A Volcanic Opinion in the Fifth Circuit Destabilizes International Copyright Law—Vetter v. Resnik (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: this is another Long Read post from Prof. Ochoa, clocking in at over 10k words.] Territoriality is a fundamental principle of international intellectual property law: each nation governs patents, trademarks, and copyrights within…
The Ninth Circuit Wrecked Internet Jurisdiction Law…And For What?–Briskin v. Shopify
I added the Ninth Circuit Briskin v. Shopify en banc ruling to my 2025 Internet Law casebook, and I taught it for the first time in Fall 2025. Wow, that did not go well at all. The opinion is absolutely…
Relitigating hiQ Labs and Scraping Through the Lens of the DMCA 1201 Anti-Circumvention (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy A series of prominent web-scraping lawsuits are revisiting the fundamentals of public data access. And in so doing, with a slight reframing of a relatively settled legal issue, major platforms are challenging the presumption that…
It Takes a Lot for 512(f) Claims to Survive a Motion to Dismiss–Cordova v. Huneault
Cordova publishes videos on a YouTube channel,”Denver Metro Audits.” He claims that the defendants republish substantial portions of those videos on their YouTube channel, “Frauditor Troll Channel.” Cordova sent DMCA takedown notices targeting the defendants’ videos, but the defendants counternoticed…
TikTok Isn’t a U.S. State Actor (So Far)–Brooks v. TikTok
This is a pro se/IFP case, so odds were high it was going to fail no matter what. Brooks says two of his TikTok accounts were terminated and another demonetized. He claims the account restrictions violated the First Amendment because…
Salesforce Still Can’t Avoid Tertiary Liability FOSTA Claims–GG v. Salesforce
This is one of numerous FOSTA cases seeking to hold Salesforce liable for providing vendor services to Backpage. I describe these as “tertiary liability” cases because Salesforce’s involvement is three hops away from the victim: sex trafficking victim <== Backpage…
Ninth Circuit Deletes RNC’s Lawsuit Over Gmail’s Spam Filter–RNC v. Google
Prior blog post. I previously summarized the case: You may recall that the RNC claimed that Gmail’s spam filter was biased against Republican spam. The centerpiece of this claim was an academic study that the RNC intentionally misinterpreted, to the…
Greer Burns Law Firm Sanctioned for “Willfully Abusive” and “Egregious” SAD Scheme Judge-Shopping
Currently, the Northern District of Illinois judges do not apply consistent standards for SAD Scheme joinder. Some judges still permit the joinder of dozens or hundreds of seemingly unrelated defendants in a single case; other judges essentially make SAD Scheme…
What Does It Mean to Make a Voice Call in a Post-Telephone World?–Howard v. RNC
In 1991, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA is a telephone exceptionalist statute–by design, the TCPA regulates telemarketing phone calls differently than other forms of marketing. I considered some implications of advertising medium regulatory exceptionalism in…
AT&T Blocks T-Mobile’s Data Portability Efforts (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Kieran McCarthy If you have ever wondered why big incumbents keep running to the Northern District of Texas the moment someone builds a tool that makes switching easier, comparing prices easier, or generally makes the internet work…