Previewing the “Lessons from the First Internet Ages” Symposium
As I mentioned, I’m part of a team organizing a special virtual event called the “Lessons from the First Internet Ages Symposium.” The event starts tomorrow 10am Pacific, and it’s not too late to sign up! The event will explore…
If “Trespass to Chattels” Isn’t Limited to “Chattels,” Anarchy Ensues–Best Carpet Values v. Google
Trigger warning: this is a terrible opinion. Let’s hope the judge corrects his errors or that the appeals court does it for him. * * * This opinion addresses a venerable issue in Internet Law: can a website control how…
Announcing A Major Virtual Event, “Lessons from the First Internet Ages,” on Nov. 2-3, 2021
This year, I have been serving as a Knight Foundation visiting scholar along with Prof. Mary Anne Franks of University of Miami. I’m excited to publicly announce our project. Working with the Knight Foundation team, including John Sands, we assembled…
Think Keyword Metatags Are Dead? They Are (Except in Court)–Reflex v. Luxy
Check your calendar. Yes, it’s 2021. But trademark plaintiffs and judges are still partying like it’s 1999. The plaintiff is Seeking Arrangements, one of my favorite websites to base my Internet Law exams on. The defendant is a competitor, Luxy….
Comments on Trump’s Lawsuits Against YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter
When Trump signed his anti-230 EO in May 2020, I was immediately overwhelmed with media calls all asking the same basic question: this is garbage, right? We now have the final answer to that question. As I and others predicted…
School Can’t Discipline Student For Off-Campus Snapchat Messages–Mahanoy School District v. BL
A high school cheerleader, Brandi Levy (referred to as B.L. in the opinion), was disappointed about being placed on the JV squad instead of the varsity squad, as well as developments regarding her softball team. From the local convenience store,…
YouTuber Doesn’t Qualify as a Member of the “News Media”–Green v. Pierce County
Green runs a YouTube channel called “Libertys Champion” (with 18k subscribers now). Green had a scuffle with a Pierce County security guard, so he submitted public records requests to obtain more information about the county’s security force. The county provided…
What Would Happen If Search Engines Had to Give Higher Visibility to Less Relevant Results?
I’m reporting on a study by Bin Han, Chirag Shah, and Daniel Saelid called “Users’ Perception of Search Engine Biases and Satisfaction.” The authors showed two pages of Bing results to study participants. (An aside: Bing…really?) The first page was…
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Fair Use in Google-Oracle Software Battle (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [BONUS: Prof. Ochoa will be speaking on this case April 13, 6pm Pacific. Free registration.] On April 5, the U.S. Supreme Court held 6-2 that Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of code from the Java…
Snapchat Photos Don’t Constitute “Virtual” Physical Presence–People v. White
The defendant was a high school teacher and coach. She sent photos to one of her students, WB, via Snapchat. The court says WB and the defendant never discussed the photos. The court describes the photos as “somewhat risqué” because…