Some Comments on Today’s Thomson Reuters v. Ross Copyright Ruling
[A surprising ruling from Judge Bibas (sitting as a district court judge by designation) in the Thompson Reuters v. Ross case, because he reverses himself on numerous points (all in…
District Court Blocks More of Texas’ Segregate-and-Suppress Law (HB 18)–SEAT v. Paxton
Texas enacted HB 18, a typical smorgasbord law packed full of policy ideas–all bad and undertheorized–under the pretext of protecting kids online. In September, the court enjoined part of the…
Celebrating the Blog’s 20th Blogiversary (Part 1 of 10)
🎶 It was 20 years ago today…Sgt. Pepper taught the band to blog… 🎶 (Close enough: the actual anniversary was Saturday). On February 8, 2005, I started blogging here. 🎉🎉🎉…
Section 230 Immunizes OnlyFans for User-Uploaded Video (Again)–Doe v. Fenix
A prior ruling summarized the facts the court describes as “harrowing”: In April 2022, Defendant Bendjy Charles (“Charles”) and Romelus raped Plaintiff. Charles and Romelus filmed each other while they…
Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)–M.P. v. Meta
I’m going to classify this ruling as a “big deal,” with the crucial caveat that Section 230 is still doomed and this ruling doesn’t reverse that. Given how judges have…
Section 230 Protects Newspaper’s Removal of User Comments–Affleck v. Harvard Crimson
Here’s a twist. The plaintiff in this case, Jonathan Affleck, was the plaintiff in Martillo v. Twitter, but he sued then under a nom de plume. The court issues him…
Court Upholds Google’s Ad TOS Amendment to Add an Arbitration Clause–In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation
This is a long-running litigation battle over Google’s advertising practices. In 2021, many individual advertiser claims were consolidated into an MDL in SDNY. Four years and 900+ docket entries later,…
Glassdoor Partially Fixes a Bad Section 230 Ruling–Nicholas Services v. Glassdoor
This case involves two interrelated companies in the private jet industry. One entity (Nicholas Air) was the public brand. The other entity (Corr Flight) provided all of the staffing to…
Copyright Owners Are Still Suing Over Embedding
…videos owned by the plaintiff and included the videos in the stories via embedding. The court says the SDNY courts have rejected the server test, citing Goldman v. Breitbart, Nicklen,…
Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban, and Domestic and Foreign Censors Rejoice–TikTok v. Garland
In 2024, Congress enacted, and President Biden signed, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which bans “foreign adversary” ownership of certain types of Internet services. The bill…