2014 Internet Law Casebook and Syllabus Now Available
My 2014 Internet Law syllabus and updated casebook ($8 DRM-free PDF download) are now online. This year I’m celebrating my 20th year teaching the course! (For more background on my Internet Law course, see this essay). This post will explain…
‘Silk Road’ Ruling Will Hurt Online Commerce (Forbes Cross-Post)
You may have heard of Silk Road, an online marketplace that enabled hard-to-trace buying and selling of illegal goods. The court says it was “as if the purchases were occurring on eBay;” buyers and sellers could even leave feedback about…
Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation, Prostitution & More)
Content Regulation * Jancik v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, 2014 WL 1920751 (C.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (cites omitted). Another websites-and-ADA case diverging from the troubling 2012 Netflix ruling: However, the Redbox Instant website and the Redbox kiosks cannot be…
Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Consumer Reviews, Defamation & More)
Consumer Reviews * In re Margrett A. Skinner (Ga. Sup. Ct. May 19, 2014). Lawyer publicly reprimanded for disclosing client confidential information to rebut the client’s online reviews. See my Forbes post. * Loftus v. Nazari, 2:10-cv-00279-WOB-JGW (E.D. Ky. May…
EFF Pub Trivia Night Recap
Last Thursday, I participated in the 7th Annual EFF Pub Trivia Night at Bluxome Street Winery in SOMA. My photo album. The EFF’s Kurt Opsahl was our Master of Ceremonies (in a smoking jacket, no less) and main question-writer. Several…
How The DMCA’s Online Copyright Safe Harbor Failed
[Eric’s introductory note: I’m continuing my Spring housecleaning of blog posts that got stuck in draft mode for more than a half-year. I wrote this post in September intending it for Forbes, and some of it got obliquely incorporated into…
Want To Scrub Google Search Results In The US? Tough–O’Kroley v. Fastcase
I’m choosing to live in a parallel universe where the ECJ’s Google scrub-search-results ruling simply doesn’t exist. I know it’s a fantasy world, but I’m happier there. Fortunately, here in the US, the ECJ ruling couldn’t happen. The First Amendment…
Court Lauds Blogs “As A Means Of Free Dissemination Of News And Public Comment”–Comins v. Vanvoorhis
A number of states have “retraction” laws that require plaintiffs to demand a retraction from media defendants before suing for defamation. How these laws apply to Internet publishers arose early in the development of Internet jurisprudence. For example, in the…
Of Course The First Amendment Protects Baidu’s Search Engine, Even When It Censors Pro-Democracy Results (Forbes Cross-Post)
Baidu.com is the leading search engine in China. The plaintiffs in this case have published materials online about the democracy movement in China. They allege that, at the request of the Chinese government, Baidu excludes pro-democracy search results, including their…
47 USC 230’s Legislative History
I had reason to revisit the legislative history for 47 USC 230, which was Section 509 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.[FN1] For some reason, I had trouble retrieving it through typical Google searches, so I’m sharing it here for…