My “Summer” 2022 Activities
I’ve regularly done a roundup post of my summer accomplishments when school starts. This year is a little different. I completed my last Internet Law class before Thanksgiving 2021 and had Spring semester off. Then, due to some personal circumstances…
Another Tough Ruling for People Search Databases–Camacho v. Control Group Media
This is another people search case with another rough outcome for defendants. If the defendants in these cases don’t get relief on appeal, I don’t know how the people search and yearbook industries are going to survive. [Note: this opinion…
Court Dissolves hiQ’s Injunction Against LinkedIn–hiQ v. LinkedIn
hiQ was a data snarfer. Specifically, it was “a ‘people analytics’ company that provided information to businesses about their workforces based on statistical analysis of LinkedIn members’ wholly public profiles.” In May 2017, LinkedIn sent hiQ a C&D and blocked…
My Comments to the CPPA Regarding its Initial CPRA Proposed Regulations
I filed comments with the CPPA on their proposed regulations pursuant to the CPRA. Read my comments here. Preparing those comments was a truly joyless task. Analyzing CPRA regulations is literally “read them and weep.” Some hot spots: The CPPA…
Snap’s TOS Fails (Uh Oh)–Doffing v. Facebook
This is one of the dozens of lawsuits alleging that social media services addict kids. Those cases cover the same ground as CA AB 2408, which recently died in the California legislature. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are proceeding in court anyway….
Op-Ed: The Plan to Blow Up the Internet, Ostensibly to Protect Kids Online (Regarding AB 2273)
[I published this anti-AB 2273 op-ed in Capitol Weekly. For more on the problems with AB 2273, see my deep dive and short explainer.] The California Legislature is aggressively pursuing several wide-sweeping and radical proposals to regulate the Internet. One…
California Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Protect Negative Patient Review of Doctor–Premier Brain & Spine v. Cudia
Cudia was a patient of Premier Brain & Spine Institute, Inc., and Edward Rustamzadeh, M.D. In 2019, she reviewed them negatively on Yelp. (This appears to be her Yelp page, and she has an (obviously watered-down) review of the plaintiffs…
Publicity Rights Claim Isn’t Preempted by Section 230–Albert v. Tinder
This is a pro se lawsuit against Match and Tinder for fake dating profiles in the plaintiff’s name. I’m going to focus on the publicity rights claim piece of the lawsuit. Match invoked Section 230. The court says that Match…
11th Circuit UPHOLDS a 512(f) Plaintiff Win on Appeal–Alper Automotive v. Day to Day Imports
I’m going on a limb and saying that I believe this is the first appellate court upholding a 512(f) plaintiff win. The closest plaintiffs have gotten in the past is the Ninth Circuit’s Lenz case, which had plaintiff-favorable language but…
Wrapping Up the “Lessons from the First Internet Ages” Project (New Content Alert!)
Last year, I was appointed a “Knight Visiting Scholar” along with Prof. Mary Anne Franks at the University of Miami. Working with John Sands and a team from the Knight Foundation, we assembled a major conference and an essay package…