A Short Explainer of Why California’s Mandatory Transparency Bill (AB 587) Is Terrible
It’s “burn-down-the-Internet” week on the blog, during which I will recap three bad California bills that the California legislature is poised to enact. Yesterday, I covered AB 2273, the Age-Appropriate…
A Short Explainer of How California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Bill (AB2273) Would Break the Internet
It’s “burn-down-the-Internet” week on the blog, during which I will recap three bad California bills that the California legislature is poised to enact. Today’s bill is AB 2273, the most…
School Can Discipline Student for Impersonating Teacher Online, Even if Other Students Added the Worst Content–Kutchinski v. Freeland School District
This case involves a 14 year old student HK (and his friends) who, while off-campus, thought it would be funny to create a fake Instagram profile of his biology teacher,…
Who Owns a Disputed Social Media Account? – JLM v. Gutman
…Instagram and Pinterest accounts. The court’s fact-based inquiry to resolve the nature of the account is reminiscent of the Sixth Circuit’s recitation of factors in Lindke v. Freed. As Eric…
More Evidence of the CFAA Post-Van Buren/hiQ Jurisprudential Anarchy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) is a law that was written before the commercial Internet was a thing (1984). And many judges—particularly Boomers…
A Court Calls Out Congress & the DOJ for Not Clarifying the ADA’s Application to Online Retailers–Martinez v. Cot’n Wash
This lawsuit involves the online retailer dropps.com (apparently it sells cleaning products). Martinez claims that the website isn’t ADA compliant. Martinez sued for an Unruh Act violation, predicated on an…
Is the California Legislature Addicted to Performative Election-Year Stunts That Threaten the Internet? (Comments on AB2408)
It’s an election year, and like clockwork, legislators around the country want to show they care about protecting kids online. This pre-election frenzy leads performative bills that won’t actually help…
Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 8 (Editorial Transparency)
* NY Assembly Bill A7865A. A dangerous new mandatory editorial transparency law to supplement Florida and Texas. Definition of “Hateful conduct” means “the use of a social media network to…
Ninth Circuit: Elected Officials Violated the First Amendment by Blocking Constituents on Social Media–Garnier v. O’Connor-Ratcliff
This case involves two elected trustees of the Poway Unified School Board (PUSD), Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane. (Poway is a San Diego suburb). They used their Facebook and Twitter…
Trademark Owner Fucks Around With Keyword Ad Case & Finds Out–Las Vegas Skydiving v. Groupon
I’ve often wondered about the conversations that take place between trademark owner and counsel before filing a keyword advertising lawsuit. How extensively do they discuss the risks? There’s plenty to…