Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Its Fact-Checking Explanations–Stossel v. Meta
John Stossel has over a million Facebook followers. He posted two videos that triggered fact-checking responses from Facebook. The first video, “Government Fueled Fires,” downplayed the impact of climate change as the cause of California’s annual forest fire conflagrations. Facebook…
First Amendment Protects Videogame’s Depiction of Tractor’s Trade Dress–Saber v. Oovee
This case involves the Polish tractor manufacturer Kirovets’ K-700 tractor: Saber makes the videogame MudRunner. It exclusively licensed the right to depict the K-700 in its videogames, including the right to enforce the exclusive license in court. Oovee make the…
Court Says “You May NOT Amend Your TOS by Posting New Terms to Your Site”–International Markets v. Thayer
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Most online terms-of-use agreements claim to give their drafters broad discretion to modify the terms at the host’s discretion. Some terms-of-use agreements purport to allow host websites to modify the terms by sending an email…
Uber Defeats Driver’s Wrongful Death Lawsuit–Drammeh v. Uber
Ceesay, an Uber driver, picked up 2 passengers who allegedly murdered him so they could steal his car. A story about the tragedy. The passengers allegedly created a “fake” Uber account using a prepaid cellphone and gift cards. The estate…
Jury Awards Damages to Tattoo Artist for Video-Game Depiction–Alexander v. WWE 2K (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Aaron Perzanowski, University of Michigan Law School Last week, an Illinois jury awarded tattoo artist Catherine Alexander $3,750 in damages at the conclusion of a copyright infringement trial. Alexander claimed that Take-Two Interactive infringed the tattoo designs she inked…
Anti-Circumvention Takedowns Aren’t Covered by 512(f)–Yout v. RIAA
[I’ll blog the Supreme Court’s cert grant in Gonzalez v. Google probably later this week.] Yout’s software allows users to rip digital streams, such as from YouTube. It sought a declaratory judgment that it did not violate 17 USC 1201(a)(1)…
Muslim Loses Case Against Facebook Over Discriminatory Content Moderation–Elansari v. Meta
Elansari is Muslim. This is not his first time as a plaintiff. In this lawsuit, he claims that Facebook blocks pro-Palestinian publishers and favors pro-Israeli publishers. Thus, he argues, Jewish readers are more likely to get the information they want…
When Do Defendants Have Access to Copyrighted Works Posted to the Internet?–Cooley v. Target Corp.
This case relates to Target’s “Cat & Jack” clothing line. The plaintiff, NOC, is a teenager who has copyrighted designs in hand-drawn dots that Target allegedly copied in the clothing line. Target and NOC had some direct dealings, including bringing…