Airbnb Gets Mixed Results in Challenge to Boston’s Anti-Airbnb Law–Airbnb v. Boston
Boston enacted a law against short-term housing rentals that included these provisions: (1) a $300/violation/day fine for booking illegal short-term rentals (the “penalties” provision), (2) a city-wide ban on booking agents that don’t honor notice-and-takedown or verify vendor licenses (the…
Wisconsin Supreme Court Fixes a Bad Section 230 Opinion—Daniel v. Armslist
In 2018, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals issued a bizarre opinion suggesting that plaintiffs could avoid Section 230 by targeting the service’s design and operation. The authoring judge seemed confident that he had spotted a statutory interpretation flaw that hundreds…
New Essay: The Complicated Story of FOSTA and Section 230
I’m pleased to announce my essay, The Complicated Story of FOSTA and Section 230. This essay tries to simplify a very complicated set of topics and summarize it in a fairly short and readable piece. I hope this essay provides one-stop-shopping…
Ninth Circuit Chunks Another Section 230 Ruling—HomeAway v. Santa Monica (Catch-up Post)
I’m finally blogging this Airbnb/HomeAway 230 ruling from 6 weeks ago. Why so long? Honestly, I lacked the emotional fortitude to blog it. The outcome isn’t novel—it reaches the same conclusion as the Airbnb v. San Francisco ruling from 2016 (a…
Forming an Online Contract May Be Harder Than Tough Mudder’s Salmon Ladder
This case reaches a relatively non-controversial outcome. It rejects an arbitration clause in an online TOS. Still, how the court reaches that conclusion should set off warning bells for everyone trying to impose arbitration in an online TOS. The bar…
Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Stupid–eTrailer v. Automatic Equipment
The plaintiff is a retailer of “motor vehicle accessories.” The defendant manufactures towing supplies and has previously distributed its goods to the plaintiff. The plaintiff created product shots and obtained copyright registrations for some of them. On the right is…
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…
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…
Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More
Three interesting recent keyword advertising cases: Comphy Co. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2019 WL 1128519 (W.D. Wash. March 12, 2019) Comphy makes high-end linens. It chooses not to sell directly on Amazon. Nevertheless, Amazon has purchased search engine keyword ads triggered…
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…