Wouldn’t It Be Great if Internet Services Had To License Technologies Selected by Hollywood? (Comments on the Very Dumb “SMART Copyright Act”)
A new entry in Congress’ parade of terrible Internet bills: the ‘‘Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act of 2022’’ or ‘‘SMART Copyright Act of 2022.’’ The SMART Copyright Act is being pitched as a light update of the…
YouTube Defeats Copyright Lawsuit For Not Removing Users’ Videos Quickly Enough–Business Casual v. YouTube
The plaintiff posted videos to YouTube. It claims that TV-Novosti, which runs the RT Arabic channel, infringed its copyrights. The plaintiff sent takedown notices to YouTube for the allegedly infringing RT Arabic videos. “YouTube removed the First RT Video nine…
Section 230 Survives Yet Another Constitutional Challenge–Huber v. Biden
Twitter suspended Huber pursuant to its COVID misinformation policy. Huber claimed that Twitter took that action in league with the Biden administration. If this setup sounds familiar, that’s because at least a dozen cases riff on this theme. This case…
Instagram Influencer Denied Section 230 For Reposting Reader Submissions–Zuckerbrot v. Gellis
This case involves the high-fiber diet system “F-Factor,” developed by dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot. Emily Gellis is an Instagram influencer currently with 182k followers, but no training as a dietitian or journalist. Gellis believed that F-Factor harmed consumers, a message she…
Snapchat May Have a Duty Not to Design Dangerous Software–Maynard v. Snap
The Georgia Supreme Court has issued a troubled, and troubling, opinion in Maynard v. Snap. The opinion will delight law professors who love geeking out about the elements of common law negligence claims. It will also inspire plaintiffs to bring…
California Courts Continue to Trim Section 230’s Protection for Amazon’s Marketplace (and Everyone Else)–Lee v. Amazon
The California Appeals Courts have turned against Amazon’s marketplace. In 2020, in Bolger v. Amazon, the court held that Amazon may be strictly liable for marketplace sales it fulfills. Then, last year, in Loomis v. Amazon, the court extended Bolger’s…
First Circuit Says Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230–Monsarrat v. Newman
I previously blogged this case last year. I summarized the facts: This case involves a LiveJournal community (the Davis Square community for Somerville, MA). In 2017, LiveJournal changed its policies. In response, Newman, the community moderator, copied all of the…
Justice Thomas Really, REALLY Wants Section 230 Repealed (Even If He Has to Do It Himself)
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in Doe v. Facebook, a FOSTA case. The Texas Supreme Court held that FOSTA excluded some claims from Section 230 (disregarding the statutory language Congress adopted), while other claims remain preempted by Section 230. The…
26 Trademark Academics Oppose the SHOP SAFE Act
[Today, Betsy Rosenblatt, Rebecca Tushnet and I sent the following letter to Congress on behalf of 26 trademark academics (here’s a PDF version). This complements a separate letter sent by 38 organizations and companies also opposing the SHOP SAFE Act….
Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to Publication of Private Emails–Crowley v. Faison
Faison runs the Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM). She received several racist and offensive emails from an email address purporting to be Karra Crowley. Faison posted the emails to BLM’s Facebook page and identified Karra as the sender….