Section 230 Applies to ADA Closed Captioning Claims–National Federation of the Deaf v. Harvard
Harvard publishes a lot of video online, both on servers it operates and through third-party services like YouTube. Only some of that video has “timely, accurate closed captioning.” The National Federation of the Deaf sued Harvard for ADA violations and…
Recap of the Copyright Office’s Section 512 Study Roundtable
On Monday, I participated in a Copyright Office roundtable regarding their long-delayed report on Section 512. The roundtable was intended to update the study’s record from 2017, when progress stalled on the report. Thus, the topic nominally was to discuss…
How Have Section 512(f) Cases Fared Since 2017? (Spoiler: Not Well)
On Monday, I’m participating in a Copyright Office workshop on Section 512. The workshop supports the Copyright Office’s long-pending Section 512 report, which started in 2015 but stalled out in 2017. To freshen up the project, the workshop will cover…
Online Marketplace Defeats Trademark Suit Because It’s Not the “Seller”–OSU v. Redbubble
Redbubble is an online marketplace for artists. It outsources many of its functions. Its artist-vendors “are automatically connected with a third-party manufacturer to make the goods.” Redbubble also uses third-party services to package/ship goods and process payments. It appears much…
New Paper Announcement: “Copyright’s Memory Hole”
I’m pleased to announce a new paper, “Copyright’s Memory Hole,” co-authored with Northeastern Law professor Jessica Silbey. The paper is still in draft form, and Jessica and I plan to do a major edit to the paper this summer. So…
Important Section 230 Ruling from the Second Circuit–Herrick v. Grindr
This case involves an e-personation attack caused by fake Grindr postings from an ex-boyfriend. The victim claims to have contacted Grindr dozens of times seeking relief, to no avail. The victim sued Grindr for the attack, styling the case as…
March Madness! Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Massive Cyberattack After Basketball Game Loss–Higgins v. Kentucky Sports Radio
Today’s opinion starts out with an understatement: “This case presents a familiar situation where some sports fanatics overreacted about the outcome of a basketball game.” The game in question is the 2017 “Elite Eight” game between the University of Kentucky and…
Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused 😕–Kangaroo v. Amazon
This case involves the alleged counterfeiting of emoji beach balls on Amazon. It doesn’t get into emoji-specific IP issues and devolves into a garbled tangle over Amazon marketplace product catalog issues. Still, EMOJI LAW ALERT!!! 😲 The plaintiff makes emoji…
Tenth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Sinclair v. Twitter
This is the 10th different case where a judge has rejected allegations that Twitter and other social media services materially support terrorists. As with most of the others, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are Excolo Law and 1-800 LAWFIRM. I’ve blogged the…
Court Tosses Antitrust Claims That Internet Giants Are Biased Against Conservatives–Freedom Watch v. Google
Apologies if I’m not being appropriately empathetic, but I think lawsuits alleging that Internet giants are biased against conservatives are stupid and counterproductive. They are premised on factually unsupportable assertions of bias, and most of these plaintiffs would enthusiastically cheer…