Announcing the Seventh Edition of Advertising & Marketing Law Casebook by Tushnet & Goldman
Prof. Rebecca Tushnet and I are pleased to announce the seventh edition of our casebook, Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials. It is available for purchase in the following formats: * DRM-free PDF file. Price: $12 * Kindle. Price: $9.99 * Print-on-demand…
This Case Keeps Wrecking Internet Law–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
You probably know this case well, but I’ll recap it anyway. Malwarebytes makes anti-threat software. Enigma makes competitive offerings. Malwarebytes classified Enigma’s SpyHunter4 and RegHunter2 programs as malicious, a threat, and a potentially unwanted program (PUP). This screenshot shows Malwarebytes’…
Court Revives Lawsuit Against Facebook Over Scammy Crypto Ads–Forrest v. Meta
Andrew Forrest is an Australian billionaire. “Beginning in 2019, Dr. Forrest learned that ads using his name and likeness to endorse cryptocurrency and other fraudulent investment products were appearing on Facebook.” Forrest contacted Facebook multiple times over the years asking…
Meme Law Alert! Meme Use In Political Ad Isn’t Fair Use–Griner v. King
The plaintiff in this case owns the copyright to the well-known “Success Kid” meme, a photo of a cute 11-month old boy named Sam. The defendants are former Rep. Steve King and his reelection campaign committee. Wikipedia calls King “far-right,”…
Instagram Defeats Lawsuit Claiming It Was a “Breeding Ground” for Sex Traffickers–Doe v. Backpage
This opinion came out in March but just showed up in my alerts. Doe claims she was sex-trafficked on Instagram. Section 230 preempts her lawsuit against Facebook: “Ninth Circuit precedent interpreting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C….
TIL: “Texas Tamale” Is an Enforceable Trademark–Texas Tamale v. CPUSA2
This case hit my alerts because of its discussion about keyword advertising, but first, I have to digest how the court got there. [Reminder: per Wikipedia, a tamale “is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa, a dough made from…
Ninth Circuit Does More Ninth Circuit Things in its Latest Section 230 Ruling–Diep v. Apple
Yet another cryptocurrency fraud case. 🙄 I previously described this case: This lawsuit relates to the “Toast Plus” app that was available in Apple’s app store. The plaintiffs claim it was a spoof app designed to steal cryptocurrency worth $5k…
Section 230 Applies to Claims Over Hijacked Accounts (Except Maybe Verified Accounts)–Wozniak v. YouTube
More Bitcoin litigation 🙄. This time, malefactors hijacked popular YouTube channels and uploaded videos promoting Bitcoin scams: First, scammers will breach YouTube’s security to unlawfully gain access to verified and popular YouTube channels with tens or hundreds of thousands of…
“Ringless Voicemail” Vendor Wins Section 230 Defense Against FTC–US v. Stratics Networks
[This is one of those opinions that is a slog to blog because the court’s statutory analysis made my head hurt. If this opinion confuses you, welcome to the club. FWIW, “Slog to Blog” would make a good band name.]…
Plaintiffs Tried to Plead Around Section 230. It Didn’t Work–Ziencik v. Snap
I previously summarized this case: This case involves two Snapchat users who repeatedly received threatening messages from other Snapchat users despite the victims’ efforts to block the perpetrators. A victim flagged messages for Snapchat, allegedly to no effect, and law…