LinkedIn Isn’t a State Actor–Perez v. LinkedIn
Perez had a LinkedIn account with over 7,000 connections (really?). LinkedIn removed some of his posts and restricted access to his profile due to alleged TOU violations. State Action. Perez, proceeding pro se, alleged that LinkedIn “is subject to the…
Facebook Doesn’t Have a Duty to Prevent a Murder–Godwin v. Facebook
In 2017, Steve Stephens murdered Robert Godwin Sr. On the day of the murder, Stephens made the following post to Facebook: FB my life for the pass year has really been fuck up!!! lost everything ever had due to gambling…
Twitter Wins Another Account Suspension Case–Wilson v. Twitter
I previously blogged the plaintiff’s virtually identical lawsuit in June. The plaintiff claimed Twitter suspended his account because he’s a heterosexual Christian. The court rejected all of his claims, including his allegations that Twitter was a state actor and Twitter…
hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp., the Web Scraping Saga Continues (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp. is arguably the most important case in the history of web-scraping jurisprudence. In 2019, the Ninth Circuit concluded that “when a computer network generally permits public access to its data,…
512(f) Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss–Brandyn Love v. Nuclear Blast America
[Remember that our country is facing multiple existential threats. PLEASE VOTE.] This case involves two “heavy metal” bands, “We Are the End” and “Rings of Saturn” (the Spotify bio describes Rings of Saturn as “a progressive, technical deathcore outfit”). I…
Over 50 Privacy Professionals & Experts Oppose Prop. 24
The length and complexity of Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), makes it challenging for ordinary citizens to evaluate the proposal. Thus, it’s helpful to hear how members of the privacy community feel about it. They are in…
What Does the Legislature Have to Show for Its CCPA Amendments in 2020? Not Much (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tanya Forsheit Professor Goldman asked me to share my two cents on the short extensions of time to the employee and business to business exemptions to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) that Governor Newsom signed on…
Section 230 Preempts Another Facebook Account Termination Case–Zimmerman v. Facebook
Another pro se lawsuit over Facebook account terminations fails. Some background on the case. This is an easy Section 230 case: “A social media site’s decision to delete or block access to a user’s individual profile falls squarely within this…
Copyright Owner Claims Ownership Over Depicting Emoji Symbols in Multiple Colors–Cub Club v. Apple
[Reminder: our country is falling apart. Focus on that until the election, then revisit this post.] My Emojis and the Law paper argued that: (1) the diversity of emoji depictions (sometimes called fragmentation) creates potential misunderstandings that cause a host…
Depicting Randy Orton’s Tattoos in a Video Game Could Be Copyright Infringement–Alexander v. WWE 2K
[To be honest, I’m struggling to blog new IP law developments during a time when we may be witnessing the last days of the American republic. Candidly, I’m hoping you won’t distract yourself from the urgent existential threats our country…