Elon Musk’s Gifts to Web Scrapers (Guest Blog Post)
By Kieran McCarthy Elon Musk may have done more to open the Internet to web scraping than any person or public interest advocacy group. Not that he meant to do this, mind you. He was trying to do the opposite….
Section 230 Preempts Product Design Claims–Lama v. Meta
The court summarizes: Plaintiff alleges that Defendants failed “to implement a child protective procedure whereby parents, school personnel, and other children[-]responsible persons would be able to protect against online bullying wherein the defendants’ products were foreseeably weaponized to facilitate online…
Supreme Court Addresses When Government Employees’ Social Media Accounts are State Action (Lindke & Garnier)
[This post got stuck in my drafts folder…sharing it now for completeness] I see many cases against government employees for posting and moderating content on social media. The topic is a doctrinal morass because many details can affect the analysis….
Plaintiffs Make Some Progress in 512(f) Cases
This post recaps some recent 512(f) cases that have hit my alerts. Surprisingly, all of the decisions involve a positive ruling for the plaintiff, which is different from the typical past outcomes. Maybe the jurisprudential tide is turning? Bungie, Inc….
The 7th Circuit’s Section 230 Jurisprudence’s Impact on FOSTA Cases
Last August, in GG v. Salesforce, a split Seventh Circuit panel ruled that Salesforce didn’t qualify for Section 230 in a FOSTA case. I never blogged that opinion for two reasons. First, it came at a busy time (I was…
Trump’s Retweets Are Criminal Contempt of a Gag Order–People v. Trump
As you surely know, the state of New York is prosecuting Donald Trump for allegedly falsifying business records in connection with the hush-payments to Stormy Daniels. The judge overseeing the case is well aware of Trump’s shambolic approach to high-stakes…
Misjoinder Dooms SAD Scheme Patent Case–Wang v. Schedule A Defendants
35 U.S.C. § 299 limits joinder in patent cases to defendants who infringe using “the same accused product or process.” Congress enacted this requirement to restrict patent trolls who were filing lawsuits against defendants who had nothing in common but…
Ninth Circuit Upholds “Sign-in-Wrap”–Keebaugh v. Warner Bros.
This is a false advertising lawsuit again the mobile app game Game of Thrones: Conquest. The account formation process included a screen where a user could proceed only by clicking on the “play” button: Warner Bros. sought to send the…
Why Generative AI is Doomed
I was honored to deliver this year’s Nies Lecture at Marquette University Law School, with the provocative (but, I hope, accurately descriptive) title “Generative AI is Doomed.” My remarks. This is my first contribution to the AI academic literature. As…
Videogame Maker Has Implied License to Depict Copyrighted Tattoos–Hayden v. 2K
This is one of several copyright cases brought by tattoo artists against videogame makers for depicting athletes bearing their tattoos. This particular case, involving tattoo artist Hayden, videogame NBA 2K, and basketball players like LeBron James, reached a jury. The…