New York Judge Shuts Down a SAD Scheme TRO Request–CJB Global v. Schedule A Defendants
This SAD Scheme case ended up before Judge Buchwald, who shreds it. Judge Buchwald recaps the scheme’s fundamental corruptness: if all of plaintiff’s requested ex parte relief were to be granted, plaintiff would at the outset be entitled to broad…
A 512(f) Case Survived a Motion to Dismiss. Guess What Happened Next–Channel 781 v. WCAC
The court describes the case: Plaintiff Channel 781 News (“Channel 781”) is a YouTube-based news outlet focusing on local affairs in Waltham, Massachusetts. Channel 781 posted clips from Waltham municipal government meetings that it believed to be newsworthy. Channel 781…
Every SAD Scheme Opinion Is Weird In Its Own Way–Cai v. Chaozhoushi Yitong Dianzi Shangwu Youxiangongsi
This case generally follows the SAD Scheme template, but with several twists: it’s in the Western District of Texas, not the more typical N.D. Ill. it’s a copyright claim rather than the more typical trademark claim it’s against a single…
CJEU Judgment on Geoblocking & Standards for Knowledge of Foreign Copyright Laws and Geoblocking Measures (Guest Blog Post)
by Prof. Marketa Trimble UNLV Boyd Law School Last month, while sitting at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a passenger typed www.annefrankmanuscripten.org on her laptop to look up the website at issue in the latest judgment by the Court of Justice of…
Court Greenlights Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Unmasking of Online Critic–In re DMCA Subpoena to Cloudflare
The Jehovah’s Witnesses (the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania) sought to unmask a Doe who uploaded an archive of religious texts, along with some associated linguistic parsing tools, to a website (https://jws-library.one). [That URL now says: “This…
eBay Defeats Contributory Copyright Claim–Lee v. SBS
Lee is enforcing music copyrights against karaoke machine makers that allegedly include copyrighted songs. He sent numerous NOCIs to eBay targeting the machines. eBay apparently honored the NOCIs. However, Lee really wanted staydowns, which eBay did not do. Lee claims…
Large Roundup of Section 230 Rulings
This blog post rounds up nearly 20 Section 230 cases (and adjacent cases), mostly from the past four months, that for whatever reason I didn’t cover in a standalone blog post. Section 230’s effects are waning overall, but this post…
YouTube Exits Copyright Lawsuit Over YouTubers’ Videos–Barnes v. Sanchez
This is a copyright infringement lawsuit among pro se litigants. The dispute sideswipes YouTube, but YouTube is able to exit on a motion to dismiss. The plaintiff claims a copyright in a book, Drug Lords of Oakland. The defendants operate…
Blogger Defeats Photographer’s Copyright Claim–Sokolskyfilm v. Messiah
I’m blogging this case only because it’s one of those “what are we even doing here?” lawsuits. Cases like this belong in the CCB or, better yet, should not be brought at all! * * * The case involves a…
Blogger’s Photo Republication Isn’t Fair Use–Vedros v. Endless Mt. Labradors
This is a run-of-the-mill photographer copyright enforcement action. As a commission for an advertiser, Vedros created a photo that depicts “a dog placing its front paws on a scale with a cat nearby, and shows both animals looking at the…