Revenge Porn Is Bad, But It’s Not GoDaddy’s Fault (Forbes Cross-Post)
Revenge porn is odious, but so is a judge’s disregard for a federal law. In a lawsuit by revenge porn victims over the controversial revenge porn website Texxxan.com, a Texas state trial court had ruled that Texxxan’s web host, GoDaddy,…
Google, Yahoo and Amazon Beat Defamation Claims–Kabbaj v. Google
The pro se plaintiff alleges that unknown Does defamed him. He sued Google, Yahoo and Amazon for this defamation alleging: (1) Google administered a blogger service and profile pages that contained defamatory and threatening communications; (2) Amazon created several accounts…
Internet Law Professors File Amicus Brief in ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Case–Garcia v. Google
I’m sure you are familiar with Garcia v. Google, the copyright lawsuit against YouTube over the Innocence of Muslims video that led to a fatwa being issued against Garcia, an actress in the movie. In a truly awful opinion from…
Court Lauds Blogs “As A Means Of Free Dissemination Of News And Public Comment”–Comins v. Vanvoorhis
A number of states have “retraction” laws that require plaintiffs to demand a retraction from media defendants before suing for defamation. How these laws apply to Internet publishers arose early in the development of Internet jurisprudence. For example, in the…
Of Course The First Amendment Protects Baidu’s Search Engine, Even When It Censors Pro-Democracy Results (Forbes Cross-Post)
Baidu.com is the leading search engine in China. The plaintiffs in this case have published materials online about the democracy movement in China. They allege that, at the request of the Chinese government, Baidu excludes pro-democracy search results, including their…
Employer Gets Section 230 Immunity For Employee’s Posts–Miller v. FedEx
[Note: I am massively behind in blogging Section 230 cases. I probably have a dozen or so festering in my queue. C’est la vie. This case jumps to the front of the queue because of its recency and its relatively…
Supreme Court Changes False Advertising Law Across the Country (Forbes Cross-Post)
Last week, in Lexmark v. Static Control, the Supreme Court articulated new standards about who can sue for false advertising under federal law. Because the Supreme Court rejected all of the disparate legal tests currently being used, this ruling will…
Ninth Circuit Rejects Plaintiffs’ Bad Misreadings of eBay’s User Agreement–Block v. eBay
Even after all of these years, I remain amazed by the bizarre contract misinterpretations that plaintiffs’ lawyers are capable of. Today’s case targeted the eBay user agreement, a document of special interest to me given my contributions to the agreement…
Court Spoils “Banana Lady’s” Appeal Over Online Recordings of Her Act
Catherine Conrad is the “Banana Lady” (see her Facebook photos) who delivers singing birthday telegrams. I didn’t know such things still exist, but perhaps they do in the Midwest (she’s based in the Madison, Wisconsin area). For reasons the court…
47 USC 230’s Legislative History
I had reason to revisit the legislative history for 47 USC 230, which was Section 509 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.[FN1] For some reason, I had trouble retrieving it through typical Google searches, so I’m sharing it here for…