Website Denied Section 230 for No Good Reason, Wins the Case Anyways–DF Pace v. Baker-White
[Warning: long and sad blog post ahead. Get the tissues now] This case involves the Plain View Project, run by Injustice Watch. The PVP republishes social media posts by law enforcement officers that might signal racist, misogynist, or other discriminatory…
Ninth Circuit Doubles Down on Bad Ruling That Undermines Cybersecurity–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
This case involves rival makers of anti-threat software. The defendant, Malwarebytes, classified its rival’s software as a PUP, or Potentially Unwanted Program. The rival sued. Malwarebytes defended on 47 USC 230(c)(2)(B), which provides a safe harbor for filtering software. Malwarebytes…
Top Internet Law Developments of 2019
It’s increasingly hard to find good news in Internet law, so I organized this year’s Internet Law roundup by categories of doom. Trigger warning: you should grab some tissues before proceeding. Doomed (in a Bad Way) Doomed: User-Generated Content. It…
New Civil FOSTA Lawsuits Push Expansive Legal Theories Against Unexpected Defendants (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alex Yelderman In the year and two-thirds since it was signed into law, FOSTA has reputedly shattered online networks that sex workers relied upon to keep safe, crippled human trafficking investigations, and scared websites into taking down…
Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case—Sony v. Cox
In a recent post, I lamented how courts are exposing IAPs to secondary copyright liability for their subscribers’ activities. This is the result of a breakdown in the détente associated with the failed Copyright Alert System, and its demise has…
Maryland Disclosure Requirements for Online Political Ads Violates the First Amendment–Washington Post v. McManus
In 2018, Maryland passed the “Online Electioneering Transparency and Accountability Act”. The act broadened the reach of Maryland’s political advertising rules to cover online advertisements and “online platforms”. It required publishers to publish somewhere on their sites the following information…
Breach of Contract/Promissory Estoppel Claims Bypass Section 230 But Fail Anyways—Yue v. Miao
(Sometimes Westlaw indexes magistrate reports only after the district court judge acts on them, which I what I think happened here). Miao ran a Chinese language social media site called “bian-wang.com.” Yue operated a rival service. Miao allegedly secretly poached…
Twelfth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Retana v. Twitter
The court’s opening paragraph pretty much says it all: This case is the latest in a string of lawsuits that Plaintiffs’ lawyers have brought in an attempt to hold social media platforms responsible for tragic shootings and attacks across this…
CreateSpace Isn’t Liable for Publishing Allegedly Infringing Uploaded Book–King v. Amazon
King wrote a book, From Brooklyn to the Grave. King asked his ex-girlfriend, Thomas, to help edit and publish the book. Thomas published the book via Amazon’s CreateSpace. King claims that Thomas expropriated the manuscript and thus Amazon never had…
Notifying Twitter of TOS Violations Isn’t Tortious Interference–Illoominate v. CAIR
Wikipedia describes Laura Loomer as a “conspiracy theorist.” Twitter banned her in 2018. I previously blogged on Loomer’s unsuccessful antitrust case against Twitter and other social media platforms. In this lawsuit, she seeks to hold CAIR responsible for her Twitter…