A Million-Dollar Thumbs-Up Emoji?–Lightstone v. Zinntex
This is a pandemic case. The buyer ordered $2.1M of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the seller in April 2020 and wired the money. The seller subsequently didn’t deliver, and…
Section 230 Applies to Sellers’ Listings on Auto Auction Service–Cohen v. Copart
Copart runs an auto auction website that includes “repairable” cars, i.e., junkers. The plaintiff sued for three alleged misrepresentations, including: On vehicle pages, Copart displays an Estimated Retail Value for…
Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Its Fact-Checking Explanations–Stossel v. Meta
John Stossel has over a million Facebook followers. He posted two videos that triggered fact-checking responses from Facebook. The first video, “Government Fueled Fires,” downplayed the impact of climate change…
First Amendment Protects Videogame’s Depiction of Tractor’s Trade Dress–Saber v. Oovee
This case involves the Polish tractor manufacturer Kirovets’ K-700 tractor: Saber makes the videogame MudRunner. It exclusively licensed the right to depict the K-700 in its videogames, including the right…
Court Says “You May NOT Amend Your TOS by Posting New Terms to Your Site”–International Markets v. Thayer
…entered into a contractual agreement in 2018. Everyone agrees that this was a “clickwrap” agreement. [Eric’s note: I would never use this term without mocking it.] This clickwrap agreement gave…
Uber Defeats Driver’s Wrongful Death Lawsuit–Drammeh v. Uber
Ceesay, an Uber driver, picked up 2 passengers who allegedly murdered him so they could steal his car. A story about the tragedy. The passengers allegedly created a “fake” Uber…
Jury Awards Damages to Tattoo Artist for Video-Game Depiction–Alexander v. WWE 2K (Guest Blog Post)
…realistic in-game depiction of Orton. This case is one of a spate of recent infringement claims brought against video-game makers over realistic depictions of tattooed athletes. As Eric has covered…
Anti-Circumvention Takedowns Aren’t Covered by 512(f)–Yout v. RIAA
[I’ll blog the Supreme Court’s cert grant in Gonzalez v. Google probably later this week.] Yout’s software allows users to rip digital streams, such as from YouTube. It sought a…
Muslim Loses Case Against Facebook Over Discriminatory Content Moderation–Elansari v. Meta
Elansari is Muslim. This is not his first time as a plaintiff. In this lawsuit, he claims that Facebook blocks pro-Palestinian publishers and favors pro-Israeli publishers. Thus, he argues, Jewish…
When Do Defendants Have Access to Copyrighted Works Posted to the Internet?–Cooley v. Target Corp.
This case relates to Target’s “Cat & Jack” clothing line. The plaintiff, NOC, is a teenager who has copyrighted designs in hand-drawn dots that Target allegedly copied in the clothing…