Court Upholds Gaming App's Clickthrough TOS--Ball v. Skillz

Skillz’s app 21 Blitz allowed players to play blackjack against each other. To sign up for the app, players had to navigate the following screen: The linked TOS contained a prominent arbitration clause. Two plaintiffs sued Skillz for locking them…

My California Young Lawyers Association Interview About Emojis

[In August, I did an interview with Skyler Gray that ran in the California Young Lawyers Association newsletter.] How did an intersection of emojis and the law begin? Were there legal issues concerning the original punctuation emojis, such as “:)”…

Copyright Plaintiffs Can't Figure Out What Copyrights They Own, Court Says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is one of several cases where major copyright owners are trying to punish Internet access providers (IAPs) for alleged infringements by their subscribers. Earlier this year, the court refused to dismiss the lawsuit in an opinion I described as…

If You Want an Enforceable Online Contract, You Better Keep a Good Chain of Evidence--Snow v. Eventbrite

Eventbrite wanted to send a lawsuit to arbitration, so it invoked the arbitration clause in its TOS. But did the plaintiffs assent to Eventbrite’s TOS? The court says no. What went wrong? Eventbrite has three online venues: its desktop website,…

QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Can't Force YouTube to Carry Their Videos--Doe v. Google

This lawsuit is peak 2020. The plaintiffs dubiously characterized themselves as “‘extremely controversial’ ‘conservative news’ channels,” and they claim YouTube tossed them overboard due to its alleged anti-conservative bias. I don’t know the word “conservative” means in the Trump era,…

Another Court Rejects Trump's Censorial Anti-TikTok EO--Marland v. Trump

[IF YOU HAVEN’T VOTED, PLEASE DO SO. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!] This summer, President Trump issued a series of brazenly censorial executive orders trying to kick TikTok and WeChat out of the United States. The EOs claim to be curbing…

Snapchat Isn't Liable for Its Speed Filter (Even if Section 230 Doesn't Apply)--Maynard v. Snapchat

Snapchat’s “speed filter” allows users to overlay their speed on their content. Unsurprisingly, some users viewed this as a challenge to capture a high speed on their speed filter; and in the course of doing so, tragedy could occur. In…

Constitutional Challenge to Trump's Anti-230 EO Fails--Rock the Vote v. Trump

[IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY DONE SO, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE VOTE!] This is one of two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Trump’s anti-Section 230 executive order from May. Because the EO said a lot (mostly lies) but did very little, the…

[VOTE EARLY AND IN-PERSON OR VIA OFFICIAL DROPOFF BOXES. DON’T RELY ON THE USPS TO DELIVER THE MAIL ON TIME!] The plaintiff sells “Pop N Go” playpens. Allegedly, up to 98% of the plaintiff’s revenues come from Facebook and Instagram….

We're Still Unsure If Instagram Grants Users a Sublicense to Embed Photos

I blogged earlier this summer about McGucken v. Newsweek, a case that involved a media defendant who was sued by a photographer because it embedded (and displayed) photos in an online article. Newsweek asked the court to reconsider its ruling…