Amazon May Be Liable for Merchant’s Spycam–M.S. v. Amazon
This case involves an “embedded pinhole camera” “disguised” as a “mountable hook” that a Doe merchant offered in Amazon’s Marketplace. Allegedly, Amazon inspected the item three times: Amazon’s Product Safety Team inspected it to confirm it couldn’t be used to…
Section 230 Applies to Doxxing TikTok Video–Couture v. Noshirvan
The court summarizes the plaintiffs’ allegations: Defendant [Danesh] Noshirvan is a TikTok creator. He makes money through TikTok gifts, tips, and subscription fees. His niche is cancel culture. Noshirvan finds a video of someone messing up. He then edits and…
512(f) Doesn’t Restrict Competitive Gaming of Search Results–Source Capital v. Barrett Financial
This case involves two “hard money lending” competitors, Source Capital and Barrett. Allegedly on behalf of Barrett, an SEO vendor sent DMCA takedown notices to Google, alleging that Source Capital had copied some of Barrett’s copyrighted material. Source Capital alleges…
Facebook Faces Contributory Trademark Liability for Marketplace Listings–Car-Freshner v. Meta
This case involves the hanging “car freshener” (which usually smells worse than any odors it tries to mask) in the shape of a tree. The rightsowner has trademark registrations for the tree-shaped outline: Armed with protectable rights in tree outlines,…
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 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…
Section 230 Applies to Employee’s Post on Government-Operated Internal Message Board–Montanino v. New York City Dep’t of Sanitation
The New York City Department of Sanitation runs an internal message board for employees. An as-yet-unidentified employee posted a message to the board regarding a civil-service test cheating scandal. The pseudonymous message claimed that the plaintiff leaked the answers to…
Think Kiwi Farms Is Legally Unassailable? Copyright Law Might Disagree–Greer v. Moon
Kiwi Farms, operated by Joshua Moon, is best known for coordinating cyberattacks on individuals, especially people with disabilities. Few people would lament the site’s demise, but to date it has avoided legal exposure (1, 2) and survived multiple deplatformings (e.g.,…
Does California’s Anti-Discrimination Law Ban Ad Targeting?–Liapes v. Facebook
This opinion indicates that Facebook–and by implication, every other ad network–could violate California’s Unruh Act (an anti-discrimination law) by targeting third-party ads based on age, gender, or other protected criteria. The court reaches this shocking conclusion by cutting several analytical…