‘Silk Road’ Ruling Will Hurt Online Commerce (Forbes Cross-Post)
You may have heard of Silk Road, an online marketplace that enabled hard-to-trace buying and selling of illegal goods. The court says it was “as if the purchases were occurring on eBay;” buyers and sellers could even leave feedback about…
Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation, Prostitution & More)
Content Regulation * Jancik v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, 2014 WL 1920751 (C.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (cites omitted). Another websites-and-ADA case diverging from the troubling 2012 Netflix ruling: However, the Redbox Instant website and the Redbox kiosks cannot be…
Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Consumer Reviews, Defamation & More)
Consumer Reviews * In re Margrett A. Skinner (Ga. Sup. Ct. May 19, 2014). Lawyer publicly reprimanded for disclosing client confidential information to rebut the client’s online reviews. See my Forbes post. * Loftus v. Nazari, 2:10-cv-00279-WOB-JGW (E.D. Ky. May…
Another Blogger Wins a Fair Use Defense For a Photo–Leveyfilm v. Fox Sports
Danielle Wysocki blogged at “The Jersey Catcher,” a sports blog for women. On December 6, 2010, she blogged about a lawsuit over the 1985 novelty rap song “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” sung by members of the Chicago Bears football team….
TCPA Claim Against Taco Bell Fails For Lack of Agency
I mentioned before that a court said Taco Bell wasn’t liable for texts sent on its behalf because the plaintiff didn’t adequately allege the sender was Taco Bell’s agent (See “Franchisor Isn’t Liable Under the TCPA for Franchisees’ Text Message…
Lawyer’s Suit Over “Professional Recognition” Spam Flops
Say you’re a lawyer and you receive a promotional email intimating that you’re one of the “Top Lawyers in California.” You probably just delete it and move on, right? That would be too easy. Nicholas Bontrager sued Showmark alleging that…
First Amendment Precludes Disorderly Conduct Conviction for Ranting on Police Department Facebook Page
Smith was convicted following a jury trial of disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computerized communication system. His charge stemmed for comments to the local police department’s Facebook page (access the town’s webpage here). The police department initially posted…
Want To Encourage Gossipy Content Online? Go For It–Jones v. TheDirty (Forbes Cross-Post)
In 1996, Congress enacted a crucial Internet law, 47 USC 230 (Section 230), which says that websites aren’t liable for third party content. This law, though sometimes counterintuitive, has played a huge and helpful role in the Internet’s growth by…
Criminal Cyberbullying Statute Violates First Amendment–New York v. Marquan
Albany County enacted a criminal cyberbulling statute, which defined cyberbulling as: any act of communicating or causing a communication to be sent by mechanical or electronic means, including posting statements on the internet or through a computer or email network,…
Stalking Conviction For Friending a Prosecutor’s Facebook Friends?–State v. Moller
Online stalking and threats are hot topics today, especially in light of the Supreme Court granting cert in US v. Elonis (we plan to recap that case before oral arguments). Today’s case highlights the grey area between veiled threats and…