31 Bogus Passages from Florida’s Defense of Its Censorship Law–NetChoice v. Moody
Florida filed its opposition brief to the NetChoice/CCIA request to preliminarily enjoin SB 7072, the Florida censorship law. This post critiques some of the brief’s worst parts. As I’ve said before, writing blog posts like this isn’t fun for me….
Social Media Providers Aren’t Liable for Domestic Mass-Shooting–Retana v. Twitter
This is one of the dozen-plus lawsuits filed against social media providers for allegedly facilitating terrorist attacks. This particular lawsuit involved a mass-shooting of Dallas police officers in 2016. Despite the underlying tragedies, the lawsuits against social media providers have…
Domain Name Registrar Isn’t Liable for Hijacked Domain Name–Rigsby v. GoDaddy
Rigsby registered the scottrigsbyfoundation.org domain name via GoDaddy. He claims GoDaddy didn’t give him proper notice of renewal, so the domain name lapsed. It was then registered by an interloper who displays gambling-related material. Rigsby asked GoDaddy to give him…
Amicus Briefs Against Florida’s Censorship Law (SB 7072)
Five amicus briefs were filed in support of the NetChoice/CCIA motion for a preliminary injunction against the Florida censorship law. Highlights: Internet Association amicus brief: The February 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar exemplifies the need for quick and nimble responses…
What Are ‘Red Flags of Infringement’? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — Capitol v. Vimeo
Do you remember this case? It was filed in 2009, back when MySpace was still bigger than Facebook. The copyright owners never sent Vimeo any takedown notices over the videos in question, but they still sued Vimeo for hosting them….
Section 230 Preempts Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Claims–Henderson v. Source for Public Data
Section 230 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) have always had an implicit conflict. The FCRA is an old-school regulation of electronic databases run by credit reporting agencies, who gather and republish third-party data. As a result, any FCRA…
The Ninth Circuit’s Confusing Ruling Over Snapchat’s Speed Filter–Lemmon v. Snap
This is a tricky opinion to decipher. This opinion might say that Section 230 categorically doesn’t apply if the plaintiff claims an Internet service is defectively designed. That reading would largely reject the important First Circuit Doe v. Backpage ruling…
California Court Holds Amazon Strictly Liable for Marketplace Items Amazon Didn’t Fulfill–Loomis v. Amazon
This is another lawsuit over a fiery Chinese-manufactured hoverboard sold through Amazon’s marketplace. In Bolger v. Amazon from August 2020, a California appellate court held that Amazon was strictly liable for marketplace items it fulfilled, and Section 230 immunity didn’t…
Ninth Circuit Rejects Lawsuit Over Hijacked Facebook Account–Long v. Dorset
Long is a book author. He ran a Facebook business page to promote his work. An interloper, using the alias “Tammy Dorset,” gained administrator access to the Facebook page. Once in control of the page, Dorset allegedly posted items that…
Massachusetts Supreme Court Says Turo Doesn’t Qualify for Section 230…Sometimes…–Massport v. Turo
Turo facilitates peer-to-peer car rentals. It provided an option for users to pickup/dropoff at Logan Airport, but Turo took the position that it wasn’t a car rental service pursuant to the applicable regulations. The airport authority (Massport) sued Turo and…