Another Example of How “Notice and Explanations” Requirements are a Liability Trap–Shared v. Facebook
Shared.com is a content producer. It ran Facebook self-service ads and participated in Facebook’s “instant articles” program that let Facebook embed ads in its content in exchange for a revenue cut. Starting in 2018, Shared “lost access” to the instant…
Photo Licensing Service Qualifies for DMCA Online Safe Harbor–Steinmetz v. ShutterStock
This is a 512(c) online copyright safe harbor case. We rarely see opinions like this any more. In 2022, I’ve blogged just one other 512(c) case (Davis v. Pinterest). (Business Casual v. YouTube should have been a 512(c) case, but…
A 3 Month Check-In on the Copyright Claims Board (CCB)
On September 19, I gathered some CCB stats. This was 95 days after launch. 155 claims had been filed as of that date. (Today, the number is 157). That implies an annual run rate of less than 600 claims. Every…
The 5th Circuit Puts the 1st Amendment in a Blender & Whips Up a Terrible #MAGA Kool-Aid–NetChoice v. Paxton
[This is a 6k+ word blog post that was joyless to write and most likely will be joyless to read.] If you want a distillation of this decision, consider this line: “Far from justifying pre-enforcement facial invalidation, the Platforms’ obsession…
Comments on Adobe’s 2022 Emoji Usage Trends Survey
[The Internet you know and love is on life support after an awful NetChoice v. Paxton Fifth Circuit opinion and the enactment of two California laws, AB 2273 and AB 587. I’ve written so much about those bills that I…
Five Ways That the California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC/AB 2273) Is Radical Policy
When a proposed new law is sold as “protecting kids online,” regulators and commenters often accept the sponsors’ claims uncritically (because…kids). This is unfortunate because those bills can harbor ill-advised policy ideas. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC / AB2273,…
Some Memes About California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AB 2273)
Today, I’m continuing my coverage of CA AADC (AB 2273) with a few memes on the subject: * * * * * * * * * My caption: “CAPTCHA vendors are training their age assurance algorithms for CA’s Age Appropriate…
Reminder: the First Amendment Governs Content Moderation by the Government–PETA v. Banks
Texas A&M (TAMU) does medical experiments on dogs. PETA objects to these experiments and commented on TAMU’s social media pages. TAMU blocked PETA, which led to a prior lawsuit that settled. The settlement terms included: “TAMU would not exercise viewpoint…
Amending Your TOS? Better Use a Clickthrough Process, Not Email Notice–Alkutkar v. Bumble
Alkutkar used the dating app Bumble. He paid money to get extra visibility for his dating profile and claims he got poor results, so he sued Bumble for false advertising. Bumble successfully redirects the case to arbitration based on its…
Griper’s Keyword Ads May Constitute False Advertising (Huh?)–LoanStreet v. Troia
Troia was a LoanStreet employee. He was allegedly fired for cause. Troia posted disparaging comments about LoanStreet at Glassdoor.com, Reddit.com, and Teamblind.com. He then worked to boost the posts’ visibility, including: the posts asked users to “follow [his] link and…