Angie’s List’s Telephone and Fax Information Services May Be Immunized by Section 230–Courtney v. Vereb
By Eric Goldman Courtney v. Vereb, 2012 WL 2405313 (E.D. La. June 25, 2012) Courtney and Vereb are both psychiatric professionals. Vereb posted allegedly defamatory comments about Courtney to Angie’s List in 2009. Courtney says he discovered the comments in…
Another Bad Ruling for PissedConsumer on Trademark and 47 USC 230 Claims–Amerigas v. Opinion Corp.
By Eric Goldman Amerigas Propane, LP v. Opinion Corp., 2012 WL 2327788 (E.D. Pa. June 19, 2012) You may recall PissedConsumer, the site that solicits user gripes, SEOs the crud out of them, and then offers the griped business pay-to-play…
CYBERsitter Sues Google for AdWords Trademark Infringement
By Eric Goldman CYBERsitter LLC v. Google, Inc., CV12-5293 (C.D. Cal. complaint filed June 18, 2012) CYBERsitter competes with Net Nanny and ContentWatch (apparently both owned by the same entity, ContentWatch) in the Internet filtering software niche. CYBERsitter claims ContentWatch…
Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Employer From Negligent Supervision Claim–Lansing v. Southwest Airlines. Warning: Ugly Opinion
By Eric Goldman Lansing v. Southwest Airlines Co., 2012 IL App (1st) 101164 (Ill. Ct. App. June 8, 2012) Overview This is a bad opinion. The court reaches the correct result that 47 USC 230 doesn’t immunize an employer for…
First Post-Viacom 512(c) Opinion Doesn’t Look Much Different–Obodai v. Demand Media
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Demand Media, Inc., 2012 WL 2189740 (SDNY June 13, 2012) This is the first substantive ruling I’ve seen interpreting the Second Circuit’s Viacom v. YouTube ruling. (The Viacom ruling was also discussed in the Ouellette…
Backpage Gets TRO Against Washington Law Attempting to Bypass Section 230–Backpage v. McKenna
By Eric Goldman Backpage.com, LLC v. McKenna, 2:12-cv-00954-RSM (W.D. Wash. June 5, 2012). The complaint. Backpage’s TRO motion. As part of states’ ongoing crusade against online prostitution ads, earlier this year Washington enacted SB 6251, captioned “Regulating advertising of commercial…
“Hot Topics in Internet Law” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman This weekend I presented on “Hot Topics in Internet Law” at the San Francisco IP Law Association’s Spring Seminar in Healdsburg. My talk slides. A few photos from the trip. As I’ve mentioned before, I find “hot…
PissedConsumer Denied Section 230 Immunity and Can’t Shake Extortion Claim—Vo v. Opinion Corp.
By Eric Goldman Vo Group v. Opinion Corp., 8758/11 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 22, 2012) PissedConsumer is a consumer review site occupying the same market niche as Ripoff Report. It only wants negative consumer reviews of businesses (as signaled by…
Is SOPA’s “Follow the Money” Meme Infecting Anti-Spam Litigation? – Project Honey Pot v. Does
[Post by Gucci v. Frontline;
Trademark Trolling by SEO Consultant Provides Cautionary Anti-SOPA Tale (and Other Lessons)–Premier Pool Management v. Lusk
By Eric Goldman Premier Pool Management Corp. v. Lusk, 2012 WL 1593206 (E.D. Cal. May 4, 2012) Have I mentioned recently how much I hate SOPA? Today’s case is a textbook example of why SOPA–and the things it stood for–were…