So Many Unanswered Empirical Questions About FOSTA

I read an article, “Sex Trafficking and Technology: A Systematic Review of Recruitment and Exploitation,” by Lindsay B. Gezinski & Kwynn M. Gonzalez-Pons (unfortunately paywalled). They did a comprehensive and systematic review to identify empirical studies that bear on online…

Apple Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Over Emoji Depictions--Cub Club v. Apple

The court summarizes the case: Cub Club Investment created an app that allowed people to send racially diverse emoji. According to the complaint, when Apple learned of the app, it liked the idea—so much so, in fact, that it copied…

Georgia Supreme Court Blesses Google's Keyword Ad Sales--Edible IP v. Google

Edible Arrangements objected to Google selling its trademark to trigger keyword ads. They filed a trademark lawsuit in 2018 but abandoned the suit when it got sent to arbitration. However, they didn’t give up! The Edible team had the brilliant…

Another Problematic FOSTA Ruling--Doe v. Pornhub

A few observations from reading numerous FOSTA cases: sex trafficking victim cases are horrifying. courts cannot figure out how to interpret FOSTA. due to FOSTA’s ambiguities, judges are turning to judicial activism to favor victims regardless of the law. the…

California Appellate Court Rejects Poorly Executed "Sign-In Wrap"--Sellers v. JustAnswer (Guest Blog Post)

By guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Contracts are a state-law issue. And online contracts, even though they exist in the friction-less, boundary-less world of the internet, are also generally governed by state-law principles. Which is why it is perhaps odd that…

Constituents Can Sue Chicago Alderman for Blocking Their Facebook Comments--Czosnyka v. Gardiner

James Gardiner is Alderman for Chicago’s 45th district. Six of his constituents allege that they were blocked from engaging with Gardiner’s Facebook page or their comments were hidden/deleted. They sued him for First Amendment violations. Gardiner made the weak argument…

Another Court Says Facebook Isn't a State Actor--McWaters v. Houston

McWaters was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a minor, but the grand jury didn’t issue an indictment. He sued various defendants for publicizing the accusations. Among others, he sued Facebook for allegedly engaging in discriminatory content moderation in violation of…

LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Policy May Cover Theft of Cryptocurrency Assets--Atwal v. LifeLock

This is a lawsuit against LifeLock. In August or September of 2018, Atwal allegedly lost approximately $12 million worth of cryptocurrency because a third party misappropriated his credentials. A few months prior, Atwal had subscribed to a LifeLock “Ultimate Plus”…

A Twitter Thread on the EARN IT Act

I did a (rare for me) Twitter thread on this topic, which is so crucial that I’m sharing it here as well: On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be marking up the EARN IT Act, which removes Section 230…

Police Department Can Remove Citizen's Facebook Comments Calling Cops "Pigs"--Sgaggio v. De Young

[Warning: this is an ugly ruling. A court endorses a police department’s censorship of Facebook comments in a garbled opinion that surely reflects the plaintiff’s pro se status.] This case involves Facebook pages run by the police department for the…