Announcing the 2022 Edition of My Internet Law Casebook

July 12, 2022 · by · in General

I’m pleased to announce the 2022 edition (13th edition) of my Internet Law casebook, Internet Law: Cases & Materials. The book is available as a PDF at Gumroad for $10, a Kindle ebook for $9.99, a softcover version for $20, and (new this year!) a hardcover version for $28. [All printed versions come with a free PDF on request; and shipping should be free on Amazon Prime.] Despite rampant inflation, these prices have stayed the same for years. For my thoughts about self-publishing an ebook casebook, see this article.

If you’re an academic and would like a free evaluation PDF, email me. I can also share my presentation slides and lecture notes. You might also check out (1) my Internet Law course page, which includes a quarter-century of syllabi and old exams with sample answers, (2) my article on “Teaching Cyberlaw,” (3) my blog post on teaching Internet Law as an online-only course, and (4) my Canvas modules for my Fall 2021 online-only course. (For what it’s worth, this year I’ll teach the course in Spring 2023 instead of Fall 2022).

This year, the book shrunk by 7% as I took a hard look at where Internet Law stands now. Accordingly, I deleted my 2-decade-old writeup about spam harms (spam law is passé), my decade-old essay on online trespass to chattel reform (mangled by the Van Buren/hiQ clusterf…), the decade-old In re Rolando S. e-personation case (an edge case from a different era), and the decade-old social media e-discovery cases (mainstream CivPro by now). I also shortened my explainers of the CCPA/CPRA and GDPR and turned my CCB explainer into a short case note.

This year, I added the North Carolina Supreme Court opinion in State v. Taylor about true threats on social media. I thought about replacing the Step Two case with the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Johnson v. HuffPost, but instead I added an extended excerpt. As usual, I made many hundreds of updates and edits throughout the book.

Some things I didn’t include in this edition, despite their seeming importance:

  • hiQ v. LinkedIn. The opinion left almost all of the key questions unresolved. Between that very unhelpful opinion and the ponderous Van Buren case, I’m not sure how to teach trespass to chattels to my students.
  • The Florida and Texas social media censorship laws and the associated court challenges. We’re still waiting for the Fifth Circuit opinion (so the Texas law remains in abeyance), and the 11th Circuit opinion will be appealed this term to the Supreme Court and who knows what, if any, of the opinion will survive that review….?

Over the years, I’ve posted a number of book excerpts that are accessible for free, including:

(Some of the freely available excerpts are dated, but I update all materials that are still in the book).

As always, I invite your comments and questions.

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Table of Contents

I. What is the Internet? Who Regulates It?

Overview
Noah v. AOL (E.D. Va.)
Determining the Geography of Internet-Connected Devices

II. Jurisdiction

Evaluating Personal Jurisdiction
Toys ‘R’ Us v. Step Two (3d Cir.)
Illinois v. Hemi Group (7th Cir.)

III. Contracts

Meyer v. Uber (2d Cir.)
Register.com v. Verio (2d Cir.)
Harris v. Blockbuster

IV. Trespass/Computer Fraud & Abuse Act

Review: the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. §1030 [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030], and California Penal Code §502 [https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=502.&lawCode=PEN]

Comparison of Trespass to Chattels Doctrines
Intel v. Hamidi (Cal. Sup. Ct.)
Register.com v. Verio (Trespass to Chattels section)

V. Copyright

Copyright Basics (Copyright Office Circular 1)
Note About Fair Use
Cartoon Network v. CSC (2d Cir.)
MGM Studios v. Grokster (Sup. Ct.)

Secondary Liability
Review: 17 U.S.C. §512 [http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512]
Section 512(c) Cheat Sheet
UMG v. Shelter Capital (9th Cir. revised opinion)

Recap
Ticketmaster v. RMG

VI. Trademarks and Domain Names

Review: 15 U.S.C. §1114 [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1114], 15 U.S.C. §1125 [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125], and 15 U.S.C. §8131 [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/8131]

Trademark FAQs
Trademark Glossary

A. Domain Names and Metatags
Review: ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy [https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/policy-2012-02-25-en] and Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy [https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/udrp-rules-2015-03-11-en]

Lamparello v. Falwell (4th Cir.)
Promatek v. Equitrac (7th Cir.) Original Order and Revision

B. Search Engines
Review: Google’s Trademark Policy [https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6118]

Network Automation v. Advanced Systems Concepts (9th Cir.)
Tiffany v. eBay (2d Cir.)

VII. Pornography

Pornography Glossary
Reno v. ACLU (Sup. Ct. 1997)
Ashcroft v. ACLU (Sup. Ct. 2004)

VIII. Defamation and Information Torts

Bauer v. Brinkman (Iowa Sup. Ct.)
47 U.S.C. §230
An Introduction to Section 230
A Note About FOSTA
Zeran v. America Online (4th Cir.)
Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com (9th Cir. en banc)
Top Myths of Content Moderation
International Approaches to Liability for Third-Party Content

IX. Privacy

Review: 16 C.F.R. Part 312 [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-17/pdf/2012-31341.pdf (starting at page 38)]

Excerpts from 16 C.F.R. Part 312, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’s Regulations
Overview of the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and State Consumer Privacy Laws
In re. Pharmatrak (1st Cir.)

X. Spam

Review: CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-108publ187/pdf/PLAW-108publ187.pdf] and 16 C.F.R. Part 316 [http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=16:1.0.1.3.40&idno=16]

XI. Social Media

The Third Wave of Internet Exceptionalism
People v. Lopez (Cal. App. Ct.)
Doe v. MySpace (5th Cir.)
State v. Taylor (N.C. Supreme Ct.)
Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel (Cal. App. Ct.)

REVIEW QUESTION ANSWERS