TikTok Isn’t a U.S. State Actor (So Far)–Brooks v. TikTok
This is a pro se/IFP case, so odds were high it was going to fail no matter what. Brooks says two of his TikTok accounts were terminated and another demonetized….
Salesforce Still Can’t Avoid Tertiary Liability FOSTA Claims–GG v. Salesforce
This is one of numerous FOSTA cases seeking to hold Salesforce liable for providing vendor services to Backpage. I describe these as “tertiary liability” cases because Salesforce’s involvement is three…
Ninth Circuit Deletes RNC’s Lawsuit Over Gmail’s Spam Filter–RNC v. Google
Prior blog post. I previously summarized the case: You may recall that the RNC claimed that Gmail’s spam filter was biased against Republican spam. The centerpiece of this claim was…
Greer Burns Law Firm Sanctioned for “Willfully Abusive” and “Egregious” SAD Scheme Judge-Shopping
Currently, the Northern District of Illinois judges do not apply consistent standards for SAD Scheme joinder. Some judges still permit the joinder of dozens or hundreds of seemingly unrelated defendants…
What Does It Mean to Make a Voice Call in a Post-Telephone World?–Howard v. RNC
…cash flows? (My egoldman@gmail.com email address is often signed up for political spam by other “E. Goldman”s who are bad at typing, so I’ve seen how voracious political marketers can…
AT&T Blocks T-Mobile’s Data Portability Efforts (Guest Blog Post)
…is why, without meaningful analysis of the real value of automation for consumers in cases like this one, mandatory portability statutes are functionally useless for consumers. [Eric’s comment: data portability…
Copyright Takedown Notices Don’t Require Services to Find and Remove Other Identical Copies–Athos v. YouTube
I previously summarized this case: Athos owns the copyrights to many classic Mexican films. Users regularly upload its film clips to YouTube. These uploads have irritated Athos since 2014. However,…
DMCA 512(c) Safe Harbor Applies to Embedding–Harrington v. Pinterest
This is a long-running class action copyright case (filed in 2020!) led by the photographer Blaine Harrington (now deceased). The plaintiffs complain about user-uploaded photos appearing in Pinterest’s off-website notifications…
2025 Internet Law Year-in-Review
2025 is the Trump 2.0 era, so you won’t find much upbeat news in this Internet Law year-in-review. 10. Are Websites Legally Equivalent to Exploding Coke Bottles? Traditionally, tort law…
A Massive Roundup of Section 230 Decisions
This post also owes its origins to my 2-week trip to China in June. Section 230 decisions started backing up while I was on the trip and never stopped accruing….