A Thumbs-Up Emoji Costs a Canadian Seller $82,000–South West Terminal v. Achter Land
[A special post for my Canadian friends as a belated celebration of Canada Day. 🍁] This case involves a Canadian transaction for flax. The court summarizes: Mr. Mickleborough had a contract drafted for Achter to sell SWT 86 metric tonnes…
Why I Oppose the California Journalism Protection Act (the Short Version)
I recently wrote a lengthy blog post explaining the many problems with the California Journalism Protection Act (JCPA), AB 886. I submitted a letter of opposition to the Senate Judiciary Committee with just some quotable lowlights. My letter: __ CJPA…
Revisiting Bananas, Duct Tape, Walls, & Copyright–Morford v. Cattelan
Among all of the fruits, bananas play an especially important role in copyright jurisprudence. For example, we must resolve when duct-taping a banana to a wall infringes copyright. The short answer should be “never.” That’s not exactly the answer a…
Uh-Oh, the Ninth Circuit Is Messing Again With Its Roommates Ruling–Vargas v. Facebook
The Roommates.com case plays a critical role in the Ninth Circuit’s Section 230 jurisprudence. The (unnecessarily confusing) majority opinion suggested several exclusions to Section 230’s immunity, including these statements: “If you don’t encourage illegal content, or design your website to…
It Turns Out You Can’t “Sue the CDA”–Fyk v. US
Jason Fyk’s recent litigation campaign reminds me of the classic story Moby Dick, with Fyk in the Captain Ahab role and Section 230 as his white whale. The Netflix documentary of his story will be called “Moby Fyk.” In his…
California’s Proposed Fix to the Journalism Crisis Is Unconstitutional and Worse Than Socialism (Comments on the California Journalism Protection Act, CJPA)
The California legislature is competing with states like Florida and Texas to see who can pass laws will be more devastating to the Internet. California’s latest entry into this Internet death-spiral is the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA, AB 886)….
Resolving Conflicts Between Trademark and Free Speech Rights After Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Lisa P. Ramsey [Lisa P. Ramsey is a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. She writes and teaches in the trademark law area, and recently wrote a paper with Professor Christine…
U.S. Supreme Court Vindicates Photographer But Destabilizes Fair Use — Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s note: this is the post you’ve been waiting for: Prof. Ochoa’s definitive analysis of the Supreme Court’s Warhol opinion. This post is 11,000+ words long, so you may want to block out some time to enjoy this properly.] By…
Politician-Operated Social Media Accounts Raise Many Thorny Legal Issues
In February, Justice Kagan joked that the Supreme Court justices “are not the nine greatest experts on the Internet.” That is certainly true–for example, the justices cannot publicly engage in ordinary social media interactions–yet the justices are getting a crash…
The 9th Circuit Keeps Trying to Ruin Cybersecurity–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
This case involves two anti-threat software vendors, Enigma and Malwarebytes. In 2016, Malwarebytes classified Enigma’s software as “malicious,” a “threat,” and a “potentially unwanted program” (or PUP), because the programs allegedly were “scareware.” Enigma challenged Malwarebytes’ classifications in court. Initially,…