Australian Court Says Using a Zipper-Mouth Emoji Can Be Defamatory--Burrows v. Houda

This case involves a Twitter thread discussing the plaintiff’s alleged misconduct as a lawyer. I’m still looking for the original thread (some or all of it appears to be deleted based on my attempts to find it on Twitter) or…

Want to Know What I Did This Summer? A Roundup of My Projects During the Pandemic Summer

I had Spring semester off from teaching, so I was on “summer” break all of 2020. That break is over now; I’m already a week-and-a-half through the semester. I’ve completed numerous projects since the pandemic shutdown (which I’m dating as…

Section 230 Protects Craigslist from Sex Trafficking Claims, Despite FOSTA--JB v. Craigslist

This is an important early judicial interpretation of FOSTA. The court reaches several key conclusions, including that Section 230(c)(1) still preempts state civil claims and Craigslist did not “participate in a venture” with every advertiser of commercial sex. If this…

How I'm Teaching My "Internet Law" Course Online

I first started teaching Internet Law (then called Cyberspace Law) in January 1996, and I’ve taught it a total of 23 times in person. This year, I am teaching the course completely online for the first time. I would so…

Court Orders Rightsowner to Withdraw DMCA Takedown Notices Sent to Amazon--Beyond Blond v. Heldman

This case involves an Amazon seller, the plaintiff, who packages and republishes public domain cartoon videos, like Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and Mighty Mouse. The defendant is a rightsowner who claims that the Amazon seller infringes its rights. On that basis,…

Message Board Operator Isn't Liable for Third-Party Posts (DUH)--East Coast Test Prep v. Allnurses

No need to check your watch. It’s still apocalyptic 2020, even though today’s blog post will take you back 15 years to when plaintiffs still hoped to hold message board operators liable for user posts. The caselaw has resoundingly thumped…

Three Keyword Advertising Decisions in a Week, and the Trademark Owners Lost Them All

If you are a trademark owner suing over competitive keyword ads, you are almost certainly making a bad business decision, and your attorney might be milking your bank account. If you are an attorney representing a trademark owner in a…

Google Defeats Account Termination Case on Section 230 Grounds (Mostly)--Enhanced Athlete v. YouTube

This is another account termination case. The plaintiff ran two YouTube channels with 145k subscribers. The opinion implies that the channels hyped a steroid-like supplement not approved by the FDA (“SARMS”). As usual with cases in this genre, the plaintiff…

Comments on NTIA's Petition to the FCC Seeking to Destroy Section 230

As requested by the Trump anti-Section 230 Executive Order from May, NTIA submitted a 57 page petition to the FCC asking the FCC to make rules interpreting Section 230. The FCC, in turn, has put the petition out for public…

Announcing the Fifth Edition of Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials by Tushnet & Goldman

Rebecca Tushnet and I are pleased to announce the fifth edition of our casebook, Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials. It is available for purchase in the following formats: * A DRM-free PDF file. Price: $12 * In Kindle. Price: $9.99…