Keyword Ad Lawsuit Isn’t Covered By California’s Anti-SLAPP Law
The plaintiff, Los Angeles Yellow Cab, and defendants compete in the taxi industry. The defendants bought keyword ads at the search engines, such as the following triggered by the search “Yellow Cab Los Angeles”: Yellow Cab Los Angeles—Call 800–521–8294 or…
Angie’s List Must Defend Fraud Charges Over Pay-to-Play Review Manipulation (Forbes Cross-Post)
U.S. law is clear that consumer review websites aren’t liable for their users’ reviews. However, plaintiffs are increasingly challenging how review websites publicly describe their review databases. A recent court ruling against Angie’s List highlights how plaintiffs are tendentiously parsing…
School District Wrongly Disciplined Student for a Two Word Tweet
Plaintiff was an honor student and athlete at Rogers High School, with no previous disciplinary record. In response to a tweet from an anonymous Twitter account (Roger Confessions) asking whether “[plaintiff] actually made out with [name of female teacher at…
Court Allows Facebook Expert to Testify in Threat Case–U.S. v. Bradbury
I previously blogged about US v. Bradbury, a prosecution for Facebooking allegedly jocular threats to blow up buildings and kill government officials. (See: “When Can Defendants Defeat A Criminal Threat Prosecution By Claiming They Were Joking? Not Often”.) Bradbury was…
Delayed Search Database Updating Isn’t Defamation–Ferrell v. Yahoo and Google
This lawsuit is another unsuccessful attempt to manufacture an American “right to be forgotten.” Keyonna Ferrell sued Google and Yahoo pro se because allegedly she removed images from Pinterest but the search engines didn’t update their search results to reflect…
University Can’t Quash Lawsuit by Professor Fired for Tweeting Political Opinion
Dr. Steven Salaita, a tenured professor at Virginia Tech, took a job at University of Illinois. After going through the interview process, UI sent him an offer letter for him to accept and sign. As is typically the case, the…
Story Byline May Affect Section 230 Immunity–AdvanFort v. Maritime Executive
I previously blogged this case in May. The underlying facts involve the arrest and ultimate release of a ship’s crew that was armed to combat piracy. I’ll focus just on the Section 230 issue. A person involved in the underlying…
Sending Emails Isn’t Workplace Stalking–People v. Marian
Do you remember the 1990s debates over whether cyberspace is a “place,” and why that might matter? Yeah, we’re back to that. This case involves N.Y. Penal Law § 120.45(3), which occurs when a person (emphasis added): intentionally, and for…
Lawyer Loses License Due To Overzealous Social Media Activism For Client–In re McCool
Raven Skye Boyd Maurer and attorney Joyce Nanine McCool were friends. Raven had a bitter custody dispute with her ex-husband. Among other points of contention, Raven accused her ex-husband of sexually abusing the kids. Raven sought to terminate his parental…
Q2 2015 Quick Links, Part 2 (Censorship and More)
Content Regulation * Oxera: The economic impact of safe harbours on Internet intermediary start-ups * South Korea is mandating that all cellphones sold to minors have an app called “Smart Sheriff” that censors their online experience. What could possibly go…