Copyright Owners Are Still Suing Over Embedding
I thought the legality of embedding was definitively resolved when the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed the “server test” in the Hunley v. Instagram case (note: the 9th Circuit has reaffirmed Hunley twice). Not so. Plaintiffs are still regularly bringing lawsuits over…
Catching Up on the Heavyweight Scraping Battle Between X and Bright Data (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Last year, I wrote about how Elon Musk had inadvertently become web scrapers’ most powerful legal advocate. Not because he wanted to advocate for them. But rather, in seeking to enforce a no-scraping ban in…
Court Declares Parts of Twitter’s TOS Unconscionable–Gerber v. Twitter
This is a data breach case involving a flaw in Twitter’s API that allowed malefactors to steal information about 200M Twitter users. Twitter invokes its TOS, including its warranty disclaimer and limitation of liability, against the plaintiffs’ claims for breach…
Thumbs-Up Emoji Formed Binding Sales Contract in Canada–Achter v. South West Terminal
This is the instant-classic lawsuit involving a Saskatchewan farmer who text-messaged a “thumbs-up” emoji in response to an offer to buy his flax. The lower court found that the seller’s thumbs-up emoji constituted assent to the buyer’s offer and awarded…
Facebook Defeats User’s TOS Breach Claim–Lloyd v. Facebook
Lloyd sued Facebok for a variety of claims (I initially described the suit as “a standard kitchen-sink pro se lawsuit against Facebook”). The district court dismissed the complaint in 2022. This summer, the Ninth Circuit largely affirmed, but it revived…
Uber’s TOS Formation Upheld Again–Wu v. Uber
Goodness gracious, I could teach an entire semester of Internet Law focused solely on Uber’s TOS formation. It’s a source of never-ending, and sometimes avoidable, drama. This opinion is a companion to the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s decision in Good v….
Suspended Twitter User Loses Lawsuit Due to Section 230–Ryan v. X
[This blog post covers two decisions in the same lawsuit: the ruling on X’s initial motion to dismiss from September, which apparently never triggered my Westlaw or Lexis alerts, and then a ruling on X’s motion to dismiss the amended…
Amazon Must Defend “Yelp Law” Claim–Ramos v. Amazon
I support statutes that restrict businesses from contractually “gagging” their customers’ reviews. This pernicious business practice emerged around 15 years ago. Eventually, both state legislatures and Congress banned the practice. The flagship law in this area is the Consumer Review…
Snap’s TOS Withstands an Unconscionability Challenge–Howard v. Snap
A Snap user connected with another Snap user, bought drugs offline from the other Snap user, and overdosed. Her estate sued Snap in Nevada for its alleged complicity in the death. Snap successfully invoked its TOS venue selection clause, sending…
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Treated as General Partnership for Liability Purposes–Samuels v. Lido DAO
Yay, I’m blogging about more crypto losses. 🙄 An investor bought LDO tokens issued by the Lido DAO (“Decentralized Autonomous Organization”), which is an Ethereum staking service capitalized by token sales, and lost money. Everyone apparently agrees the tokens were…