The SHOP SAFE Act Is a Terrible Bill That Will Eliminate Online Marketplaces
[Note: this blog post covers Rep. Nadler’s manager’s amendment for the SHOP SAFE Act, which I think will be the basis of a committee markup hearing tomorrow. If Congress were well-functioning, draft bills going into markup would be circulated a…
For the Third Time, a Second Circuit Panel Dismisses an Online Account Termination Case–Domen v. Vimeo
A 3-judge panel has issued its third opinion in Domen v. Vimeo, a lawsuit alleging that Vimeo committed unlawful discrimination by terminating his account. How does an appellate panel reach a third opinion in the same case? It issued its…
Yearbook Database Cases Are Vexing the Courts–Sessa v. Ancestry
This is another entry in the genre of publicity rights cases against commercial databases vending information about people. Courts are struggling with how to analyze these cases, especially in the context of paywalled yearbook databases. This ruling turns into a…
Law Enforcement’s Efforts to Scrub COVID “Misinformation” Online Violated the First Amendment–Cohoon v. Konrath
Amyiah Cohoon is a high schooler in central Wisconsin. In March 2020, she contracted a respiratory illness. A COVID test came back negative, but the doctor told her it may be a false negative and told her to quarantine. She…
Third Circuit Says Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to Publicity Rights Claims–Hepp v. Facebook
The Third Circuit ruled today that Section 230 doesn’t preempt publicity rights claims because they qualify as “intellectual property” claims. This ruling directly conflicts with the Ninth Circuit’s rule, which says that all state IP claims are preempted by Section…
What I Did Last “Summer” (2021)
It’s time for my annual roundup of my “summer” publications beyond my blogging. Once again, I did not teach last Spring. So here’s what I’ve done in 2021 since I finished my Fall 2020 teaching obligations: Internet Law: Cases &…
Texas Enacts Social Media Censorship Law to Benefit Anti-Vaxxers & Spammers
State legislatures are competing with each other to see who can enact the most ill-advised laws to impose censorship on the Internet. Florida made a splash enacting its social media censorship bill SB 7072, only to have a federal district…
My Declaration Identifying Emoji Co. GmbH as a Possible Trademark Troll
There are dozens of federal lawsuits captioned “Emoji Company GmbH v. The Individuals, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships, and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A Hereto.” Last month, in one of them, I filed a declaration stating that “Emojico appears…
Florida and Its Amici Try to Justify Government Censorship in the 11th Circuit–NetChoice v. Moody
Earlier this year, Florida enacted a wide-ranging, complex, poorly drafted, and enthusiastically censorial law, SB7072. Among other problems, the law dictates how “social media platforms” can make their editorial decisions. Fortunately, a Florida federal judge blocked Florida’s social media censorship…
Instagram Defeats Copyright Claim Over Its Embedding Feature–Hunley v. Instagram
“In-line linking” uses the Internet’s magic to let a web page incorporate a file, such as a photo or video, into a page’s display without actually hosting it. In 2007, in Perfect 10 v. Amazon, the Ninth Circuit ruled that…