California Courts Continue to Trim Section 230's Protection for Amazon's Marketplace (and Everyone Else)--Lee v. Amazon

The California Appeals Courts have turned against Amazon’s marketplace. In 2020, in Bolger v. Amazon, the court held that Amazon may be strictly liable for marketplace sales it fulfills. Then, last year, in Loomis v. Amazon, the court extended Bolger’s…

Court Mistakenly Thinks Copyright Owners Have a Duty to Police Infringement--Sunny Factory v. Chen

Fuxi, the putative copyright owner, has a registration for an image of printed sage leaves (the left image): The alleged infringer, the Sunny Factory, sells the candles on the right on Amazon. Fuxi’s lawyer, Haoyi Chen of Arch & Lake,…

The CFAA "Gates-Up-or-Down" Metaphor Is Baffling Courts--ACI v. Conservice (Guest Blog Post)

by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy I have a friend who is a professor of literature. He once joined a book club with other professors of literature dedicated to analyzing James Joyce’s notoriously opaque classic, Finnegan’s Wake. They met weekly and…

Court Dismisses Trademark Claims Over Internal Search Results--Las Vegas Skydiving v. Groupon

Las Vegas Skydiving Adventures offers tandem skydiving under the “Fyrosity” brand. It has never offered its services through Groupon. A search for “skydive Fyrosity” at Groupon says “No matching deals. You may also like ….” and produces search results for…

First Circuit Says Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230–Monsarrat v. Newman

I previously blogged this case last year. I summarized the facts: This case involves a LiveJournal community (the Davis Square community for Somerville, MA). In 2017, LiveJournal changed its policies. In response, Newman, the community moderator, copied all of the…

Departing Employees Rename Their Former Employers' Facebook Account. That May Be a Problem--La Baguette v. Tito & Tita

This is an employer/ex-employee dispute over a Facebook page. As alleged in the complaint, plaintiffs operated a bakery known as “La Baguette,” and hired defendants to manage aspects of the business. Defendants also managed the social media presence of the…

Justice Thomas Really, REALLY Wants Section 230 Repealed (Even If He Has to Do It Himself)

The Supreme Court denied certiorari in Doe v. Facebook, a FOSTA case. The Texas Supreme Court held that FOSTA excluded some claims from Section 230 (disregarding the statutory language Congress adopted), while other claims remain preempted by Section 230. The…

26 Trademark Academics Oppose the SHOP SAFE Act

[Today, Betsy Rosenblatt, Rebecca Tushnet and I sent the following letter to Congress on behalf of 26 trademark academics (here’s a PDF version). This complements a separate letter sent by 38 organizations and companies also opposing the SHOP SAFE Act….

By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa On February 24, the U.S. Supreme Court held 6-3 that the Ninth Circuit erred in invalidating a copyright registration for failure to comply with the Copyright Office’s “single unit of publication” regulation, where the copyright…

Another 512(f) Claim Fails--Moonbug v. Babybus

Moonbug runs the CoComelon channel, the top-ranked Kids YouTube channel. Babybus runs a competitive channel that Moonbug believes infringes its copyrights. An example: Moonbug submitted takedown notices to YouTube covering at least 70 videos and sued Babybus for copyright infringement….