A Dozen Organizations File Comments Opposing Copyright Office’s Plan to Undermine Section 512
I recently posted about the Copyright Office’s proposed new prices for designating 17 USC 512 agents for notice. While the proposed price reduction sounded good, the announcement obscured the real news: the Copyright Office still wants to nix valid designations…
Review Website Gets Hammered In Court–Consumer Cellular v. ConsumerAffairs
This is not a good opinion for the review website industry. However, the court’s harshest treatment turns on the idiosyncratic practices of ConsumerAffairs.com, which set a key Fourth Circuit Section 230 precedent in 2009 but whose current business practices probably…
Yelp Forced To Remove Defamatory Reviews–Hassell v. Bird
[Warning: Brutally ugly opinion and long blog post ahead] The evisceration of Section 230 continues. Yesterday I explained that the last 12 months have been tough for Section 230 jurisprudence. Today’s opinion is worse than *all* of the cases I…
WTF Is Going On With Section 230?–Cross v. Facebook
It’s been a tough year for Section 230. In one case after another, I’ve had to “explain away” Section 230 losses: * Doe #14 v. ModelMayhem. The 9th Circuit embraced a dubious “failure to warn” exception to Section 230. *…
Section 230 Baffles 9th Circuit (Again)–Doe #14 v. ModelMayhem
Why does the Ninth Circuit find Section 230 so baffling? Several of its precedential Section 230 rulings have been angst-fests. Roommates.com required a 3 opinion ruling from a 3 judge panel, then an internally inconsistent en banc ruling, then a…
WARNING: Copyright Office Resurrects Troubling Plan To Strip Websites Of 512 Safe Harbor
The Copyright Office has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding a new electronic submission process for websites and online services to designate agents to receive 512(c)(3) copyright takedown notices. The agent designation process is crucial to the 17…
Google Must Answer Lawsuit For Manually Removing Websites From Its Search Index–E-ventures v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
You’d probably be hopping mad if Google manually kicked your website out of its search index; and if you’re an SEO company and Google also kicked all of your clients out, you’d probably feel pretty litigious. But courts have repeatedly…
Talk on Section 230 and Consumer Reviews
In April, I gave a talk at the University of Sussex on Section 230 as economy policy by encouraging consumer reviews that improve marketplaces. If this sounds vaguely familiar, you’re not imagining things. I’ve been working on this paper since…
Is Uber Liable When Drivers Sexually Abuse Passengers? (Forbes Cross-Post)
Uber allegedly has over 300,000 drivers. In a population that large, inevitably some bad apples will do stupid or illegal things. Uber tries to curb such behavior by doing background investigations (which it has also been sued for) and removing…
FTC Wins Deception Case Over Faux User-Generated Content–Fanning v. FTC
John Fanning challenged the FTC findings that the website he developed, named Jerk.com, materially misrepresented its attributes. On appeal, the First Circuit affirms. Jerk.com resembled Ripoff Report, but for people. The court’s description of the site and its offerings are…