YouTuber Loses Lawsuit Demanding $22/View–Ray v. Google
(As will be obvious in a moment, this is a pro se lawsuit). Ray created a YouTube account and aspired to become a YouTube Partner. He posted 50 videos that generated over 317k views. Incredibly, Ray thought Google promised to…
Apple’s App Store Can Reject Unwanted Apps–Coronavirus Reporter v. Apple
Apple rejected two of the plaintiffs’ apps, “Coronavirus Reporter” and “Bitcoin Lottery,” for its app store. Apple rejected the Coronavirus Reporter app because it wasn’t associated with a government entity or medical institution; and it rejected the Bitcoin Lottery app…
Ninth Circuit Revives Choreography Copyright Claims Over Fortnite Emotes–Hanagami v. Epic
Hanagami is a celebrity choreographer. He has over 4.5M YouTube followers and nearly 1B video views. He posted a video entitled “CHARLIE PUTH – How Long | Kyle Hanagami Choreography” that contained 480 “counts” of choreography, composed of 96 counts…
Some New Section 230 Memes
I gave a brand-new talk about Section 230 at the California Lawyers Association IP Institute. (It was recorded, but I believe it will be behind the CLA paywall). You can see my completely new slide deck here. It contains some…
Section 230 Applies to Nextdoor Consumer Reviews–Duffer v. Nextdoor
The court summarizes the plaintiff’s allegations: Plaintiff alleges that in October, 2020, he received a negative review on Nextdoor from a former customer. A series of other negative reviews followed. An associate of the plaintiff alerted Nextdoor about the reviews…
Section 230 Protects Gmail’s Spam Filter–RNC v. Google
[My blogging queue has gotten backlogged. I’m slowly catching up. I hope you enjoy these 2,800 words on legal topics you assumed were definitively resolved over a dozen years ago.] Introduction This lawsuit is one of the many lawsuits around…
The DTSA Ex Parte Seizure Provision Was Always Bad Policy–Janssen v. Evenus
In 2016, Congress enacted the Defend Trade Secret Act (DTSA). Among other provisions, it created a brand-new remedy, the ex parte seizure order, that allows trade secret owners to grab allegedly stolen trade secret items before they are spirited away…
Section 230 Once Again Applies to Claims Over Offline Sexual Abuse–Doe v. Grindr
John Doe, a 13 year old, created a Grindr profile and connected with Pritt. They met offline and engaged in sex. Doe sued Grindr for negligence and IIED. Grindr successfully defends on Section 230 grounds. ICS Provider. Yes. Cite to…
This Blog Has Jumped the Shark: I’m Covering a Copyright Opinion About a Tattoo of Tiger King’s Joe Exotic–Cramer v. Netflix
In the early days of the pandemic, tattoo artist Cramer created this tattoo and tattooed it onto her husband: The tattoo depicts Joe Exotic of Tiger King “fame,” a can of Lysol, some coronaviruses, and the words “Quarantine 2020.” None…
Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Still Stupid–SMS v. Pharmaaid
SMS has copyright registrations in photos of its pump dispensers. It claims that a rival, Pharmaaid, is selling identical products and displays SMS’s photos in its Amazon store and on product packaging. Here’s SMS’s purported visual proof of Pharmaaid’s infringements:…