Copyright Battles Over City Council Videos
As the maxim goes, all politics are local. A corollary is that few political disputes are as nasty or vitrolic as local politics. When local disputes devolve into total warfare, the parties grasp for any legal leverage against their sworn…
2024 Internet Law Year-in-Review
My ranking of the top 10 Internet Law developments of 2024. 10) X/Twitter Embraces Partisan Bias. For years, MAGA has claimed that Internet company employees are liberals and therefore surely moderate content to favor their preferred team (the Democrats) and…
California’s “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act” Is Partially Unconstitutional…But Other Parts Are Green-Lighted–NetChoice v. Bonta
California SB 976, “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act,” is one of the multitudinous laws that pretextually claim to protect kids online. Like many such laws nowadays, it’s a gish-gallop compendium of online censorship ideas: Age authentication! Parental…
The “Winning Isn’t Normal” Copyright Enforcement Campaign Is More “Abusive” Than “Winning”–Bell v. Kiffin
A few years ago, I summarized Keith Bell’s copyright enforcement efforts: Bell published a short book in 1982. It contained a passage that has become a meme in the sports community. Bell has separately registered a copyright in the passage….
The Fifth Circuit’s Campaign to Undermine Section 230 Is Making Progress–AB v. Salesforce
This is a FOSTA case involving Backpage, but it’s against Backpage’s vendor Salesforce. That makes this a tertiary liability claim. Here are the steps in the plaintiffs’ alleged chain of liability: V) victims promoted in Backpage advertisements (plaintiffs) –> D1)…
Court Declares Parts of Twitter’s TOS Unconscionable–Gerber v. Twitter
This is a data breach case involving a flaw in Twitter’s API that allowed malefactors to steal information about 200M Twitter users. Twitter invokes its TOS, including its warranty disclaimer and limitation of liability, against the plaintiffs’ claims for breach…
Thumbs-Up Emoji Formed Binding Sales Contract in Canada–Achter v. South West Terminal
This is the instant-classic lawsuit involving a Saskatchewan farmer who text-messaged a “thumbs-up” emoji in response to an offer to buy his flax. The lower court found that the seller’s thumbs-up emoji constituted assent to the buyer’s offer and awarded…
Facebook Defeats User’s TOS Breach Claim–Lloyd v. Facebook
Lloyd sued Facebok for a variety of claims (I initially described the suit as “a standard kitchen-sink pro se lawsuit against Facebook”). The district court dismissed the complaint in 2022. This summer, the Ninth Circuit largely affirmed, but it revived…
Omegle Defeats Lawsuit Over User’s “Capping”–MH v. Omegle
I previously described this case: Omegle enables real-time video and text chats with users assigned at random. The case involves an 11 year old girl who was a first-time Omegle user. The complaint alleges that a malefactor John Doe manipulated…
Uber’s TOS Formation Upheld Again–Wu v. Uber
Goodness gracious, I could teach an entire semester of Internet Law focused solely on Uber’s TOS formation. It’s a source of never-ending, and sometimes avoidable, drama. This opinion is a companion to the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s decision in Good v….