State Legislator Doesn't Understand That He Works for the Government--Attwood v. Clemons

Florida Rep. Chuck Clemons has a Twitter account. A constituent, Attwood, tweeted at him that he opposed Clemons’ position on a gun reform bill. Clemons felt the tweet was aggressive. Clemons reviewed Attwood’s tweets, saw profane tweets directed at other…

Star Rating at Google Review Isn't Defamatory--Gursten v. Doe 1

The plaintiff is a lawyer. Doe 2, under the pseudonym “Patrick Anderson,” left a one-star rating for the lawyer (without any explanatory text) on the lawyer’s Google Review page. The plaintiff protested that he never had a client named Patrick…

Newspaper Isn't State Actor--Plotkin v. Astorian

Plotkin placed a political ad with the Daily Astorian newspaper that allegedly advocated against Holcom and Hilton. The opinion doesn’t explain why Plotkin objected to these candidates, but Plotkin’s frequent letters to the editor give some clues. Even without advertising,…

Section 230 (Mostly) Protects Zoom from Liability for Zoombombing

This is a privacy class action against Zoom. The opinion has several points of interest for privacy practitioners. I’m going to focus only on the court’s discussion of Zoom’s liability for Zoombombing, the COVID-era problem where malefactors crash a Zoom…

Consent Via "Clickwrap" Defeats Privacy Claims--Javier v. Assurance

Javier got a life insurance quote from Assurance. It appears this page contained javascript served from a vendor named ActiveProspect (via a service called “TrustedForm”), which tracks each user on Assurance’s site and records the users’ keystrokes. For Assurance, these…

This case involves a photo of Lucy Lawless as Xena. The TV studio hired Michael Grecco to take the photo and paid him $25k for his services. Grecco retained the photo’s copyright, and he made the photo available for licensing…

Pinterest Defeats Contributory Copyright Infringement Claim--Davis v. Pinterest

This is a copyright infringement case against Pinterest for allegedly infringing “pins” by users. The plaintiff alleged claims for direct and contributory copyright infringement. Pinterest moved to dismiss the claim for contributory infringement. The court grants the motion. In addition…

Important Second Circuit Opinion Says Section 230(c)(2)(A) Protects Online Account Terminations--Domen v. Vimeo

Vimeo is a video hosting service. Domen is a “former homosexual.” He posted videos to Vimeo that allegedly violated Vimeo’s policy against “the promotion of sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE). Vimeo notified Domen of the violation and gave him 24…

Comments on the PROMISE Act

Senators Lee, Braun, and Moran introduced the “Promoting Responsibility Over Moderation In the Social-media Environment Act,” the “PROMISE Act.” (It’s a reintroduction of S. 4975 from last session). This is a transparency-focused bill that partially overlaps with last year’s PACT…

Catching Up on the Parler v. AWS Dispute

I blogged Parler’s unsuccessful request to get injunctive relief preventing AWS’s termination of Parler as a customer. Since then, Parler dismissed the federal court lawsuit, filed a state court lawsuit, AWS removed the second lawsuit to federal court, and the…