Model Mayhem, alleging that two unrelated individuals drugged and assaulted her (and recorded her for a pornographic video). It’s unclear precisely how the assailants used Model Mayhem, but the court merely says…
Texas Supreme Court Limits Reach of Pre-suit Discovery (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s introduction: this guest blog post comes from Ed Cavazos of Bracewell & Giuliani in Austin, Texas, who I’ve known for 20 years. Ed was part of the first wave of lawyers and scholars focusing on Internet law, and he…
California Tells Businesses: Stop Trying To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
Increasingly, businesses are looking for ways to suppress or erase consumers’ negative online reviews of them. In particular, we’ve recently seen a proliferation of contract clauses purporting to stop consumers from reviewing businesses online. Those overreaching contract clauses have never…
Ninth Circuit Says Yelp Doesn’t Extort Businesses–Levitt v. Yelp (Forbes Cross-Post)
For years, Yelp has been dogged by allegations that it manipulates user reviews to coerce businesses to advertise with it. While businesses aren’t likely to stop grumbling about these concerns any time soon, a federal appellate court emphatically shut the…