The European Union’s Digital Services Act: In Force from This Saturday, February 17, 2024, Including for U.S. Intermediaries (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Prof. Marketa Trimble [Eric’s introductory note: I briefly addressed the DSA in this blog post, along with the attached meme. Otherwise, I generally try to avoid the…
Boat Rental Marketplace Defeats Lawsuit Over Offline Boating Accident–In re Chaves
A rare case analyzing Section 230’s intersection with admiralty law. 🚢 The case involves GetMyBoat, an online marketplace for boat rentals. Listings are free, but GetMyBoat takes a cut of…
Fourth Circuit Issues a Bummer Fair Use Ruling–Philpot v. IJR
Larry Philpot is a repeat copyright plaintiff. We’ve blogged some of his cases before (1, 2), including the lower court ruling in this case. In 2016, the defendant IJR published…
Retweeting as Copyright Infringement–Prepared Food Photos v. Chicken Joe’s
…citing possibly deprecated law from Goldman v. Breitbart, the court says that “reposting” on “social media” is enough to find copyright infringement in a default judgment. Crazy. With respect to…
YouTube Still Isn’t a State Actor–Albertson v. Google
This year, the Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion on jawboning and its implications for when Internet services may become state actors because of such government pressure. Until…
Online Marketplace Defeats Lawsuit Over Murder–Roland v. Letgo
…shows the opposite conclusion. Letgo prompted users in red font—and at the top of his profile—to ask “James Worthy” to verify his profile. [Eric’s note: the image above shows this.]…
Think You Understand Online Trespass to Chattels Law? Think Again–In re Meta Healthcare Pixels
…user’s device. The plaintiffs responded with generic allegations: “(i) Meta occupied storage space on their devices without authorization; (ii) Meta’s acts caused their devices to work slower; (iii) Meta’s acts…
Section 230 Protects Zillow for Publishing Property Information–Choudhuri v. Specialized Loan
This lawsuit relates to a property foreclosure contested by the then-property owner, Choudhuri, who sued pro se. “Choudhuri appears to allege that Zillow ‘illegally’ published information regarding the property at…
Atari’s Lawsuit Against a Print-on-Demand Service Fizzles Out–Atari v. Printify
This is an IP enforcement action against a print-on-demand service called Printify. Printify facilitates interactions between merchants who create new items to sell (using storefronts like Etsy, Shopify, or eBay)…
Plaintiffs Tried to Plead Around Section 230. It Didn’t Work–Ziencik v. Snap
I previously summarized this case: This case involves two Snapchat users who repeatedly received threatening messages from other Snapchat users despite the victims’ efforts to block the perpetrators. A victim…