Twitter Narrows, But Doesn’t Completely Avoid, a Dangerous Copyright Lawsuit–Concord Music v. X
Music publishers sued Twitter for users’ alleged copyright infringement. The court says that three aspects of the contributory copyright infringement claim survive Twitter’s motion to dismiss. Direct Copyright Infringement. The publishers argued that Twitter “transmitted” their works. The court says…
Fifth Circuit Once Again Disregards Supreme Court Precedent and Mangles Section 230–Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton
Texas passed a law (HB 1181) requiring pornographic websites to age-authenticate all users and then prevent minors from accessing online porn. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Congress passed functionally identical laws twice: the CDA in 1996 and the COPA…
“Ringless Voicemail” Vendor Wins Section 230 Defense Against FTC–US v. Stratics Networks
[This is one of those opinions that is a slog to blog because the court’s statutory analysis made my head hurt. If this opinion confuses you, welcome to the club. FWIW, “Slog to Blog” would make a good band name.]…
The SAD Scheme as an Institutional Failure
[These are my rough-draft talk notes from a recent workshop of trademark law professors.] The SAD Scheme involves a trademark owner suing dozens/hundreds of defendants using a sealed complaint, getting an ex parte TRO, and then having the online marketplaces…
Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to Sending Non-Consensual Pornography by Postal Mail–Doe v. Spencer
Spencer’s wife had an extra-marital affair with Doe. Doe sent “photographs and screen shots of sexually explicit images” to the wife. Spencer, the husband, came into possession of these materials via unspecified means. He assembled various collages of the images…
Print-on-Demand Service Defeats Fish Illustrator’s Copyright Claim–Tomelleri v. Sunfrog
Tomelleri (who has appeared on this blog before) illustrates fishes (see court exhibit on the right). He sued a print-on-demand service (Sunfrog) over alleged IP violations of his illustrations. If that rings a bell, it’s because just yesterday I blogged…
Print-on-Demand Services Face More Legal Woes–Canvasfish v. Pixels
In the ongoing legal battles over print-on-demand services, RedBubble and (more recently) Printify have sometimes achieved favorable results by disaggregating all of the functions and acting solely as a marketing agent for the disaggregated vendors. These defense-favorable outcomes may work…
“Assuming Good Faith Online” Essay Published
I’m pleased to announce the publication of my essay, “Assuming Good Faith Online,” in the Journal of Online Trust and Safety. The published version. This essay has had a more convoluted publication history than most. I initially drafted it in…
WIPIP 2024 Highlights
Earlier this month, the High Tech Law Institute hosted the 2024 Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property (WIPIP), featuring nearly 90 presentations and over 110 attendees from four continents. The photo album. Some of my highlights from the event: Reconvening in physical space….
Facebook Drops Anti-Scraping Lawsuit Against Bright Data (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy There is a new most important legal precedent in the world of web scraping. Bright Data appears to have prevailed in its dispute against Meta. Last Friday, the parties stipulated to dismiss their lawsuit, with…