In Its “Innocence of Muslims” Ruling, the Ninth Circuit is Guilty of Judicial Activism–Garcia v. Google
In a ruling that sent shockwaves through the internet community, the Ninth Circuit, with one judge dissenting, found that an injunction should have been granted against YouTube, requiring removal of the “Innocence of Muslims” film. Does Garcia have a copyright…
TCPA Claim Over Yahoo!’s IM to SMS Messaging Survives Summary Judgment
Yahoo! offers instant message users the ability to receive a text message notification of an instant message. A customer received two messages, and sued for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The court denies Yahoo!’s motion for summary judgment….
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 3 (Content Regulation)
Section 230 * The Good Wife on CBS had an episode, “Whack a Mole,” that addressed Section 230. It got Section 230 right on defamation damages but wrong on injunctions. * Preliminary injunction in Backpage v. Hoffman, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119811 (D.N.J. Aug. 20, 2013)….
Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013 (Forbes Cross-Post)
A look back at the Internet law highlights of 2013: #10: Copyright Defendants Get High-Stakes Wins. 2013 saw several copyright defendants win long-running litigation affairs–and potentially crack open new markets, including (1) Google’s stirring win in its nearly decade-long Google…
Court Won’t Order Google To Lift Manual Block For ‘Thin Content’–ICF v. Google
ICF provides web hosting services to hundreds of pornography websites. Google allegedly manually blocked these sites for spam, characterizing them as having “thin content,” which Google defines as “providing internet content that has little or no value to end-users.” The…
National Advertising Division (NAD) Doesn’t Consider Section 230 Defenses
In October, I spoke at the National Advertising Division’s (NAD) annual conference on a panel about Section 230 and advertiser liability for user-generated content (UGC). [Sorry for my delay posting this recap]. A paradigmatic example is a Facebook brand page…
Should We Cheer The California Attorney General’s Revenge Porn Arrest–Or Find It Alarming? (Forbes Cross-Post)
The California Attorney General’s office announced the arrest of Kevin Christopher Bollaert for his role in a revenge porn scheme. Most folks are cheering the arrest for understandable reasons: revenge porn is odious, especially when victims must pay to remove…
SPEECH Act Defendant Gets $48,000 In Attorneys’ Fees–Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v. Handshoe
The SPEECH Act combats libel tourism, the process of trying to enforce an international defamation ruling in the United States if the ruling isn’t consistent with U.S. law. The leading SPEECH Act case is Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v. Handshoe….
Should TheDirty Website Be Liable For Encouraging Users To Gossip? (Forbes Cross-Post)
A major Internet Law battle is brewing in the Sixth Circuit federal appellate court in Kentucky. Potentially at stake is the future of the Web 2.0 ecosystem and user-generated content–which is why many of the Internet’s biggest and high-profile companies…
![Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed--Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/shutterstock_1174959402-150x150.jpg)
Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed–Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo
I know of only two pending trademark lawsuits against search engines for selling trademarked keywords: Parts.com and Carla Ison. Ison’s lawsuit has been dismissed and is on appeal, where it will be crushed. This week, Parts.com’s lawsuits against Google and…