9th Circuit Unceremoniously Dismisses Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google–Dreamstime v. Google
I previously summarized this case: Dreamstime sells stock photos. It had favorable organic indexing that made it some money, and it bought Adwords advertising that made it more money. Dreamstime…
Hello, You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Web Scraping Laws (Guest Blog Post, Part 2 of 2)
by Kieran McCarthy [Eric’s note: this is the second of a two-part series on the denouement of the hiQ v. LnkedIn case, which ended this week with a total loss…
Prager’s Lawsuit Over Biased Content Moderation Decisively Fails Again (This Time, in State Court)–Prager v. YouTube
…more significant First Amendment concern than defendants’ restrictions…. [cites to NetChoice v. FLA] Even assuming Prager were capable of amending its complaint to narrow its generic claims of “Protected Identity”…
As Everyone Expected Years Ago, hiQ’s CFAA Wins Don’t Mean It Can Freely Scrape–hiQ v. LinkedIn (Guest Blog Post, Part 1 of 2)
by Kieran McCarthy [Eric’s note: this is the first of a two-part series on the denouement of the hiQ v. LinkedIn case. This part explains the most recent ruling, a…
512(f) Plaintiff Must Pay $91k to the Defense–Digital Marketing v. McCandless
It’s typically pointless to bring a 512(f) claim because the law makes it almost impossible to win. Plus, 512(f) plaintiffs have to consider the possibility of a costly fee shift…
Facebook Can’t Shake Lawsuit Over OnlyFans Bribery Allegations–Dangaard v. Meta
This lawsuit involves troubling allegations that Facebook executives (allegedly, Nick Clegg, Nicola Mendelsohn, and Cristian Perrella) took bribes from OnlyFans-related entities to spike Facebook and Instagram posts that promoted competitors…
Catching Up on Government Officials’ Censorship of Constituents on Social Media
…inconsistent with an intent to create an unrestricted public forum…. [Eric’s comment: this is obviously circular. That’s not a new concern when it comes to forum analysis, but it’s perpetually…
Another Rough Copyright Ruling for Internet Access Providers–Bodyguard v. RCN
…at IP addresses assigned to Defendants from ARIN… [Eric’s note: reminder about the problems of assuming subscribers’ infringing activity based on takedown notices.] Plaintiffs sufficiently allege conduct that encourages or…
New Paper: “Assuming Good Faith Online”
As part of a symposium, I was asked to write a short paper about how the Internet has changed since the mid-1990s when Section 230 was adopted. I chose to…
Yet More Evidence That Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Are Stupid–Porta-Fab v. Allied Modular
…purchaser care in decisions like this, unless “Portafab” has become the generic descriptor for this category of goods. Because the ad copy includes the plaintiff’s trademark, the court says there…