The Curious Engineer

Technology & Marketing Law Blog

2013–2019

1,349 posts

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2019 184

December 2019

  1. Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case—Sony v. Cox
  2. Huuuge Mistake in Contract Formation
  3. Eric Goldman’s Comments to the California DOJ Draft Regulations for the Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (Part 3 of 3)
  4. Maryland Disclosure Requirements for Online Political Ads Violates the First Amendment–Washington Post v. McManus
  5. Some Lessons Learned from the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), 18 Months In (Part 2 of 3)
  6. Resetting the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)…with 2 Weeks To Go! (Part 1 of 3)
  7. Breach of Contract/Promissory Estoppel Claims Bypass Section 230 But Fail Anyways—Yue v. Miao
  8. Twelfth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Retana v. Twitter
  9. Copyright, State Sovereignty, and Pirates: Some Thoughts on Oral Argument in Allen v. Cooper (Guest Blog Post)
  10. CreateSpace Isn’t Liable for Publishing Allegedly Infringing Uploaded Book–King v. Amazon

November 2019

  1. Notifying Twitter of TOS Violations Isn’t Tortious Interference–Illoominate v. CAIR
  2. Review Services Aren’t Liable for Removing Business Profiles (and Associated Reviews)–PCS v. HomeAdvisor
  3. More Evidence That Print-on-Demand Vendors May Be Doomed–Greg Young Publishing v. Zazzle
  4. Rehearing Briefs in Enigma Software v. Malwarebytes
  5. More Evidence That IP Law Protects Individual Emoji Depictions–Nirvana v. Marc Jacobs
  6. Section 230 Helps Salesforce Defeat Sex Trafficking Lawsuit–Doe v. Salesforce
  7. Strike 3’s Copyright Litigation Campaign Completely Strikes Out
  8. State Court Rejects Prager University’s Lawsuit Against YouTube

October 2019

  1. A Thumbs-Up Emoji Doesn’t Mean That Dad Disavowed His Child–Bardales v. Lamothe
  2. Court Partially Enforces Amazon’s Non-Compete Against Employee Who Joined Google–Amazon v. Moyer
  3. Amazon Can’t Force Arbitration of Minors’ Privacy Claims Based on Alexa Recordings–BF v. Amazon
  4. Internet Access Provider May Be Vicariously Liable for Subscribers’ BitTorrent Downloads–Warner Bros. v. Charter
  5. Your Periodic Reminder that Blogging About Litigation Can Generate More Litigation–Wexler v. Dorsey & Whitney
  6. Rounding Up Two Online Contract Formation Cases
  7. Roundup of the House Commerce Committee Hearing on Section 230
  8. The PLAN Act Proposes to Amend Section 230 to “Protect”…Landlords and Hotel Chains?
  9. Call for Participation: WIPIP 2020, Santa Clara University, Feb. 7-8, 2020 #WIPIP2020
  10. Top Myths About Content Moderation
  11. New Paper Explains Why Technologists Should Rally Behind Section 230
  12. Section 230 Helps Tumblr Defeat Nonconsensual Pornography Suit–Poole v. Tumblr
  13. Legal Research Services Are Struggling With Emojis and Emoticons
  14. E*Trade Defeats Copyright Claim Over Dancing Old Man in Commercial–Vacchi v. E*Trade
  15. More Teenagers Mistakenly Think “Private” Chat Conversations Will Remain Private–People v. JP
  16. Partial Screenshot Qualifies as Fair Use (on a Motion to Dismiss)–Yang v. Mic
  17. Section 230 Helps Search Engine Defeat “Right to Be Forgotten” Lawsuit–Mosha v. Yandex
  18. “Copyright Troll” Lawyer Gets Sanctioned (Again)–Sands v. Bauer Media

September 2019

  1. Competitor Gets Pyrrhic Victory in False Advertising Suit Over Search Ads–Harbor Breeze v. Newport Fishing
  2. IP/Internet/Antitrust Professor Amicus Brief in 1-800 Contacts v. FTC
  3. Ninth Circuit Declines to Shelve Lawsuit Alleging Facebook Violated Illinois Biometric Privacy Statute
  4. Terrible Ninth Circuit 230(c)(2) Ruling Will Make the Internet More Dangerous–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
  5. And At the End of the Day, the CCPA Remains Very Much the Same (Guest Blog Post)
  6. Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in “Modified Clickwrap”–Chen v. Sierra Trading Post
  7. Ninth Circuit Says LinkedIn Wrongly Blocked HiQ’s Scraping Efforts
  8. Section 230 Applies to Facebook’s Post Removals and Account Suspensions–King v. Facebook
  9. Emojis Have Unsettled Grammar Rules (and Why Lawyers Should Care)
  10. There Is Essentially No Statute of Limitations for Online Copyright Infringement–APL v. US
  11. Reminder: The Copyright Office Will Be Yanking Eligibility for the DMCA Online Safe Harbor (Again)

August 2019

  1. Section 230 Protects HOA for Publishing Meeting Minutes–Eagle Ridge Townhouse Ass’n v. Snapp
  2. The Circuitous International Travel of Your Data (Guest Blog Post)
  3. A Significant Section 230 Defense Win in the Ninth Circuit–Dyroff v. Ultimate Software
  4. Another Politician Unconstitutionally Censored Constituents on Twitter–Campbell v. Reisch
  5. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Print-on-Demand Vendor–Atari v. Sunfrog
  6. Domain Name Registrar Isn’t Liable for Counterfeit Goods–InvenTel v. GoDaddy
  7. Comments on Rep. Gosar’s “Stop the Censorship Act,” Another “Conservative” Attack on Section 230
  8. New Jersey Attorney Ethics Opinion Blesses Competitive Keyword Advertising (…or Does It?)
  9. Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails–Dr. Greenberg v. Perfect Body Image
  10. Copyright Protection for Banana Costumes Is, Uh, Bananas–Silvertop v. Kangaroo
  11. Claim Over Takedown Notice Triggers Anti-SLAPP Law & a Fee Shift–Complex v. X17 [EDITED TO CORRECT A MAJOR ERROR]
  12. Some Much-Needed Pushback on the Anti-Section 230 Craziness (Linkwrap)
  13. Correcting the Record on Section 230’s Legislative History (Guest Blog Post)

July 2019

  1. Second Circuit Issues Powerful Section 230 Win to Facebook in “Material Support for Terrorists” Case–Force v. Facebook
  2. Announcing the 2019 Edition of My Internet Law Casebook
  3. Consumers Can’t Understand the Online Contracts They “Agree” To. Now What? (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Facebook Defeats Pro Se Consumer Privacy Suit–Hassan v. Facebook
  5. Wisconsin Court Holds Amazon Can Be Strictly Liable for Marketplace Items–State Farm v. Amazon
  6. Lessons from Bumble’s Choice of Law Clause–King v. Bumble
  7. Russia Fucked With American Democracy, But It Can’t Fuck With Section 230–Federal Agency of News v. Facebook
  8. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 6 (Privacy, E-Commerce, & More)
  9. Another Blocked Facebook User Loses in Court–Dipp-Paz v. Facebook
  10. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 5 (Censorship, Defamation)
  11. Comments on the Hikind v. Ocasio-Cortez Lawsuit Over AOC’s Twitter Blocks
  12. A Recap of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Amending the California Consumer Privacy Act (Guest Blog Post)
  13. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 4 (Section 230, Content Moderation)
  14. Large and Diverse Coalition Issues a Statement of Principles to Help Evaluate UGC Liability Reform Proposals
  15. Comments on Sen. Hawley’s “[Ending] Support for Internet Censorship Act”
  16. Pres. Trump Violates the Constitution By Blocking @RealDonaldTrump Followers–Knight First Amendment v. Trump
  17. Amazon May Be Liable for Marketplace Items–Oberdorf v. Amazon
  18. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trademarks)
  19. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 2 (Keyword Advertising)
  20. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright & More)
  21. Amazon Might Be Liable for Defective Marketplace Items (But Only When It Tries to Warn Consumers)–Fox v. Amazon
  22. Section 230 Protects Snapchat from Liability for Cyberbullying–Grossman v. Rockaway Township

June 2019

  1. Latest Linkwrap on FOSTA’s Aftermath
  2. Facebook Defeats Alabama Injunction for Lack of Jurisdiction–Facebook v. KGS
  3. Private Publishers Aren’t State Actors–Manhattan Community Access v. Halleck
  4. Court Declines to Dismiss Data Breach Claims Against Facebook Based on Access Token Incident–Bass v. Facebook
  5. Want Companies to Comply with the CCPA? Delay Its Effective Date (Guest Blog Post)
  6. Your Periodic Reminder That Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Williby v. Zuckerberg
  7. The Plaintiff Is Probably Pissed About Section 230–Fyk v. Facebook
  8. Linkwrap on Sen. Hawley’s Bill Attacking Section 230
  9. Twitter Gets Another Significant Section 230 Win in Lawsuit by Suspended User–Murphy v. Twitter
  10. [Statute of] Queen Anne’s Revenge? Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Allen v. Cooper
  11. Once Again, Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Account Suspension Decisions–Brittain v. Twitter
  12. Vermont Supreme Court Dismisses Nonconsensual Pornography Prosecution–State v. VanBuren
  13. D.C. Circuit Issues Sweeping Pro-Section 230 Opinion–Marshall’s Locksmith v. Google
  14. Contract Breach Claims Against Google Survive First Amendment Defense–Dreamstime v. Google
  15. The Florida Bar Regulates, But Doesn’t Ban, Competitive Keyword Ads
  16. “IAPP Content Moderation in 2019” Conference Recap

May 2019

  1. Section 230 Doesn’t End Lawsuit Claiming Facebook Facilitated Sex Trafficking–Doe v. Facebook
  2. HuffPost Gets 512(c) Defense for Contributor-Uploaded Photo–Downs v. Oath
  3. Section 230 Helps Facebook Easily Defeat Claims Over a User’s Post–Richard v. Facebook
  4. Amazon Isn’t Liable for Defective Marketplace Sale (No Thanks to Section 230)–Erie Insurance v. Amazon
  5. Section 230 Protects Tor Project from Liability for Tragic Drug Overdose–Seaver v. Estate of Cazes
  6. A Recap of My Recent Section 230 Papers
  7. New Multi-Disciplinary Course Improves Communications Among Silicon Valley Professionals (SCU Press Release)
  8. Court Rejects Service of Process Via Amazon Messaging–Noco v. Chang
  9. Terminated AdSense Publishers Can’t Get Their Accrued Earnings–eOnline v. Google
  10. A Fight for Authorship and Ownership of 150+ Quilt Patterns, and Bad Business Planning (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Section 230 Protects Facebook’s Account and Content Restriction Decisions–Ebeid v. Facebook
  12. Using Third Party Trademarks as Hashtags Creates an Implied Association–Align v. Strauss (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Airbnb Gets Mixed Results in Challenge to Boston’s Anti-Airbnb Law–Airbnb v. Boston
  14. Wisconsin Supreme Court Fixes a Bad Section 230 Opinion—Daniel v. Armslist
  15. New Essay: The Complicated Story of FOSTA and Section 230
  16. Ninth Circuit Chunks Another Section 230 Ruling—HomeAway v. Santa Monica (Catch-up Post)

April 2019

  1. Ex-Employee’s Continued Use of Twitter Account May Be Conversion–Farm Journal v. Johnson
  2. Roundup of February’s ‘COMO at Scale Brussels’ Event
  3. Second Circuit Judges Brawl Over the Meaning of “Volition” in Copyright Cases–BWP v. Polyvore
  4. Photographer Sues for Failure to Provide Creative Commons-Required Attribution–Philpot v. WOS
  5. New Paper: “Why Section 230 Is Better Than the First Amendment”
  6. Forming an Online Contract May Be Harder Than Tough Mudder’s Salmon Ladder
  7. Allegedly Defamatory Tweet About Non-Resident Insufficient to Confer Jurisdiction
  8. Eleventh Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Palmucci v. Twitter
  9. Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Stupid–eTrailer v. Automatic Equipment
  10. Another Government Impermissibly Censors Constituents on Facebook–Robinson v. Hunt County
  11. Another Appellate Court Rejects “Material Support for Terrorist” Claims Against Social Media Platforms–Crosby v. Twitter
  12. Section 230 Applies to ADA Closed Captioning Claims–National Federation of the Deaf v. Harvard
  13. An Email Inbox Isn’t a “Place” for Purposes of Florida Privacy Law–Hall v. Sargeant
  14. Recap of the Copyright Office’s Section 512 Study Roundtable
  15. Court Says California’s Anti-Spam Statute Doesn’t Regulate Affiliate Networks–Bank v. Hydra
  16. How Have Section 512(f) Cases Fared Since 2017? (Spoiler: Not Well)
  17. Online Marketplace Defeats Trademark Suit Because It’s Not the “Seller”–OSU v. Redbubble
  18. Blogger’s Screenshot of a Newspaper Page Qualifies as Fair Use–Clark v. TransAlt
  19. New Paper Announcement: “Copyright’s Memory Hole”
  20. Copyright Registration, Publication on the Internet, and the Revolving “Back Door to Berne” (Guest Blog Post)

March 2019

  1. Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More
  2. Important Section 230 Ruling from the Second Circuit–Herrick v. Grindr
  3. March Madness! Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Massive Cyberattack After Basketball Game Loss–Higgins v. Kentucky Sports Radio
  4. Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused 😕–Kangaroo v. Amazon
  5. Tenth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Sinclair v. Twitter
  6. Two Examples of How Courts Interpret Emojis
  7. More Kardashian Drama: A Legal Fight Over Ownership of the Kimoji Emoji Set–Liebensohn v. Kardashian (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Court Tosses Antitrust Claims That Internet Giants Are Biased Against Conservatives–Freedom Watch v. Google
  9. Do Adjacent Organic Search Results Constitute Trademark Infringement? Of Course Not…But…–America CAN! v. CDF
  10. TTAB Denies Trademark Registration for #MagicNumber108 Tagmark–In re DePorter (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Tweet Containing Question Mark Isn’t Defamatory–Boulger v. Woods
  12. Section 230 Preempts Unfair Competition Law Claim–Taylor v. Twitter
  13. Supreme Court Requires Completed Copyright Registration Before Filing Suit–Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street (Guest Blog Post)
  14. Twitter Defeats Yet Another Lawsuit from a Suspended User–Cox v. Twitter
  15. Filtering Software Defeats Another Lawsuit–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes
  16. It’s Really Hard to Win a Motion to Dismiss Based on 512(c)–Myeress v. Buzzfeed
  17. Another Failed Legal Challenge to Zillow’s Zestimate–EJ MGT v. Zillow
  18. Post-Charlottesville Doxxing and Misidentification Creates Legal Risks–Vangheluwe v. GotNews

February 2019

  1. Top Internet Law Developments of 2018
  2. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 7 (Content Moderation, Section 230, & More)
  3. Recap of the California Assembly Hearing on the California Consumer Privacy Act
  4. Another Politician Probably Violated the First Amendment By Blocking a Constituent on Twitter–Campbell v. Reisch
  5. Copyright May Protect a Car Wash’s Liability Disclaimer–Rassamni v. Fresno Auto Spa
  6. A Status Report on the California Consumer Privacy Act
  7. What’s New With Emoji Law? An Interview

January 2019

  1. Emoji Law 2018 Year-in-Review
  2. Unhappy AdWords Advertiser’s Lawsuit Partially Survives Motion to Dismiss–Dreamstime v. Google
  3. Who Benefited from FOSTA? (Spoiler: Probably No One)
  4. Illinois Supreme Court Authorizes Biometric Lawsuits Without Any Allegation of Harm–Rosenbach v. Six Flags
  5. Unmasking Effort Mooted by Single Publication Rule–Glassdoor v. Andra
  6. An Analysis of Title I and Title III of The Music Modernization Act, Part 2 of 2 (Guest Blog Post)
  7. An Analysis of Title I and Title III of The Music Modernization Act, Part 1 of 2 (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Fourth Amendment Limits NYC’s Demands for Airbnb Customer Records
  9. 41 California Privacy Experts Urge Major Changes to the California Consumer Privacy Act
  10. Blocking Constituents from Facebook Page Violates First Amendment–Davison v. Randall
  11. Must Universities Shut Down Constitutionally Protected Speech Forums That Also Enable Student Harassment?
  12. Announcing COMO Brussels, the Fourth Edition of the “Content Moderation at Scale” Conference Series, Feb. 5
  13. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 6 (IP, E-Commerce, Censorship, & More)
  14. Twitter’s TOS Upheld Despite Unilateral Amendment Clause—Brittain v. Twitter
  15. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Privacy, Advertising, Consumer Reviews)
  16. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 4 (Trespass, Contracts)
  17. Announcing the Fourth Edition of Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials by Tushnet & Goldman
  18. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Keyword Advertising)
  19. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 2 (Trademarks)
  20. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright)
  21. Ninth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Clayborn v. Twitter
  22. When a $1M+ Publicity Rights Damages Award Isn’t a Win–Olive v. GNC
  23. Best and Worst Internet Laws [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]
  24. Real Estate Appraisals and Copyrighting Facts [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]
  25. MySpace Sued for Facilitating Offline Sexual Assaults [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]

2018 182

December 2018

  1. Google Photos Defeats Privacy Lawsuit Over Face Scans–Rivera v. Google
  2. Avvo Defeats False Advertising Lawsuit Alleging Pay-to-Play–Davis v. Avvo
  3. The Ongoing Saga of the Florida Bar’s Angst About Competitive Keyword Advertising
  4. Consumers Don’t Confuse Almond Milk and Cow Milk–Painter v. Blue Diamond
  5. Your Periodic Reminder That Keyword Ad Lawsuits Are Stupid–Passport Health v. Avance
  6. Screenshotting a Newspaper Page May Infringe a Licensed Photo–Hirsch v. Complex
  7. Two Pro Se Section 230 Rulings–Scott v. Carlson & Watkins v. Carr
  8. If Your Trademark Case Depends on Showing Initial Interest Confusion, Save Your Money–Select Comfort v. John Baxter
  9. Another Section 512(f) Case Fails–ISE v. Longarzo
  10. Fair Use for “Meme” Can’t Be Decided on Motion to Dismiss—Philpot v. Alternet Media (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Another Gambling Case Over Online Virtual Coins Proceeds–Wilson v. Playtika
  12. Eighth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Copeland v. Twitter
  13. The EU Anti-Geoblocking Regulation Becomes Effective Today (Guest Blog Post)

November 2018

  1. Everything You Wanted to Know About Emojis and the Law
  2. 512(h) Doesn’t Preempt Doe Unmasking Lawsuits–Strike 3 v. Doe
  3. Failure-to-Warn Claim Against Match.com Fails–Beckman v. Match.com
  4. Restricting Competitive Keyword Ads Is Anti-Competitive–FTC v. 1-800 Contacts
  5. Ninth Circuit Easily Dismisses YouTube Remove-and-Relocate Case–Darnaa v. Google
  6. 512(f) Claim Over Counternotice Survives Motion to Dismiss–Handshoe v. Perret
  7. Court Blasts “Copyright Troll” for Treating Courts “as an ATM”–Strike 3 v. Doe
  8. Gambling App Fails to Create Binding Terms of Service–Wilson v. Huuuge
  9. Another Suspended Twitter User Loses in Court–Kimbrell v. Twitter
  10. Another YouTube Remove-and-Relocate Case Fails–Kinney v. YouTube
  11. FOSTA’s Political Curse
  12. Reminder: Cutting-and-Pasting Photos from the Internet Is Hazardous to Your Legal Health–Grecco v. Valuewalk
  13. Is the DTSA Ex Parte Seizure Provision Constitutional?
  14. Section 230 Doesn’t Support Habeus Petition by ‘Revenge’ Pornographer–Bollaert v. Gore
  15. Angie’s List Defeats Lawsuit Over Alleged “Pay-to-Play” Rankings–Strauss v. Angie’s List
  16. Defendant Can’t Send Virtual Gambling Claims to Arbitration
  17. Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Airbnb Has the Potential to Change Online Marketplaces–Harrington v. Airbnb

October 2018

  1. Seventh Different Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Material Support to Terrorists” Fails–Taamneh v. Twitter
  2. Video Advertising Contract Descends Into Possible “Cyberattack”–Radian Weapons v. GY6Vids
  3. Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Decision to Suspend User’s Account–Mezey v. Twitter
  4. Ninth Circuit Interprets Autodialer Broadly For TCPA Purposes
  5. Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes (Guest Blog Post)
  6. An Analysis of Title II of Public Law 115-264: The Classics Protection and Access Act (Guest Blog Post)
  7. Call for Papers/Participation: 9th Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, SCU, March 2, 2019
  8. Section 230 Applies to Defend Trade Secret Act Claims–Craft Beer Stellar v. Glassdoor
  9. FOSTA Doesn’t Help Pro Se Litigant’s Defamation Claim Against Facebook
  10. Constitutional Challenge to FOSTA Dismissed for Lack of Standing (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Google Successfully Amends Its AdWords TOS to Add Arbitration Clause–Trudeau v. Google
  12. Blogger Defeats Defamation Claims Over Posts Claiming a “Scam”–RainSoft v. MacFarland
  13. California’s IoT Security Law is Well-Intentioned, but a Comprehensive Federal Law is Needed (Guest Blog Post)
  14. California Amends the Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA); Fixes About 0.01% of its Problems
  15. Good News! USMCA (a/k/a NAFTA 2.0) Embraces Section 230-Like Internet Immunity
  16. How to Obtain a Global Injunction in a Copyright Infringement Case (Guest Blog Post)
  17. Another Social Media “Material Support to Terrorists” Lawsuit Fails–Cain v. Twitter

September 2018

  1. Another 512(f) Case Fails–Handshoe v. Perret
  2. Section 230 Helps Malware Vendor Avoid Liability for Blocking Decision–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes
  3. The Necessity of Geoblocking in the Age of (Almost) Unavoidable Geolocation (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Twitter Isn’t Liable for Impersonation Account–Dehen v. Doe
  5. Departing Employee Required to Transfer Social Media Accounts–Hyperheal Hyperbarics v. Shapiro
  6. Section 230’s Success in Under-the-Radar Cases
  7. Roca Labs’ Anti-Review Clause Violates FTC Act–FTC v. Roca Labs
  8. IP Address Subscriber Isn’t Liable for Copyright Infringement by Users Sharing That IP Address–Cobbler v. Gonzales
  9. Vermont’s “Revenge Porn” Crime Survives Constitutional Challenge–State v. VanBuren

August 2018

  1. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It)
  2. Comments on Trump’s Empty Tweetstorm Threatening Social Media Providers
  3. “Material Support for Terrorists” Lawsuit Against YouTube Fails Again–Gonzalez v. Google
  4. Another Failed Trademark Suit Over Competitive Keyword Advertising–JIVE v. Wine Racks America
  5. Twitter Gets Powerful Win in “Must-Carry” Lawsuit–Taylor v. Twitter
  6. Recent Developments Regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act
  7. Negative Keywords Help Defeat Preliminary Injunction–DealDash v. ContextLogic
  8. An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US (Guest Blog Post)
  9. The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated (Cross-Post)
  10. The Florida Bar and Competitive Keyword Advertising: A Tragicomedy (in 3 Parts)

July 2018

  1. A Cautionary Tale of Sarcasm in Social Media–Ross v. City of Jackson
  2. GoDaddy & Instagram Avoid Liability for Users’ Photos of Knockoff Goods–Franklin v. X Gear 101
  3. A First (But Very Incomplete) Crack at Inventorying the California Consumer Privacy Act’s Problems
  4. Announcing the 2018 Edition of My Internet Law Casebook
  5. Advertiser’s Suit Against Google Loses for Third (and Final) Time–Abid v. Google
  6. Unlinked Webpage Doesn’t Support Trademark Infringement–Nelson-Ricks v. Lakeview
  7. Businesses Cannot Contractually Ban “Abusive” Consumer Reviews
  8. COMO: Content Moderation at Scale Conference Recap
  9. Trolling the Internet for Photos Creates Copyright Headaches for Ad Agency (and the Advertiser)–Laspata v. Rimowa
  10. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri)
  11. Indianapolis Police Have Been “Blinded Lately Because They Shut Backpage Down”
  12. Ten Reasons Why California’s New Data Protection Law is Unworkable, Burdensome, and Possibly Unconstitutional (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Section 230, Defamation)
  14. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Advertising, E-Commerce)
  15. Amazon Again Avoids Liability for Defective Marketplace Item–Fox v. Amazon
  16. Section 230 Helps Facebook Defeat Pro Se Defamation Suit–Jefferson v. Facebook
  17. Constitutional Challenge Against FOSTA Filed–Woodhull v. US (Guest Blog Post)
  18. First Amendment Doesn’t Prevent Probationer Condition Restricting the Display of Illegal Activity on Social Media–In re Jawan S.
  19. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 2 (Copyright)
  20. The California Supreme Court Didn’t Ruin Section 230 (Today)–Hassell v. Bird
  21. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Other IP)

June 2018

  1. Uber’s Contract Formation Process Fails (Again)–Cullinane v. Uber
  2. The “CREEPER Act” Would Be Yet Another Unconstitutional Law from Congress (Guest Blog Post)
  3. A Privacy Bomb Is About to Be Dropped on the California Economy and the Global Internet
  4. Challenge to Santa Monica’s “Anti-Airbnb” Law Dismissed–Homeaway v. Santa Monica
  5. Court Dismisses Privacy Claims Against Email Subscription Management Tool–Cooper v. UnrollMe
  6. Catching Up on FOSTA Since Its Enactment (A Linkwrap)
  7. Twitter Isn’t a Shopping Mall for First Amendment Purposes (Duh)–Johnson v. Twitter
  8. Snapchat’s Speed Filter Not Protected by Section 230–Maynard v. Snapchat
  9. Appeals Court Curbs FTC’s Enforcement of Security Standards–LabMD v. FTC
  10. Viacom Possesses Trademark Rights in ‘Krusty Krab’ Based on Its Central Role in the SpongeBob Universe–Viacom v. IJR (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Court Allows “Battery by GIF” Claim to Proceed–Eichenwald v. Rivello
  12. Lawsuit Over Cancer-Curing Honey Ads Still Sucks–Abid v. Google
  13. More Bad News for Uber’s Contract Formation–Ramos v. Uber
  14. Craigslist Sex Sting Prosecution Rejected as “Outrageous Misconduct”–Washington v. Solomon
  15. TWiT’s Trademark Lawsuit Against Twitter Sent Back to the Drawing Board

May 2018

  1. President Trump Violated the First Amendment by Blocking Users @realdonaldtrump
  2. Who Needs a Copyright Small Claims Court? Evidence from the U.K.’s IP Enterprise Court (Guest Blog Post)
  3. Redfin Must Defend Copyright Suit Over Property Photos–Stross v. Redfin
  4. Illinois Users’ Face-Scanning Privacy Lawsuit Against Facebook Headed to Trial
  5. YouTube Defeats Another Remove-and-Relocate Lawsuit–Song Fi v. Google
  6. “Nerd’s Version of a Fist Fight” Doesn’t Support Injunction Against Blogger–Santilli v. Van Erp
  7. Bittersweet DMCA Safe Harbor Defense Win in Ninth Circuit–Ventura v. Motherless (Catch-Up Post)
  8. A DMCA Section 512(f) Case Survives Dismissal–ISE v. Longarzo (Catch-up Post)
  9. The Ninth Circuit STILL Thinks Keyword Metatags Matter in 2018–Adidas v. Skechers
  10. First Amendment Doesn’t Protect Encouraging Readers to Make Anti-Semitic Attacks–Gersh v. Daily Stormer
  11. Section 230 Doesn’t Provide a Basis To Remove Cases to Federal Court–A.R.K. v. Grindr
  12. Another Court Says Competitive Keyword Advertising Doesn’t Cause Confusion

April 2018

  1. Recapping a Year’s Worth of Section 230 Cases That Got Stuck in My Blogging Queue
  2. Competitive Keyword Advertising Doesn’t Show Bad Intent–ONEpul v. BagSpot
  3. Wisconsin Appeals Court Blows Open Big Holes in Section 230–Daniel v. Armslist
  4. Google Successfully Amends Adwords Contract to Add Arbitration–AdTrader v. Google
  5. More Aftermath from the ‘Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA’
  6. Court Affirms Stalking and Harassment Conviction for Tagged Tweets–In re AJB
  7. Conference on IP Enforcement at Trade Shows, UNLV, October 4, 2018 (Guest Blog Post)
  8. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 6: Privacy and More
  9. Google Can Reject Ads Promoting Honey That Claims to Cure Cancer–Abid v. Google
  10. Airbnb Defeats Race Discrimination Claims–Harrington v. Airbnb
  11. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 5: Marketing, Advertising, Retailing
  12. VRBO’s Anti-Fraud Guarantee Doesn’t Support Claim Over Fraudulent Listing–Hiam v. HomeAway
  13. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 4: Censorship, Content Moderation
  14. ‘Worst of Both Worlds’ FOSTA Signed Into Law, Completing Section 230’s Evisceration
  15. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 3: Section 230, Consumer Reviews
  16. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 2: Innovation and Confidentiality
  17. DMCA Safe Harbor Applies to Some Unfair Competition Claims–Capitol Records v. Vimeo
  18. Fifth Court Rejects ‘Material Support for Terrorism’ Claims Against Social Media Sites–Crosby v. Twitter
  19. Kentucky Governor Can Block Constituents on Social Media–Morgan v. Bevin
  20. Backpage Loses Another Section 230 Motion (Again Without SESTA/FOSTA)–Florida Abolitionists v. Backpage
  21. Researchers’ Challenge to CFAA Moves Forward–Sandvig v. Sessions
  22. 2H 2017 & Q1 2018 Quick Links, Part 1: Copyright, Trademarks, Keyword Ads
  23. Realistic Docudramas Don’t Violate California Publicity Rights–deHavilland v. FX

March 2018

  1. Lindsay Lohan Loses Publicity Rights Case Over Grand Theft Auto–Lohan v. Take-Two
  2. District Court Ruling Highlights Congress’ Hastiness To Pass ‘Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA’– Doe 1 v. Backpage
  3. More on the Unconstitutional Retroactivity of ‘Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA’ (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Ninth Circuit Reinstates Virtual Platform Gambling Lawsuit Against Big Fish
  5. DMCA’s Unhelpful 512(f) Preempts Helpful State Law Claims–Stevens v. Vodka and Milk
  6. YouTube Isn’t a Company Town (Duh)–Prager University v. Google
  7. Senate Passes ‘Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA’ (Linkwrap)
  8. Why FOSTA’s Restriction on Prostitution Promotion Violates the First Amendment (Guest Blog Post)
  9. SESTA’s Sponsors Still Don’t Understand Section 230 (As They Are About to Eviscerate It)
  10. Can the ‘Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA’ Be Salvaged? Perhaps…and You Can Help (URGENT CALL TO ACTION)
  11. Maternity Clothing Trademark Dispute Has Dubious Support–Blanqi v. Bao Bei (Guest Blog Post)
  12. Section 230 Doesn’t Prevent City Regulation of Short-Term Rental Services (Again)–HomeAway v. Santa Monica
  13. Top Internet Law Developments of 2017 (Very Late)
  14. Copyright Office Won’t Register ‘Middle-Finger Pictogram’ As Literary Work–Ashton v. Copyright Office
  15. Adpocalypse LawsuitGoBoom–ZombieGoBoom v. YouTube
  16. D.C. Circuit Makes Geoblocking De Facto Mandatory for Copyright Law Purposes–Spanski v. TV Polska (Guest Blog Post)
  17. UN’s “Privacy Rapporteur” Speaking at Santa Clara University April 9
  18. Ripoff Report Is “Lucky” Plaintiff Didn’t Allege Extortion–Albert v. Ragland
  19. The European Union Anti-Geoblocking Regulation Isn’t the End of the Anti-Geoblocking Battle (Guest Blog Post)
  20. Are Internet Access Providers Liable for Their Subscribers’ Copyright Infringements?–UMG v. Grande
  21. Video News Aggregator Loses Fair Use Defense–Fox v. TVEyes

February 2018

  1. Congress Probably Will Ruin Section 230 This Week (SESTA/FOSTA Updates)
  2. RSS Feeds I Still Subscribe To After a Dozen Years
  3. Google Gets Easy Section 230 Win in DC Circuit–Bennett v. Google
  4. Design Principles for Consumer Protection Legislation (Guest Blog Post)
  5. In-Line Linking May Be Copyright Infringement–Goldman v. Breitbart News
  6. Roundup of Materials from HTLI’s Content Moderation & Removal Conference
  7. Cox Loses DMCA Safe Harbor but Gets a New Trial on Contributory Infringement–BMG v. Cox
  8. Brief Roundup of Three Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Developments
  9. Twitter Defamation Claim Defeated by a Question Mark–Boulger v. Woods
  10. Copyright Owner Can Serve DMCA Counter-Notifier by Email–Epic Games v. Mendes

January 2018

  1. Twitter Didn’t Cause ISIS-Inspired Terrorism–Fields v. Twitter
  2. Displaying Emoji Evidence in Judicial Opinions
  3. Plaintiff’s Location-Based Privacy Claim Against BART Reporting App Fails
  4. DMCA Counternotification Doesn’t Create Personal Jurisdiction in Copyright Owner’s Home Court–Real v. Matteo
  5. Call for Papers: IAMCR 2018 in Oregon
  6. Some Upcoming Internet Law and Privacy Events at Santa Clara Law
  7. Section 230 Again Preempts Suit Against Facebook for Supporting Terrorists–Force v. Facebook
  8. 55 Academics and Advocates Urge NAFTA Trade Negotiators To Add Internet Immunity
  9. What’s New With SESTA/FOSTA (January 17, 2018 edition)
  10. Search Engines Aren’t Liable for Indexing ‘Scam’ Locksmith Listings–Baldino’s Lock v. Google
  11. A Patent For Geotagging IP Packets Raises Important Internet Law Questions (Guest Blog Post)
  12. Online Marketplace Not Enjoined Over Gray Market Goods Sales–Dentsply v. Net32
  13. Airbnb Gets Crucial Section 230 Win Over Unauthorized Subleases–La Park La Brea v. Airbnb
  14. Some Blog News: We’re Now Hosted by Justia!

2017 172

December 2017

  1. Narrow Definition of “Personally Identifiable Information” Kills VPPA Case–Eichenberger v. ESPN
  2. Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Tracking Logged-Out Users–In re Facebook Internet Tracking
  3. New House Bill (Substitute FOSTA) Has More Promising Approach to Regulating Online Sex Trafficking
  4. Fourth Judge Says Social Media Sites Aren’t Liable for Supporting Terrorists–Pennie v. Twitter
  5. Social Networking Site Isn’t Liable for User’s Overdose of Drugs He Bought Via the Site–Dyroff v. Ultimate Software

November 2017

  1. Interesting Tidbits From FTC’s Antitrust Win Against 1-800 Contacts’ Keyword Ad Restrictions
  2. Zazzle Loses Copyright Jury Verdict, and That’s Bad News for Print-on-Demand Publishers–Greg Young Publishing v. Zazzle
  3. ‘Blacklist’ of ModelMayhem Members Defeats Legal Liability–Brenner v. Hill
  4. Privacy Plaintiffs Lack Standing Against NBA 2K15’s Face-Scanning Technology
  5. Woman Fired For Pro-Trump Tweet Gets Unemployment Benefits–Waverly Heights v. Jungclaus
  6. Commemorating the 20 Year Anniversary of Zeran v. AOL
  7. Presentation on the First 18 Months of the Defend Trade Secrets Act
  8. Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By User Suspended Over ‘Bowling Green Massacre’–Shulman v. Facebook
  9. Repeated Unwanted Emails to Politician’s Personal Email Address Can be Harassment–Hagedorn v. Cattani
  10. YouTube Defeats Defamation Claim in ‘Remove-and-Relocate’ Case–Bartholomew v. YouTube
  11. Section 230(c)(2) Protects Anti-Malware Vendor–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
  12. Court Rejects Gossip Site’s Fair Use Defense–Barcroft v. Coed Media
  13. How SESTA Undermines Section 230’s Good Samaritan Provisions
  14. Would Shutting Down Backpage Reduce Violence Against Women? (Guest Blog Post)
  15. Manager’s Amendment for SESTA Slightly Improves a Still-Terrible Bill
  16. US Court Protects Google From Canadian Court’s Delisting Order–Google v. Equustek
  17. Another Human Trafficking Expert Raises Concerns About SESTA (Guest Blog Post)

October 2017

  1. Another SESTA Linkwrap (Week of October 30)
  2. Association Isn’t Liable for Its Members’ Message Board Postings–Inge v. Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association
  3. Is Wikileaks Protected by Section 230? The Trump Campaign Thinks So
  4. Another Court Rejects ‘Material Support To Terrorists’ Claims Against Social Media Sites–Gonzalez v. Google
  5. Recent SESTA Developments (A Linkwrap)
  6. Call for Projects/Papers/Participation for 8th Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress Conference, NYLS, March 24, 2018
  7. First Circuit Rejects Copyright Workaround to Section 230–Small Justice v. Ripoff Report
  8. Conference Announcement: “Content Moderation & Removal at Scale,” SCU, Feb. 2
  9. Hyperlinking to Sources Can Help Defeat Defamation Claims–Adelson v. Harris
  10. App Listening For Audio Beacons May Be Illegal Wiretapping–Rackemann v. Colts
  11. Section 230’s Applicability to ‘Inconsistent’ State Laws (Guest Blog Post)
  12. An Overview of Congress’ Pending Legislation on Sex Trafficking (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Message Board Operator Isn’t Liable for Highlighting User Comments–Ayyadurai v. Techdirt

September 2017

  1. The DOJ’s Busts of MyRedbook & Rentboy Show How Backpage Might Be Prosecuted (Guest Blog Post)
  2. Nigerians Phish a B2B Transaction & Steal $736k. Who Bears the Loss?–Beau Townsend Ford v. Don Hinds Ford
  3. Problems With SESTA’s Retroactivity Provision (Guest Blog Post)
  4. New Essay: The Ten Most Important Section 230 Rulings
  5. My Senate Testimony on SESTA + SESTA Hearing Linkwrap
  6. Debunking Some Myths About Section 230 and Sex Trafficking (Guest Blog Post)
  7. Congress Is About To Ruin Its Online Free Speech Masterpiece (Cross-Post)
  8. University Defeats Cyberbullying Lawsuit Related to Yik Yak–Feminist Majority v. UMW
  9. Ninth Circuit Blesses Amazon’s Terms of Service
  10. Face Scanning Lawsuit Against Shutterfly Survives Motion to Dismiss
  11. Doubling (& Tripling) Down on Trademark Protection For Secret Menu Items–In-N-Out v. Smashburger (Guest Blog Post)
  12. Facebook Wins Appeal Over Allegedly Discriminatory Content Removal–Sikhs for Justice v. Facebook
  13. No “Contract By Tweet” for Plaintiff Who Pitches Movie Idea via Social Media
  14. Catching Up on Ninth Circuit CFAA Jurisprudence (Internet Law Casebook Excerpt)
  15. Global Content Removals Based on Local Legal Violations (Internet Law Casebook Excerpt)
  16. Non-Compete Applies To Facebook Page for Unlaunched Business–Joseph v. O’Laughlin

August 2017

  1. Blogger Isn’t Liable for Anonymous Comments–Griffith v. Wall
  2. Section 512(f) Complaint Survives Motion to Dismiss–Johnson v. New Destiny Church
  3. On Remand, Ninth Circuit Says Robins Satisfied Article III Standing
  4. German Court Says Ad-Blocking is Liberation, Not Extortion (Guest Blog Post)
  5. Homeowners Can’t Sue Over Low Zestimates–Patel v. Zillow
  6. ‘Reaction’ Video Protected By Fair Use–Hosseinzadeh v. Klein
  7. Backpage Executives Must Face Money Laundering Charges Despite Section 230–People v. Ferrer
  8. Browsewrap/Clickwrap Distinction Vexes Another Court–Nevarez v. Ticketmaster
  9. Uber’s Contract Upheld in Second Circuit–Meyer v. Uber
  10. White-on-White Trademark Usage Might Constitute Initial Interest Confusion–Agdia v. Xia
  11. LinkedIn Enjoined From Blocking Scraper–hiQ v. LinkedIn
  12. How Section 230 Helps Sex Trafficking Victims (and SESTA Would Hurt Them) (Guest Blog Post)
  13. LinkedIn Connection Request Doesn’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause—Bankers Life v. American Senior Benefits
  14. Facebook Defeats Another Case Over Not Removing User Comments–La’Tiejira v. Facebook
  15. Trademark Injunction Issued Against Print-on-Demand Website–Harley Davidson v. SunFrog
  16. Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Failure to Remove User Pages–Cross v. Facebook
  17. Sen. Portman Says SESTA Doesn’t Affect the Good Samaritan Defense. He’s Wrong
  18. Section 230 Helps Yahoo Defeat Lawsuit Over Online Harassment Campaign–Hall v. Yahoo
  19. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 9 (Justice System, Social Media, Miscellaneous)
  20. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 8 (Trump, Immigration)
  21. ‘Blatant Sales Pitch’ on LinkedIn Likely Violates Non-solicitation Clause–Mobile Mini v. Vevea
  22. Section 230 Helps VRBO Defeat Claim Over Fraudulent Listing–Hiam v. Homeaway
  23. 1H 2017 Quick Links Part 7 (Fake News, RTBF, Censorship, Extremist Content)

July 2017

  1. Senate’s “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017”–and Section 230’s Imminent Evisceration
  2. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 6 (Defamation, Section 230, Consumer Reviews)
  3. Courts Keep Shredding Online Contract Formation Processes–McGhee v. NAB; Applebaum v. Lyft
  4. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 5 (Advertising, Contracts)
  5. Politician Can’t Ban Constituent From Her Official Facebook Page–Davison v. Loudoun County Supervisors
  6. Vegetarian Ethiopian Cookbook Copyright Lawsuit Turns Sour–Schleifer v. Berns
  7. Appropriation Artist Can’t Win Fair Use Defense on Motion to Dismiss–Graham v. Prince
  8. Announcing the 2017 Edition of ‘Internet Law: Cases & Materials’
  9. Court Can’t Ban Resident From Discussing HOA Online–Fox v. Hamptons at MetroWest Condos
  10. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 4 (Copyright, Patent, More)
  11. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 3 (Google, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb)
  12. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 2 (Privacy, Security)
  13. 1H 2017 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks, Keyword Ads)
  14. When Do Review Websites Commit Extortion?–Icon Health v. ConsumerAffairs
  15. Facebook Persistent Tracking Lawsuit Crashes Again
  16. Yelp, Twitter and Facebook Aren’t State Actors–Quigley v. Yelp

June 2017

  1. Another Collision of Housing Regulations and Online Innovation–SF Housing Rights Committee v. HomeAway
  2. DMCA Safe Harbor Doesn’t Protect Zazzle’s Printing of Physical Items–Greg Young Publishing v. Zazzle
  3. Ill-Advised Copyright Lawsuit Over Facebook Live Video Becomes Costly For Plaintiff–Konangataa v. ABC
  4. Section 230 Protects Google’s Decision Not To De-Index Content–Bennett v. Google
  5. Does the Packingham Ruling Presage Greater Government Control Over Search Results? Or Less? (Guest Blog Post)
  6. Frequency of Courts’ References to Emojis and Emoticons Over Time
  7. Ban on Sex Offenders Using Social Media Violates First Amendment–Packingham v. North Carolina
  8. Trademark Registrations for Emojis
  9. “Offensive, Rude, Annoying, Mean-Spirited & Ill-Advised” Blog Posts Aren’t Defamatory–Milazzo v. Connolly
  10. Facebook Isn’t Liable for Fake User Account–Caraccioli v. Facebook
  11. Recapping the “Can Technology Rescue Democracy” Essay Series at The Atlantic

May 2017

  1. Copyright Registrations for Emoticons and Emojis
  2. Your Movements Shall Be Traced: The New EU Regulation on Cross-Border Portability (Guest Blog Post)
  3. Amazon Doesn’t “Sell” Its Marketplace Goods–Milo & Gabby v. Amazon
  4. How a Chipmunk Emoji Cost an Israeli Texter $2,200
  5. Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Material Support for Terrorists–Cohen v. Facebook
  6. Revisiting the Discoverability of Facebook Account Activity–Gordon v. TGR
  7. Google Gets Big Ninth Circuit Win That Its Eponymous Trademark Isn’t Generic–Elliott v. Google
  8. 1-800 Contacts Charges Higher Prices Than Its Online Competitors, But They Are OK With That–FTC v. 1-800 Contacts
  9. Lawsuit Against Ripoff Report Dropped After Discovery–Vision Security v. Xcentric (Guest Blog Post)
  10. How Is Texting a Dick Pic Like Masturbating in a Person’s Presence?–State v. Decker
  11. To Geoblock, or Not To Geoblock – Is That Still a Question? (Guest Blog Post)
  12. New Draft Paper on Emojis and the Law
  13. A Photographer Sued a (Former) Student Over a School Project. Guess How That Turned Out–Reiner v. Nishimori
  14. Will Technology Destroy Our Democracy–or Save It? A Series of Papers at The Atlantic
  15. VPPA Still Doesn’t Protect App Downloaders–Perry v. CNN
  16. Catching Up On Some Recent Click Fraud Rulings

April 2017

  1. You Can’t Be Fired For a Facebook Post Calling Your Boss a “LOSER”–NLRB v. Pier Sixty
  2. New Draft Article: “Judicial Resolution of Nonconsensual Pornography Dissemination Cases”
  3. How Should a Lawyer Respond to a Yelp Review Calling Him “Worst. Ever.”?–Spencer v. Glover
  4. Faulty Mobile Device User Interface Jeopardizes Uber’s Contract Formation–Metter v. Uber
  5. Can Your Employer Fire You For Posting Vacation Photos to Facebook?–Jones v. Accentia
  6. Dozen Amicus Briefs Oppose the Worst Section 230 Ruling of 2016 (and One Supports It)–Hassell v. Bird
  7. FTC Explains Why It Thinks 1-800 Contacts’ Keyword Ad Settlements Were Anti-Competitive–FTC v. 1-800 Contacts
  8. Plaintiff Can’t Erase Court Order From the Internet–Nelson v. Social Security Commissioner
  9. The “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017” Bill Would Be Bad News for Section 230
  10. Texas Supreme Court Is Skeptical About Wikipedia as a Dictionary–D Magazine v. Rosenthal
  11. Court Strikes Probation Condition Against Using a Device Containing Encryption–In re Mike H.
  12. Can Blogging Violate the Fair Housing Act?–Revock v. Cowpet Bay West Condo Ass’n

March 2017

  1. A Complaint’s Silence About Section 230 Helps It Survive Judgment on the Pleadings–Moretti v. Hertz
  2. E-SIGN and EFTA Permit Telephonic Consent to Automatic Debits with Mailed Confirmation–Blatt v. Capital One (Guest Blog Post)
  3. Trademark Lawsuit Claiming Organic Search Results Create Initial Interest Confusion Falls Apart–Larsen v. Larson
  4. Does “Raiders Fancast” Infringe the “Fancaster” Trademark?
  5. Your Periodic Reminder That Initial Interest Confusion Lawsuits Are Stupid–Epic v. YourCareUniverse
  6. Retailer’s TOS Fails, But New Jersey Warranty Notice Claim Loses Anyway
  7. WARNING: Draft “No Immunity for Sex Traffickers Online Act” Bill Poses Major Threat to Section 230
  8. Judge Balks At Section 230 Protection For Email Forwarding–Samsel v. DeSoto County School District
  9. eBay Isn’t Liable for Patent-Infringing Marketplace Sales–Blazer v. eBay
  10. Appeals Court Affirms Rejection of Gambling Claims Against Machine Zone
  11. Constitution Protects Publication of Politicians’ Home Address/Phone Number–Publius v. Boyer-Vine
  12. Trademark Owner’s Bubble Bursts In Lawsuit Over Soap–Bubble Genius v. Just Bubbly
  13. New Paper: “The Defend Trade Secrets Act Isn’t an ‘Intellectual Property’ Law”
  14. New Essay: Understanding the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016
  15. Section 230 Protects Grindr From Harrassed User’s Claims–Herrick v. Grindr

February 2017

  1. Revisiting If Suing Bloggers For Copyright Infringement Can Be Profitable–BWP v. Mishka
  2. Copyshop Covered By “Non-Commercial” Creative Commons License–Great Minds v. FedEx
  3. YouTube Defeats Another Remove-and-Relocate Case–Darnaa v. Google
  4. Illinois Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Apply To Law Firm Blog Posts–Bock & Hatch v. McGuireWoods
  5. Ellen DeGeneres Defeats Lawsuit Over Breast Pun–TiTi Pierce v. Warner Bros
  6. University Rejection of Students’ Marijuana-Themed T-Shirt Violates First Amendment–Gerlich v. Leath
  7. Copyright Office Q&A Session About The New Online DMCA Designated Agents Directory
  8. First Amendment Protects Google’s De-Indexing of “Pure Spam” Websites–e-ventures v. Google
  9. Melania Loses Defamation Lawsuit on Jurisdiction Grounds–Trump v. Tarpley
  10. Amazon Defeats Lawsuit Over Its Keyword Ad Purchases–Lasoff v. Amazon
  11. The DTSA’s Ex Parte Seizure Order: The “Ex” Stands for “Extraordinary” (Guest Blog Post)

January 2017

  1. Actress in Viral Video Can’t Prevent Video From Being Made Into an Advertisement–Roberts v. Bliss
  2. Section 230 Helps Snapchat Defeat Personal Injury Claim Due to ‘Speed Filter’–Maynard v. McGee
  3. Trump Can’t Commit Twibel Because He Routinely ‘Deflects Serious Consideration’–Jacobus v. Trump
  4. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 11 (Social Media, Harassment, E-Discovery & More)
  5. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 10 (Marketing, Uber, Airbnb, Taxes & More)
  6. Student Disciplined for Posting Threatening Mashup Video to Instagram–AN v. Upper Perkiomen School District
  7. Another Court Rejects DTSA Ex Parte Seizure–Brunswick Rail v Sultanov
  8. Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2016
  9. A Seismic Ruling Revisited: No Common-Law Public Performance Rights in Pre-1972 Sound Recordings in New York–Flo & Eddie v. Sirius
  10. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 9 (Privacy/Security)
  11. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 8 (Fake News, Terrorist Content, Censorship & More)
  12. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 7 (Consumer Reviews & Defamation)
  13. Does Google’s Non-Disclosure Agreement With Employees Overreach? (Guest Blog Post)
  14. Freelance Blogger Denied Unemployment Insurance–In re Mitchell
  15. Ten Worst Section 230 Rulings of 2016 (Plus the Five Best)
  16. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 6 (Section 230)
  17. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 5 (Patents, Other IP, Employment, CFAA)

2016 180

December 2016

  1. Tweeting Death Threats Isn’t Juvenile Delinquency–In re R.D.
  2. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 4 (Counterfeits and Olympics)
  3. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trademarks and Domain Names)
  4. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 2 (Copyright & Open Access)
  5. More Evidence Why Keyword Advertising Litigation Is Waning
  6. Police Department’s Social Media Policy Is Unconstitutional–Liverman v. Petersburg
  7. Ripoff Report Wins Lawsuit on Jurisdiction Grounds–Williams v. Dunn
  8. Backpage Executives Defeat Pimping Charges Per Section 230–People v. Ferrer
  9. Server Location, Jurisdiction, and Server Location Requirements (Guest Blog Post)

November 2016

  1. Announcing the Third Edition of Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials by Tushnet & Goldman
  2. Quora Gets Easy Section 230 Win In Tenth Circuit–Silver v. Quora
  3. Adding Derogatory Caption to Photo Meme Can Be False Light–S.E. v. Chmerkovskiy
  4. Plaintiffs’ Law Firm Can Reference Targeted Business’ Name In Ad Copy–McHugh Fuller v. Pruitt
  5. Twitter Defeats ISIS “Material Support” Lawsuit Again–Fields v. Twitter
  6. Court Rejects Effort to De-Index Search Results–Manchanda v. Google
  7. Conflict of Laws Has Caught Up with Silicon Valley. Now Silicon Valley Needs to Catch Up on Conflict of Laws (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Now the Seventh Circuit Is Shitting On Section 230–Huon v. Denton
  9. Section 230 Ruling Against Airbnb Puts All Online Marketplaces At Risk–Airbnb v. San Francisco
  10. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Amazon From Products Liability Claims–McDonald v. LG
  11. Constitutional Challenge to Section 230 Fails On Standing Grounds–AFDI v. Lynch
  12. Backpage Can’t Challenge the SAVE Act–Backpage v. Lynch
  13. Google Loses Two Section 230(c)(2) Rulings–Spy Phone v. Google and Darnaa v. Google
  14. Court Upholds Airbnb’s Terms of Service–Selden v. Airbnb
  15. 2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 1 (Special Election Edition)
  16. Stock Music Library Wins DMCA Safe Harbor Defense–Hempton v. Pond5
  17. Another Tortured DMCA Online Safe Harbor Ruling–EMI v. MP3Tunes

October 2016

  1. Copyright Office Gratuitously Kills the DMCA Safe Harbor For Thousands of Websites
  2. How Will Courts Handle A “Poor Man’s Copyright”?
  3. Celebrating Judge Ronald Whyte’s Contributions to Internet Law
  4. Deleting Comments to County Facebook Page May Violate First Amendment–Davison v. Loudoun County
  5. Call for Papers/Participation: 7th Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, SCU, March 4, 2017
  6. Some Comments on the CA/TX Attorneys’ General Prosecution of Backpage’s Executives
  7. Ad Network Defeats Secondary Copyright Claims–ALS Scan v. JuicyAds
  8. An Interesting Online Personal Jurisdiction Ruling (No, Really!)–Rotblut v. Terrapinn
  9. Spokeo Wipes Out FCRA Lawsuit Over “Improper” Mandatory Disclosures–Nokchan v. Lyft
  10. Federal Court Rejects Online Gambling Lawsuit Against Valve–McLeod v. Valve
  11. Overly Broad Arbitration Clause Fails–Wexler v. AT&T
  12. Federal Court Authorizes Service of Process via Twitter

September 2016

  1. Does the FTC Get a Free Pass From Section 230?–FTC v. LeadClick
  2. Court Dumps Crappy Trademark & Keyword Ad Case–ONEPul v. BagSpot
  3. Trademark Law Can’t Stop Competitor’s Employee Recruitment Efforts–XPO v. R+L
  4. Ninth Circuit Sends Uber Driver Claims to Arbitration
  5. Avvo’s Attorney Profile Pages Don’t Violate Publicity Rights–Vrdolyak v. Avvo
  6. House Passes Consumer Review Fairness Act
  7. Ninth Circuit Criticizes Attempts to Plead Around Section 230–Kimzey v. Yelp
  8. Redfin Defeats Copyright Claims Due to MLS License Agreement
  9. “Kurt The CyberGuy” Loses Publicity Rights Claims Against TV Station–CyberGuy v. KTLA
  10. Anti-Robocall Statute Violates First Amendment–Gresham v. Rutledge
  11. Unfortunate Expansion of ‘Failure to Warn’ Exception to Section 230–Beckman v. Match
  12. Court Cleans Up Trademark Status of the Phrase “Meth Lab Cleanup”

August 2016

  1. Why I’ve Paused My Blogging at Forbes
  2. Anarchy Has Ensued In Courts’ Handling of Online Contract Formation (Round Up Post)
  3. AdWords Buys Using Geographic Terms Support Personal Jurisdiction–Rilley v. MoneyMutual
  4. Handicapping the Olympic Committee’s Quest to Control Tweeting (Guest Post)
  5. The Internet Rallies Against A Terrible Section 230 Ruling–Hassell v. Bird
  6. Court Benchslaps Trade Secret Plaintiff and Counsel For Bad Faith Litigation–RBC Bearings v. Caliber
  7. Talk on Trends in Online Trademark and Marketing Law
  8. Copyright Owner Denied Attorneys’ Fees In Suit Against Popcorn Time User–Cobbler v. Doe
  9. Section 230 Immunizes Twitter From Liability For ISIS’s Terrorist Activities–Fields v. Twitter
  10. FTC Sues 1-800 Contacts For Restricting Competitive Keyword Advertising
  11. Repeat Plaintiff Can’t Sue Search Engines Because Employers Won’t Hire Him–Despot v. Baltimore Life Insurance
  12. An Assessment of the Anthem Data Breach Litigation Rulings (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Will Go To A Jury–Edible Arrangements v. Provide Commerce
  14. Judge Declines to Enforce Uber’s Terms of Service–Meyer v. Kalanick
  15. Texas Ethics Opinion Approves Competitive Keyword Ads By Lawyers
  16. County Employee Properly Terminated for Facebook Posts Criticizing Police–Palmer v. Anoka
  17. Second Circuit’s Decision in Microsoft v. U.S. (Data Stored in Ireland): Good News for Internet Users? (Guest Blog Post)

July 2016

  1. A Tale of Two Spokeos
  2. Want An Enforceable Online Contract? Don’t Use A Footer Link Called “Reference”–Zajac v. Walker
  3. Priceline Avoids Liability For Resort Fees Due To Its Onsite Disclosures–Singer v. Priceline
  4. Blogger Doing Investigative Research Defeats Personal Jurisdiction–FireClean v. Tuohy
  5. Search Engine Snippets Protected By Section 230–O’Kroley v. Fastcase
  6. Message Board Operator May Be Liable For Moderator’s Content–Enigma v. Bleeping
  7. Sideloading Service Defeats Copyright Infringement Claims–BWP v. Polyvore
  8. Was Melania Trump’s Plagiarism Also Copyright Infringement? (Guest Blog Post)
  9. Internet Troll’s “Political Shenanigans” Are Protected Speech–State v. Hirschman (Guest Blog Post)
  10. Twitter May Be Liable for Sending Texts to Recycled Cellphone Numbers–Nunes v. Twitter
  11. Yelp Isn’t Liable For User-Submitted Photos Of Businesses–Albert v. Yelp
  12. Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 5 (Miscellaneous)
  13. Courts Approve Terms of Service-Based Arbitration Clauses for Uber and Groupon
  14. “Modified Clickwrap” Upheld In Court–Moule v. UPS
  15. Ted Cruz’s Presidential Campaign Apparently Committed Copyright Infringement. Oops.
  16. Section 230 Protects YouTube’s Removal of User’s Videos–Lancaster v. Alphabet
  17. Vimeo’s Second Circuit DMCA Safe Harbor Win Over Capitol Records
  18. Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 4 (Marketing, Privacy, Contracts)
  19. “Manufactured” TCPA Suit Fails For Lack of Standing
  20. Employees Bound By Clickthrough Agreements–ADP v. Lynch
  21. Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 3 (Defamation, Online Reviews, Section 230)
  22. Preemption Dooms Suit Over LinkedIn Group Spam

June 2016

  1. Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 2 (Terrorism Content, Hate Speech, Thiel/Gawker, Censorship & More)
  2. Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 1 (Intellectual Property)
  3. Web Host Defeats Copyright Liability Despite Mishandled Takedown Notice–Hydrenta v. Luchian
  4. A Dozen Organizations File Comments Opposing Copyright Office’s Plan to Undermine Section 512
  5. Trade Secret Owner Penalized For ‘Specious’ Misappropriation Lawsuit–BTS v. Exclusive Perspectives
  6. County Attorney’s Deletion of Constituent’s Facebook Comment May Violate First Amendment
  7. Announcing the 2016 Edition of ‘Internet Law: Cases & Materials’
  8. Supreme Court Revisits Copyright’s Attorney Fee Shifts–Kirtsaeng v. Wiley
  9. State Sup. Ct. Affirms Harassment and Breach of Peace Conviction for Posting Pages from Diary to Facebook
  10. Review Website Gets Hammered In Court–Consumer Cellular v. ConsumerAffairs
  11. North Carolina State Supreme Court Strikes Down Cyberbullying Statute
  12. Scraping Lawsuit Survives Dismissal Motion–CouponCabin v. Savings.com
  13. Yelp Forced To Remove Defamatory Reviews–Hassell v. Bird
  14. WTF Is Going On With Section 230?–Cross v. Facebook
  15. De Minimis Music Sampling Isn’t Infringement–Salsoul v. Madonna

May 2016

  1. Section 230 Baffles 9th Circuit (Again)–Doe #14 v. ModelMayhem
  2. Some Thoughts on Thiel’s Lawfare Against Gawker
  3. WARNING: Copyright Office Resurrects Troubling Plan To Strip Websites Of 512 Safe Harbor
  4. Google Must Answer Lawsuit For Manually Removing Websites From Its Search Index–E-ventures v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
  5. ‘Badass Lawyer’ Loses Lawsuit Over Parody Twitter Account–Levitt v. Felton
  6. Will the Spokeo v. Robins Supreme Court Ruling Favor Plaintiffs Or Defendants? Uh…
  7. Second Circuit Muddies The Trademark Nominative Use Doctrine–ISC2 v. Security University
  8. Talk on Section 230 and Consumer Reviews
  9. Is Uber Liable When Drivers Sexually Abuse Passengers? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Judge Scolds Litigant For Making Facebook Account “Private” During Litigation–Thurmond v. Bowman
  11. Talk on Evolving Trends In High Tech Legal Education
  12. FTC Wins Deception Case Over Faux User-Generated Content–Fanning v. FTC
  13. Google Isn’t Required To De-Index Negative Ripoff Report–Fakhrian v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Marquette University’s Troubling Report on Faculty Blogger (Guest Blog Post)
  15. The Pros and (Scary) Cons of the New EU Trade Secret Directive, Part 2 (Guest Blog Post)
  16. Facebook Gets Bad Ruling In Face-Scanning Privacy Case–In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation
  17. The Pros and (Scary) Cons of the New EU Trade Secret Directive, Part 1 (Guest Blog Post)
  18. 512 Safe Harbor Applies to Content Submitted By Independent Contractors–BWP v. Examiner
  19. The New ‘Defend Trade Secrets Act’ Is The Biggest IP Development In Years (Forbes Cross-Post)
  20. Santa Clara-Duke-USPTO Quality Conferences / Call for Participants
  21. Proposed EU Regulation on Cross-Border Access to Copyrighted Content (Guest Blog Post)
  22. Important and Troubling Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) Ruling From First Circuit–Yershov v. Gannett

April 2016

  1. Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 4 (Copyright, Marketing and More)
  2. Evidentiary Failings Undermine Arbitration Clauses in Online Terms
  3. Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 3 (DOJ v. Apple, ISIS, Censorship & More)
  4. Sketchy Suit Between Native Advertising Competitors Produces Sketchy Section 230 Ruling–Adblade v. RevContent
  5. Defective Call-to-Action Dooms Online Contract Formation–Sgouros v. TransUnion
  6. Homeowner’s Insurance Policy Doesn’t Apply To Cyberharassment Campaign Allegations–State Farm v. El-Moslimany
  7. Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 2 (Online Jurisdiction)
  8. Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Domain Names)

March 2016

  1. Alleged “Conspiracy” Among Disgruntled Ex-Employees Defeats Section 230–Tanisha v. Chandra
  2. Does Two-Factor Authentication Violate the TCPA?–Duguid v. Facebook
  3. Amazon Defeats Publicity Rights Lawsuit Over ‘A Gronking To Remember’ Book Cover (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Court Rejects “Browsewrap.” Is That Surprising?–Long v. ProFlowers
  5. Big Win For Free Speech Online In Backpage Lawsuit (Forbes Cross-Post)
  6. Facebook Isn’t Liable For Fake User Account Containing Non-Consensual Pornography–Caraccioli v. Facebook (Forbes Cross-Post)
  7. PGA Can Turn Caddies Into ‘Human Billboards’–Hicks v. PGA Tour
  8. Google Defeats Lawsuit Over Duplicate Content Penalty–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone
  9. Buyer Wins Dispute Over Earnout For Purchased Websites
  10. Why The Subway ‘Footlong’ Lawsuits Fell Short (Forbes Cross-Post)
  11. Customer Loses Suit Over Employees’ Disparaging Facebook Posts–Howard v. Hertz
  12. CSS and HTML Code May Be Copyrightable–Media.net v. Netseer
  13. Using Scraper to Harvest Records Isn’t Fraudulent Access Under CFAA–Fidlar v. LPS
  14. Posting Vacation Photos To Facebook Costs An Employee His Job–Jones v. Accentia (Forbes Cross-Post)

February 2016

  1. Telephony Provider Didn’t Properly Form a “Telephone-Wrap” Contract–James v. Global Tel*Link
  2. Court Beats Down Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit–Beast Sports v. BPI
  3. Courtney Love Defeats Twibel Claims–Holmes v. Love
  4. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Summaries of Third Party Remarks–Diamond Ranch Academy v. Filer
  5. Court Orders Uber To Control Its Google Search Results
  6. High Schooler’s “Murder” Tweet Isn’t “Cyberstalking”–State v. Kohonen
  7. Surveying Ten Years Of Top Internet Law Developments (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Hacky Sacker’s Publicity Rights Claim Against Energy Drink Tossed–Martin v. 5-Hour Energy Drink
  9. Ninth Circuit Resolves Two of the Facebook Sponsored Stories Lawsuits
  10. Google Can Derive Undisclosed Economic Benefits From CAPTCHAs–Rojas-Lozano v. Google
  11. Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2015 (Forbes Cross-Post)

January 2016

  1. Senate Judiciary Committee Passes Amended Defend Trade Secrets Act. What Changed? (Guest Blog Post)
  2. What’s the Legal Definition of a “Social Media Site”? Uh… (People v. Lopez)
  3. It’s Not Harassment To Talk Tough About Your Court Case (And Litigation Opponent) In Social Media
  4. Posting Mocking Photo To Social Media May Be Tortious….If You’re Shaq–Binion v. O’Neal
  5. Oculus Faces Messy Ownership Claims Over Its Head Mounted Display–Total Recall v. Luckey
  6. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Email Forwarding of Screenshotted Tweets?–Maxfield v. Maxfield
  7. More Data Breach Lawsuits Fail In Court–Michaels Stores and SuperValu
  8. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 8 (Consumer Reviews, Google)
  9. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 7 (Marketing, Advertising, E-Commerce)
  10. Big Fish’s Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate Washington’s Gambling Statute
  11. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 6 (Social Media)
  12. Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate California’s Gambling Law–Mason v. Machine Zone (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Shutterfly Can’t Shake Face-Scanning Privacy Lawsuit
  14. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 5 (Section 230, Pornography)
  15. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation & More)
  16. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trespass To Chattels, Privacy/Security)
  17. Online Dating Services Must Give California Users a “Cooling Off” Period–Howell v. Grindr
  18. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 2 (Patents, Trademarks, Other IP)
  19. 2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright)
  20. YouTube Wins Another Case Over Removing And Relocating User Videos (Forbes Cross-Post)
  21. Employee Kvetching About Job On Facebook Still Entitled To Unemployment Benefits

2015 180

December 2015

  1. Third Circuit Revives a Sliver of Plaintiff’s Cookie-Blocking Circumvention Claims Against Google
  2. Bashing Your Litigation Opponent in an Online Message Board? Go For It! (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Google Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Over Waze Data (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service–Fagerstrom v. Amazon
  5. Woman That Rapper 2 Chainz Called a “THOT” In Viral Video Loses Lawsuit–Chisholm v. Epps
  6. Google Play Defeats Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Bank Charges–Harvey v. Google
  7. When Does A Parody Twitter Account Constitute Criminal Identity Theft?–Sims v. Monaghan
  8. Are Legal Restrictions On Disparaging Personal Names Unconstitutional?–In re The Slants (Guest Blog Post)
  9. TCPA Claim Against Non-Sender Fails
  10. No Fee Shift In Bogus Lawsuit Against Review Website–Roca v. PissedConsumer
  11. Senate Passes Consumer Review Freedom Act
  12. Can YouTube ‘Remove And Relocate’ User Videos Capriciously?–Darnaa v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
  13. Hackers Could Take Control Of Your Car, But You Can’t Sue Carmakers For That Risk (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Third Circuit Revives TCPA Case Against Yahoo
  15. Stockholders Can’t Sue Yelp Because Of Fake Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Court Rejects TCPA Claim on the Basis of Implied Consent
  17. Do We Need A New Judicial Fast Lane To Combat Trade Secret Theft? (Forbes Cross-Post)

November 2015

  1. Facebook Can Legally Block Pages Without Any Explanation–Sikhs For Justice v. Facebook (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Senate Commerce Committee Approves Consumer Review Freedom Act (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Another Court Says It’s OK To Link To Defamatory Content–Slozer v. Slattery
  4. 42 Law Professors Oppose The Defend Trade Secrets Act
  5. “2015 Internet Law Updates” Talk Slides
  6. No Liability for Linking to Defamatory Content–Life Designs Ranch v. Sommer
  7. How Congress Can Protect Online Consumer Reviews (An Assessment of the Consumer Review Freedom Act) (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Disney Not Liable For Disclosing Device IDs And Viewing Habits

October 2015

  1. Facebook Beats Privacy Lawsuit Alleging Persistent Tracking
  2. Amazon AppStore and Google Play Defeat Lawsuit Over Infringing App Name–Free Kick Master v. Apple (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Anti-Employer Chatter On Facebook Protected By NLRA–Triple Play v. NLRB
  4. Call for Projects/Papers/Participation for Sixth Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, March 5, 2016
  5. Commenting on Viral Video Is Fair Use–Equals Three v. Jukin Media
  6. Another Censorial Copyright Case Results In a Big Fee Shift–Inglewood v. Teixeira
  7. Why Attorneys Dislike Consumer Reviews (Reviewing an Article by Cassandra Burke Robertson)
  8. App Users Aren’t “Subscribers” Under the VPPA–Ellis v. Cartoon Network
  9. The Perkins v. LinkedIn Class Action Settlement Notification Was Badly Bungled (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Threatening to Post Sex Video to Facebook Isn’t a True Threat
  11. University Cannot Discipline Student for Off-Campus Tweets
  12. The Benefits Of Self-Publishing Electronic Casebooks (Forbes Cross-Post)
  13. Chain of Title Proves Fatal to “Happy Birthday” Copyright Claim (Guest Blog Post)
  14. Another Murky Opinion on Lawyers Buying Keyword Ads on Other Lawyers’ Names–In re Naert
  15. Disparate Enforcement of Social Media Policy May Support Discrimination Claim

September 2015

  1. You Can’t Buy A Copyright Just To Bury It–Katz v. Chevaldina (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Qualified Immunity Bars Claims Based on Search of Student’s Facebook Account and Discipline for Private Messages
  3. Grieving Parents (Still) Can’t Sue Topix For Son’s Oxy Overdose–Witkoff v. Topix (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Local Hosting and the Draft “Trade in Services Agreement” (Guest Blog Post)
  5. 9th Circuit Sides With Fair Use in Dancing Baby Takedown Case
  6. Another Tough Section 230 Ruling For Ripoff Report–Vision Security v. Xcentric
  7. 59 Legal Scholars Sign Letter Supporting SPEAK FREE Act To Create Federal Anti-SLAPP Law (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Court Says Yelp Reviewers Aren’t Employees (Forbes Cross-Post)
  9. Big Fee Shift in Unsuccessful Copyright Lawsuit To Suppress Unflattering Photo–Katz v. Chevaldina
  10. Backpage Gets Bummer Section 230 Ruling in Washington Supreme Court–J.S. v. Village Voice
  11. Travel Blogger Denied Tax Writeoff For European Backpacking Trip (Forbes Cross-Post)
  12. Ninth Circuit Rejects Video Privacy Protection Act Claims Against Sony
  13. Crowdsourcing Platform Isn’t Liable For Fraudulent Fundraiser–GiveForward v. Hodges (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Teacher Who Blogged Pseudonymously About Students Being “Rat-Like” or “Dunderheads” Loses Appeal
  15. The Long-Term Promise of Privacy Federalism, Part 2
  16. Google Books Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Using 512(c)–Avdeef v. Google
  17. Sisterly Online Squabbling Isn’t Criminal Stalking
  18. The Long-Term Promise of Privacy Federalism, Part 1 (Guest Blog Post)

August 2015

  1. Judge Expresses Frustration With Overbroad Discovery Requests for Social Media Evidence–Farley v. Callais
  2. Recent FCC Order Helps Shopkick Defeat TCPA Claims
  3. Gmail Terms of Service Apply to reCAPTCHA During Account Formation–Rojas-Lozano v. Google
  4. Jawbone Plaintiff Can Invoke California Choice of Law Provision in Service Agreement
  5. Hashtags Are Not Trademarks—Eksouzian v. Albanese (Guest Blog Post)
  6. Two Tough Section 230 Rulings From Last Week–General Steel v. Chumley & Xcentric v. Smith
  7. City Can’t Use Copyright To Censor Critical Videos–Inglewood v. Teixeira
  8. Keyword Ad Lawsuit Isn’t Covered By California’s Anti-SLAPP Law
  9. Angie’s List Must Defend Fraud Charges Over Pay-to-Play Review Manipulation (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. School District Wrongly Disciplined Student for a Two Word Tweet
  11. Second Circuit Enforces Terms Hyperlinked In Confirmation Email–Starkey v. G Adventures
  12. Court Allows Facebook Expert to Testify in Threat Case–U.S. v. Bradbury
  13. Delayed Search Database Updating Isn’t Defamation–Ferrell v. Yahoo and Google
  14. Trade School’s Domain Name Lawsuit Drops Like a (Granite) Rock
  15. University Can’t Quash Lawsuit by Professor Fired for Tweeting Political Opinion
  16. Story Byline May Affect Section 230 Immunity–AdvanFort v. Maritime Executive
  17. Federal Trade Secret Bill Re-Introduced–And It’s Still Troublesome (Guest Blog Post)
  18. AARP Defeats Lawsuit for Sharing Information With Facebook and Adobe
  19. What’s Worse Than Cleaning Up A Meth Lab? A Trademark Injunction Against Using “Meth Lab Cleanup” In Metatags

July 2015

  1. 9th Circuit Rejects VPPA Claims Against Netflix For Intra-Household Disclosures
  2. Two 512(f) Rulings Where The Litigants Dispute Copyright Ownership
  3. Is Amazon Liable For IP Violations By Its Marketplace Vendors? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. If You’re Going To Incorporate Online T&Cs Into a Printed Contract, Do It Right–Holdbrook v. PCS
  5. Seventh Circuit: Data Breach Victims Have Standing Based on Future Harm
  6. Are You Smarter Than a 2L? (Internet Law Edition)
  7. 2015 Internet Law Casebook Now Available
  8. Sending Emails Isn’t Workplace Stalking–People v. Marian
  9. Clickthrough Agreement Upheld–Whitt v. Prosper
  10. Troubling Trademark Ruling Over Amazon’s Internal Search Results–MTM v. Amazon (Forbes Cross-Post)
  11. Congress Should MOVE To Restrict Employee Non-Compete Clauses (Forbes Cross-Post)
  12. Confusion From Competitive Keyword Advertising? Fuhgeddaboudit
  13. Lawyer Loses License Due To Overzealous Social Media Activism For Client–In re McCool
  14. DMCA 512(c) Formalities Strike Again–BWP v. Hollywood Fan Sites

June 2015

  1. Q2 2015 Quick Links, Part 2 (Censorship and More)
  2. Q2 2015 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP, Marketing and More)
  3. When Can Defendants Defeat A Criminal Threat Prosecution By Claiming They Were Joking? Not Often
  4. North Carolina Cyber-Bullying Statute Survives First Amendment Challenge
  5. Court Rejects First Amendment Challenge Against Cyberharassment Charge
  6. Competitive Keyword Advertising Permitted As Nominative Use–ElitePay Global v. CardPaymentOptions
  7. Section 230(c)(2) Gets No Luv From the Courts–Song Fi v. Google
  8. eBay Must Disclose User Identities In Response To 512(h) Subpoenas
  9. Google And Yahoo Defeat Last Remaining Lawsuit Over Competitive Keyword Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Sixth Circuit Says Informational Fax Isn’t an “Ad”–Sandusky v. Medco
  11. Federal Criminal “True Threats” Require More Than Negligence–Elonis v. U.S.
  12. Washington Anti-SLAPP Statute Violates Right To Jury Trial–Davis v. Cox

May 2015

  1. Doing Online Reputation Management? Don’t Do It This Way (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Online Magazine Gets Section 230 Protection For Third Party Article–AdvanFort v. International Registries
  3. Can Lawyers Buy Keyword Ads On Each Others’ Names At Google? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Ripoff Report Gets Easy Section 230 Win In Third Circuit–Obado v. Magedson
  5. A Fishy Jurisdiction Ruling Involving Mobile Apps–Tomelleri v. MEDL
  6. California’s Resale Royalty Statute Violates the Dormant Commerce Clause—In Part (Guest Blog Post)
  7. Some Specific Problems With The Proposed Federal Trade Secret Law (Comments From a Reader)
  8. Blogger Isn’t Liable For Anonymous Reader Comments–Mezzacappa v. O’Hare
  9. Burlap Flower Wraps Aren’t Protectable Trade Dress–Farmgirl v. Bloom That
  10. Details on the Celebration of Dr. Gail Schlachter Hauser’s Life (Cross-Post From Personal Blog)
  11. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 8 (Copyright, Media)

April 2015

  1. More Section 230 Cases Than I Can Handle!
  2. LinkedIn’s “Reference Search” Service Doesn’t Violate Fair Credit Reporting Act–Sweet v. LinkedIn
  3. Mixed Ruling in Competitive Keyword Advertising Case–Goldline v. Regal
  4. Europe’s Antitrust Move Against Google: A Linkwrap
  5. Union Isn’t Liable For Members’ Posts To Private Facebook Group–Weigand v. NLRB
  6. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 7 (Consumer Reviews, RTBF, Defamation, Censorship, Sec. 230)
  7. What Bothers Brussels: Geoblocking on the Front Burner of the EU Commission (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 6 (Google, Search Engines, Antitrust)
  9. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 5 (Trademarks, Domain Names, Marketing)
  10. Law Professor Blogger Wins Anti-SLAPP Ruling, But It’s Hard To Celebrate The Win–Welch v. USD
  11. Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails–Infogroup v. DatabaseLLC
  12. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 4 (Potpourri)
  13. Court Might Enforce A Contract Ban On Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 3 (Facebook)
  15. Company’s Social Media Accounts Transferred in Bankruptcy
  16. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 2 (Dating, Sex, Pornography)
  17. Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 1 (Privacy/Security)
  18. Do Employers Own LinkedIn Groups Created By Employees?–CDM v. Sims
  19. A Bibliography About Federal Trade Secret Law Reform (Guest Blog Post)

March 2015

  1. Scribd Must Comply With The Americans With Disabilities Act (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. QVC Can’t Stop Web Scraping–QVC v. Resultly (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. GA Supreme Court Fixes Overbroad Injunction Against Message Board Operator–Chan v. Ellis
  4. Court Rejects Bizarre Attempt To Scrub Consumer Review–Goren v. Ripoff Report
  5. In IMDb Privacy Case, 9th Circuit Rejects Hoang’s Appeal
  6. Morel Denied Attorneys’ Fees In Long-Running Suit Over Photos Lifted From Twitpic
  7. Online Dating App Grindr Isn’t Liable For Underage ‘Threesome’ (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Court Says Uber and Lyft Drivers May be Employees
  9. Theater Employee’s Post-Termination Blogging Isn’t a Matter of “Public Concern”
  10. GoDaddy Gets Important Section 230 Win in Second Circuit–Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456
  11. The Righthaven Debacle, 5 Years Later
  12. It Takes a Default Judgment to Win a 17 USC 512(f) Case–Automattic v. Steiner
  13. Trial Court Doesn’t Unmask Parodist Twitterers
  14. Two Recent Spam Cases Look at Falsification of Origin and Subject Line Claims
  15. Adware Advertiser Sidesteps Liability

February 2015

  1. Which Was Dumber–Trash-Talking Tweeting, Or The Decision To Prosecute For It?
  2. Blogiversary Bonus! A Video Interview About the Blog
  3. The “Browsewrap”/”Clickwrap” Distinction Is Falling Apart
  4. Catching Up on Section 230 Cases From the Past 18 Months
  5. ‘Deactivated’ Facebook Account Is Discoverable In Litigation (Forbes Cross-Post)
  6. Use of Iconic 9-11 Photo in TV Show’s Facebook Stream Not Fair Use
  7. Hoang v. IMDb Argued in the Ninth Circuit
  8. Damages from Competitive Keyword Advertising Are “Vanishingly Small”
  9. Blogiversary Celebration Part 4: How Internet Law and IP Law Have Evolved
  10. More Defendants Win Keyword Advertising Lawsuits
  11. Blogiversary Celebration Part 3: How the Blogosphere Has Evolved
  12. Blogiversary Celebration Part 2: About the Blog’s Impact
  13. Happy 10th Blogiversary! (Blogiversary Celebration Part 1)
  14. No Spam Lawsuit When Plaintiff Asked For The Emails–Beyond v. Kraft
  15. Google Isn’t Liable For Including Unlicensed Locksmiths in Directories–Baldino’s Lock v. Google
  16. Are Facebook Photos More Discoverable In Litigation Than Other Social Media Content? (Forbes Cross-Post)

January 2015

  1. Reports on Expunged Arrest Can’t Be Erased From the Internet–Martin v. Hearst
  2. One Is Not Enough, How Many Is Too Many? How Many Countries’ Copyright Laws Should and Actually Do Apply to Copyright Infringements on the Internet? (Guest Blog Post)
  3. Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2014 (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Lawsuit Fails Over Ridesharing Service’s Disclosures To Its Analytics Service–Garcia v. Zimride
  5. Chicago State University Professors Fight Back Against University’s Efforts To Shut Down Their Blog (Guest Blog Post)
  6. Are Takedowns in 48 Hours “Expeditious” Enough?–Square Ring v. UStream
  7. Court Rejects VPPA Claim Against Viacom and Google Based on Failure to Disclose Identity
  8. Another Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails Badly
  9. Vonage Isn’t Liable For Disclosing ‘Unlisted’ Phone Number
  10. No Personal Jurisdiction Over Nasty Facebook Post–Burdick v. Superior Court
  11. Police Officer’s Facebook Post Criticizing Chief’s Budget Decision Justified Termination–Graziosi v. Greenville
  12. Safeway Can’t Unilaterally Modify Online Terms Without Notice
  13. Another Failed Doctor Lawsuit Against a Patient For Online Reviews–Brandner v. Molonguet
  14. Robert Half Can’t Stop Former Employees From Telling The World Where They Used To Work (Forbes Cross-Post)
  15. Employee Terminated For Ill-Advised Facebook Post Gets Unemployment Benefits
  16. Top 10 Fair Use Cases of 2014 (Guest Blog Post)

2014 205

December 2014

  1. Facebook May be On the Hook for Scanning Private Messages for Links
  2. Tweeted Article About Law Grad’s Suit Over Stalking Investigation Isn’t Defamatory
  3. Criminal Harassment Charges Survive First Amendment Challenge, Even Without The Threat of Personal Injury
  4. Facebook Putdown Leads to Lawsuit Between Sorority Sisters–Grimes v. Saban
  5. Stupid Online Teen Banter Isn’t “Disorderly Conduct”–State v. Nelson
  6. Fair Use Protects Sending Expert Witness’ Resume to Opposing Counsel–Devil’s Advocate v. Zurich Insurance
  7. Appeals Court: Accepting Lawyer’s Prove-me-Wrong Challenge Does not Form a Contract
  8. Will A ‘Cast Of Thousands’ Become A ‘Cast Of Thousands…Of Plaintiffs’? A Preview of Garcia v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
  9. eBay Isn’t Liable for Selling Recalled Merchandise–Hinton v. Amazon
  10. First Amendment Bars School Discipline For Student’s Rap Video About School Coaches
  11. Lawyer Disciplined for Sending Facebook Message to Adverse Party
  12. Legal Blog Faces Defamation Liability for Mischaracterizing Prior Legal Proceedings–Huon v. Above the Law
  13. Bust Up Google? Only If Europe Wants To Make Things Worse (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Appeals Court Affirms Harassment Order Based on Vague Testimony of Indirect Contacts
  15. Section 230 Precludes Injunctive Relief Against Message Boards–Medytox v. InvestorsHub
  16. When Does Social Media Chatter Become Criminal? Previewing The Supreme Court’s ‘Elonis’ Case (Forbes Cross-Post)

November 2014

  1. Creditors Can’t Seize Country Code Top Level Domains
  2. Lawsuit Over User-Posted Celebrity Photos Survives Dismissal–BWP v. Hollywood Fan Sites
  3. Perfect 10 Loses Copyright Suit Against USENET Service Provider–Perfect 10 v. Giganews
  4. PissedConsumer Defeats Preliminary Injunction–Roca v. Consumer Opinion Corp.
  5. Fifth Annual Internet Law Work-in-Progress Conference: Initial Participant List
  6. LinkedIn Can’t Shake Publicity Rights Claims Based on Reminder Emails
  7. Bleg: Help Us Prepare For the Blog’s 10 Year Blogiversary
  8. Bad Idea: Overdisclosing People’s Positive STD Status–Doe v. Successfulmatch
  9. Are Parents Liable For Their Children’s Online Pranks?–Boston v. Athearn
  10. Manuel Noriega Loses Right of Publicity Suit Against Activision (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Duplicitous Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuits–Fareportal v. LBF (& Vice-Versa)
  12. California Anti-Spam Law Doesn’t Require Sender’s Name In The ‘From’ Line or Domain Name
  13. Another Messy Employee-Employer Dispute Over Facebook Page Ownership
  14. Venue Clause in YouTube Terms of Service Upheld–Song Fi v. Google
  15. Instagramming For Freebies? Those Photos Are Ads…To The FTC (Forbes Cross-Post)

October 2014

  1. Equivocal Email Exchanges Don’t Transfer Copyright Ownership
  2. Hertz Faces Negligence Suit For Employee’s Facebook Bashing of a Customer–Howard v. Hertz
  3. The New U.K. Online Gambling Law: Cyberlaw 3.0 – or a Return to Cyberlaw 2.0? (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Food Flavor Can’t Be Trademarked (Even If The Baked Ziti Is Delicious)–NY Pizzeria v. Syal (Forbes Cross-Post)
  5. Android ID Isn’t Personally Identifiable Information Under the Video Privacy Protection Act
  6. Court Rejects Argument That ECPA Does not Apply to Spousal Interception of Email–LaRocca v. LaRocca
  7. Congress Is Considering A New Federal Trade Secret Law. Why? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. When Does Online Criticism Become “Stalking”?–Ellis v. Chan
  9. Q3 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Content Regulation)
  10. Call for Papers/Participation, 5th Annual Internet Law Work-in-Progress Conference, SCU, March 7, 2015
  11. Shopkick Unable to Shake Text Spam Complaint — Huricks v. Shopkick
  12. Q3 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (RTBF, Reviews, IP & More)
  13. Lawsuit Against Adware Vendor Fails–Halperin v. Text Enhance
  14. A Seismic Ruling On Pre-1972 Sound Recordings and State Copyright Law–Flo & Eddie v. Sirius XM Radio (Guest Blog Post)

September 2014

  1. Washington State Supreme Court Hears an Interesting Privacy Case: Dillon v. Seattle Deposition Reporters
  2. Congress May Crack Down On Businesses’ Efforts To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Trademark Owners Just Can’t Win Keyword Advertising Cases–EarthCam v. OxBlue
  4. NLRB Invalidates Employer’s Blogging Policy And Reverses Firing Based On Facebook Posts
  5. Jointly Editable Online Document Doesn’t Provide Evidence of Contract Formation–Turner v. Temptu
  6. The GOOGLE Mark Isn’t Generic–Elliott v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
  7. LiveJournal Wins 512(c) Safe Harbor Ruling For Celebrity Gossip Blog–Mavrix v. LiveJournal
  8. 9th Circuit Creates Problematic “Failure To Warn” Exception to Section 230 Immunity–Doe 14 v. Internet Brands
  9. Employer Isn’t Liable When Former Employee Linked His Apple Accounts To Its Devices–Sunbelt v. Victor
  10. Urban Outfitters’ Kent State T-Shirt Was Offensive But Probably Legal (Guest Blog Post)
  11. Texas Supreme Court Limits Reach of Pre-suit Discovery (Guest Blog Post)
  12. California Tells Businesses: Stop Trying To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
  13. Ninth Circuit Says Yelp Doesn’t Extort Businesses–Levitt v. Yelp (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Internet Law Professors Ask California Supreme Court To Review Pharmaceutical Liability Case
  15. When Is It Appropriate To Monitor An Ex-Spouse’s Email Account? Never
  16. Lock Manufacturer Onity Had Only One Job, But Isn’t Liable For Failing To Do It Well (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Court Denies AFP/Getty Bid to Set Aside Morel Copyright Verdict
  18. Blogspot Gets Section 230 Win In 11th Circuit–Dowbenko v. Google
  19. Section 230 Applies to Amazon Book Reviews–Joseph v. Amazon

August 2014

  1. Lawsuit Against Google Over In-App Purchases By Minors Squeaks Past Motion to Dismiss
  2. Online Marketplaces Facilitating Gun Sales Don’t Kill People. People Kill People (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Judge Koh Dismisses the Bulk of the Yahoo Email Scanning Class Action
  4. It’s Not Possible To Steal Facebook ‘Likes’–Mattocks v. BET
  5. Primer on European Union’s Right To Be Forgotten (Excerpt from My Internet Law Casebook) + Bonus Linkwrap
  6. New Copyright Office Compendium Discussion About Designating Sec. 512 Agents
  7. What’s a Browsewrap? The Ninth Circuit Sure Doesn’t Know–Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble
  8. Announcing the Second Edition of “Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases and Materials” by Tushnet & Goldman
  9. Copying Blogger’s Posts In Disciplinary Proceeding Is Fair Use–Denison v. Larkin
  10. Fictional Software Brand In ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Movie Doesn’t Infringe Real-Life Software Brand–Fortres Grand v. Warner Bros.
  11. Fair Use Likely Protects Discussion of Blog Post and Comments
  12. Brazil’s Internet Bill of Rights Compared to Section 230 (Excerpt from My Internet Law Casebook)
  13. Fining Customers For Negative Online Reviews Isn’t New…Or Smart (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Conviction for Posting Pages From Teenager’s Diary Via Mail and Facebook Partially Reversed
  15. Does Yelp Have The ‘Most Trusted Reviews’? A Court Wants To Know More (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. 2014 Internet Law Casebook and Syllabus Now Available
  17. Employee’s Discrimination Claim Can’t be Salvaged by Coworker’s Allegedly Inappropriate Facebook Post — Brown v Tyson Foods
  18. When Is It Appropriate For Teachers To Call Students “Rat-Like” or “Dunderheads” in a Pseudonymous Blog? Never.

July 2014

  1. ‘Silk Road’ Ruling Will Hurt Online Commerce (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Minors’ Privacy Claims Against Viacom and Google Over Disclosure of Video Viewing Habits Dismissed
  3. Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 4 (Content Regulation, Prostitution & More)
  4. Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Marketing, E-Commerce & More)
  5. Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 2 (Consumer Reviews, Defamation & More)
  6. Lawsuit Over Google’s Unified Privacy Policy Pared Down, But Two Claims Survive
  7. Q2 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
  8. Another Blogger Wins a Fair Use Defense For a Photo–Leveyfilm v. Fox Sports
  9. TCPA Claim Against Taco Bell Fails For Lack of Agency
  10. Textbooks For An “Intellectual Property For Engineers” Course
  11. Lawyer’s Suit Over “Professional Recognition” Spam Flops
  12. First Amendment Precludes Disorderly Conduct Conviction for Ranting on Police Department Facebook Page
  13. Four Unanswered Questions From Aereo’s Supreme Court Loss (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. Republishing Litigation Brief Is Fair Use–White v. Westlaw
  15. Want To Encourage Gossipy Content Online? Go For It–Jones v. TheDirty (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Criminal Cyberbullying Statute Violates First Amendment–New York v. Marquan
  17. 23andMe’s Browsewrap Fails, But Its Post-Purchase Clickthrough Works Anyway–Tompkins v. 23andMe
  18. Are We Going To See An Explosion Of Food Labeling Lawsuits?–POM v. Coca-Cola (Forbes Cross-Post)

June 2014

  1. Stalking Conviction For Friending a Prosecutor’s Facebook Friends?–State v. Moller
  2. Griping Blogger Can Show Photo Of Griping Target–Katz v. Chevaldina
  3. Bad Idea: Shaming An Employee On Facebook For Health Issues–Shoun v. Best Formed Plastics
  4. The Supreme Court’s Riley Decision Won’t Change Much In The Field (Guest Blog Post)
  5. Section 230 Immunizes Website For Super-User’s Doxxing–Internet Brands v. Jape
  6. Another Section 230 Win For Ripoff Report–Torati v. Hodak
  7. Software Manufacturer Denied Section 230 Immunity–Hardin v. PDX
  8. More Proof That Facebook Isn’t The Right Place To Bitch About Your Job–Talbot v. Desert View
  9. Email Harvesting: Repeated Emails From LinkedIn May Violate Publicity Rights
  10. EFF Pub Trivia Night Recap
  11. Facebook Gets Easy Section 230 Win in DC Circuit–Klayman v. Facebook
  12. Plastic Surgeon’s “Before & After” Photos Violate NY Publicity Rights–Manzione v. Mashkevich
  13. Texas Appellate Court Erases Court Order To Erase Google Search Results
  14. Revenge Porn/Cyberstalking Conviction Doesn’t Violate First Amendment–US v. Osinger
  15. Path May Be Liable for Text-Spamming Users’ Contact Lists
  16. Police Officers Aren’t Liable For Investigating Cyberstalking and Revenge Porn–Keaton v. Hannum
  17. CAN-SPAM Preemption Doesn’t Apply To Fraud…And More
  18. [Ad] New Publication Announcement: Data Protection Law Reporter
  19. How The DMCA’s Online Copyright Safe Harbor Failed

May 2014

  1. The Spectacular Failure of Employee Social Media Privacy Laws
  2. Want To Scrub Google Search Results In The US? Tough–O’Kroley v. Fastcase
  3. Hulu Unable to Shake Video Privacy Protection Act Claims
  4. College Review Website Ordered To Pay $1M For Users’ Disparaging Reviews–Neumont University v. Little Bizzy
  5. Disclosing Unique User IDs In URLs Doesn’t Violate ECPA–In re Zynga/Facebook
  6. Facebook Post Isn’t Good Reason To Remove Attorney From Probate Court Case Assignment List
  7. Grieving Parents Can’t Sue Topix Website For Son’s Oxy Overdose (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Fair Use Protects Video Republication To Demonstrate Speaker’s Inconsistent Statements–Caner v. Autry
  9. Don’t Roll The Dice On Defamation Suits Against Gripe Sites, Especially In California–Ocean’s Eleven v. Anders
  10. IP Expert Brian Love to Become Co-Director of SCU Law’s High Tech Law Institute (Cross-Post)
  11. Apple May Be Liable For Privacy Violations by Third Party Developed Apps
  12. Advertiser May Have Claims Against SEO Firm Using Undisclosed Spammy Practices
  13. Dead Sea Scrolls Impersonation Case Convictions Partially Affirmed
  14. Linking to Defamatory Content Protected by Section 230—Vazquez v. Buhl
  15. Privacy Claims Based on LinkedIn’s Security Promises Survive Motion to Dismiss
  16. Yelp Wins Another Section 230 Case–Kimzey v. Yelp
  17. Conviction for Cyberstalking & Revenge Porn Survives First Amendment Challenge
  18. California Moving To Protect Consumer Reviews–AB 2365 (Forbes Cross-Post)
  19. Another Attempt to Scrub Unflattering Posts Fails
  20. Keyword Advertising Doesn’t Create General Jurisdiction–Rocke v. Pebble Beach
  21. ‘Flash Sale’ Website Defeats Class Action Claim With Mandatory Arbitration Clause–Starke v. Gilt

April 2014

  1. A ‘Juicy’ Supreme Court Case On Food Labeling Regulation–Pom Wonderful v. Coca-Cola (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Defendant Gets Attorneys’ Fees For ‘Frivolous’ DMCA Copyright Management Information Claim
  3. Another Questionable IP Lawsuit Over a Derogatory Twitter Account
  4. Siblings Use Publicity Rights To Try To Block Sister From Blogging About Mom–In re Reynolds
  5. How To Get Your Clickthrough Agreement Enforced In Court–Moretti v. Hertz
  6. Minnesota Supreme Court Reverses Conviction for Assisting Suicide Online
  7. Q1 2014 Quick Links, Part 2
  8. Q1 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
  9. Ripoff Report’s Latest Section 230 Win–Seldon v. Magedson
  10. Some Thoughts On General Mills’ Move To Mandate Arbitration And Waive Class Actions
  11. Revenge Porn Is Bad, But It’s Not GoDaddy’s Fault (Forbes Cross-Post)
  12. Google, Yahoo and Amazon Beat Defamation Claims–Kabbaj v. Google
  13. Internet Law Professors File Amicus Brief in ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Case–Garcia v. Google
  14. Twibel Ruling: Tweeting That Someone is “Fucking Crazy” is Not Defamatory
  15. Court Lauds Blogs “As A Means Of Free Dissemination Of News And Public Comment”–Comins v. Vanvoorhis
  16. Of Course The First Amendment Protects Baidu’s Search Engine, Even When It Censors Pro-Democracy Results (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Xcentric Ventures Chips Away at Small Justice’s Copyright Workaround to Section 230
  18. Employer Gets Section 230 Immunity For Employee’s Posts–Miller v. FedEx
  19. Court Rules That Kids Can Be Bound By Facebook’s Member Agreement
  20. Supreme Court Changes False Advertising Law Across the Country (Forbes Cross-Post)
  21. Ninth Circuit Rejects Plaintiffs’ Bad Misreadings of eBay’s User Agreement–Block v. eBay

March 2014

  1. IP Battle Between Jumpy House Manufacturers Isn’t Bounced – WhatRU Holding v. Bouncing Angels
  2. Yahoo! Scores Significant Win in Email-to-SMS Lawsuit
  3. Court Spoils “Banana Lady’s” Appeal Over Online Recordings of Her Act
  4. Android and Pandora Privacy Rulings Accept Low Hurdle for Standing
  5. 47 USC 230’s Legislative History
  6. Another Reason Not To Let People Borrow Your Cellphone–Olsen v. Henderson
  7. Epinions, The Path-Breaking Website, Is Dead. Some Lessons It Taught Us (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. CafePress May Not Qualify For 512 Safe Harbor – Gardner v. CafePress
  9. Court Blesses Instagram’s Right to Unilaterally Amend Its User Agreement–Rodriguez v. Instagram
  10. Employer Who Takes Over Employee’s Social Media Accounts May Commit Privacy Violation–Maremont v Susan Fredman Design
  11. Talk on Why State Legislatures Shouldn’t Regulate Internet Privacy
  12. Daughter’s Celebratory Facebook Post Really “Sucked”–Gulliver Schools v. Snay

February 2014

  1. In Its “Innocence of Muslims” Ruling, the Ninth Circuit is Guilty of Judicial Activism–Garcia v. Google
  2. My Wife Has Lung Cancer. Read Her Story
  3. Ninth Circuit Turns Out The Lights on California ‘Shine the Light’ Case
  4. Revenge Porn Prosecution Stumbles In New York
  5. Revenge Porn Threat Justified Injunction
  6. TCPA Claim Over Yahoo!’s IM to SMS Messaging Survives Summary Judgment
  7. More Intellectual Property Trivia Questions (The Outtakes)
  8. How Well Do You Know IP Trivia? Let’s Find Out
  9. Law Student Can’t Enforce Defense Lawyer’s “Prove-Me-Wrong” Promise in TV Interview
  10. Demoting Police Officer for Posting Confederate Flag to Facebook Isn’t First Amendment Violation
  11. Court Declines to Review LRO to [.delmonte], Saying gTLDs Aren’t ‘Domain Names’ for Cybersquatting Purposes
  12. 9th Circuit Says Plaintiff Had Standing to Sue Spokeo for Fair Credit Reporting Violations
  13. Teacher’s Semi-Racy Facebook Photo Doesn’t Justify Firing – In re Laraine Cook
  14. H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 5 (Miscellaneous)

January 2014

  1. Vague Takedown Notice Targeting Facebook Page Results in Possible Liability–CrossFit v. Alvies
  2. H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Advertising, E-Commerce)
  3. H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 3 (Content Regulation)
  4. Sony PlayStation Data Breach Lawsuit Whittled Down but Moves Forward
  5. H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 2 (Privacy, Search Engines)
  6. H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
  7. The Sochi Olympics and European Answers to Cross-Border Copyright Questions (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Copyright Suit Over Second Life Terraforming Survives Summary Judgment, Then Settles — FireSabre v. Linden
  9. Two Student Threat Cases Illustrate Gross Disparity in Treatment of Student Speech
  10. 9th Circuit Issues a Blogger-Friendly First Amendment Opinion–Obsidian Finance v. Cox
  11. Federal Court in Virginia Court Says Domain Names Are Not Property, But Contractual Rights
  12. Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013 (Forbes Cross-Post)
  13. Nurse Properly Fired and Denied Unemployment Due to Facebook Rant
  14. Is Sacramento The World’s Capital of Internet Privacy Regulation? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  15. Is It Software? Is It a Service? It Matters for Trademark Registration Purposes
  16. Protip: Don’t Send Emails Threatening to “Inflict the Maximum Amount of Financial Pain” Allowed By Law
  17. Details About Amazon’s Confidential Settlement Terms For A Keyword Advertising Lawsuit (Forbes Cross-Post)
  18. Video Privacy Protection Act Plaintiffs Can Proceed Against Hulu Absent Showing of Actual Injury

2013 246

December 2013

  1. Company That Facilitates Digital Access to Public Records Uses CFAA to Block Scraper
  2. Florida Drops Ill-Conceived Proposal To Ban Competitive Keyword Advertising By Lawyers (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Minors’ Suit Over Facebook Credits Continues – I.B. v. Facebook
  4. AAUP Says Kansas Regents’ New Faculty Social Media Use Policy Violates Academic Freedom (Guest Blog Post)
  5. Court Won’t Order Google To Lift Manual Block For ‘Thin Content’–ICF v. Google
  6. National Advertising Division (NAD) Doesn’t Consider Section 230 Defenses
  7. Court Accepts Narrow View of CAN-SPAM Preemption but Ultimately Dismisses Claims – Davison Design v. Riley
  8. Revenge Porn Plot Leads To Criminal Conviction–New York v. Piznarski (Forbes Cross-Post)
  9. Should We Cheer The California Attorney General’s Revenge Porn Arrest–Or Find It Alarming? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Prosecutor Makes Ill-Advised Tweets During Criminal Case–State v. Polk
  11. SPEECH Act Defendant Gets $48,000 In Attorneys’ Fees–Trout Point Lodge Ltd. v. Handshoe
  12. Police Officer’s Facebook Post Criticizing Her Boss Isn’t Protected Speech–Graziosi v. Greenville
  13. My Testimony on California’s Efforts to Regulate Internet Privacy
  14. Facebook Complaints About Boss’s Creepy Hands Can’t Salvage Retaliation/Harassment Claims
  15. How Doctors Should Respond To Negative Online Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Should TheDirty Website Be Liable For Encouraging Users To Gossip? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Ill-Advised Student YouTube Video Leads to Conviction For Misusing Computerized Communication System–In re Kaleb K.
  18. Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed–Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo
  19. Ninth Circuit Kills Contributory ACPA Cybersquatting Doctrine–Petronas v. GoDaddy
  20. California Assembly Hearing, “Balancing Privacy and Opportunity in the Internet Age,” SCU, Dec. 12
  21. Google Gets Dismissal of Lawsuit Over Privacy Policy Integration–In re Google Privacy Policy
  22. Why Google’s Fair Use Victory In Google Books Suit Is A Big Deal–And Why It Isn’t (Forbes Cross-Post)
  23. Previewing Lexmark vs Static Control, A Rare Supreme Court Case On False Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)
  24. Privacy Plaintiffs Lose Because They Didn’t Rely on Apple’s Privacy Representations — In re iPhone App Litigation

November 2013

  1. It’s Illegal For Offline Retailers To Collect Email Addresses–Capp v. Nordstrom
  2. Facebook Rant Against ‘Arial’ Font Helps Reverse Sex Offender Determination
  3. AFP & Getty’s Republication of Twitter/Twitpic-Sourced Photos Turns Out to Be Costly – AFP v. Morel
  4. WhitePages Gets Its Inevitable Section 230 Win–Nasser v. WhitePages
  5. Google’s Forum-Selection Clause Upheld Again–Rudgayzer v. Google
  6. Did Monster Energy Make A ‘Dope’ Contract With DJ Z-Trip? Nope (Forbes Cross-Post)
  7. Another Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Unceremoniously Dismissed–Infostream v. Avid
  8. Fake LinkedIn Profile May Cause Trademark Infringement – Avepoint v. Axceler
  9. Employee Termination Based on Mistaken Belief of Facebook Post Authorship Upheld — Smizer v. Community Mennonite Early Learning Ctr.
  10. AFP v. Morel – Lawsuit Over Haiti Photos Taken From Twitter/Twitpic Goes to Trial
  11. Video of the Patent Opera Is Now Online!
  12. Social Worker’s Facebook Rant Justified Termination — Shepherd v. McGee
  13. Think Hoarding Passwords Keeps You Safe From Firing? Think Again (Forbes Cross-Post)
  14. “Wiggin Out” Over a Wig Purchase Dispute Leads to Online Defamation – Sanders v. Walsh
  15. Lawsuit Over Google Hangouts Gutted–Be In v. Google
  16. Section 230 Protects Another Newspaper From Liability For User Comments–Hupp v. Freedom Communications
  17. “Does the U.S. Patent System Stifle Innovation” Notes
  18. Police Officers Lean on School to Fire Social Worker for Facebook Post–and May Have Violated First Amendment
  19. No One Owns The Number ‘3.95%’ (We Think)–Banxcorp v. Costco (Forbes Cross-Post)
  20. Sexting a Minor Isn’t a Crime in Texas

October 2013

  1. Google Wins Cookie Privacy Lawsuit
  2. Want To Avoid Defaming Someone Online? Link To Your Sources (Forbes Cross-Post)
  3. Landlord May Be Liable When A Tenant’s Facebook Harassment Leads To A Rape (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Police Officer’s Facebook Venting Isn’t Protected By The First Amendment–Gresham v. Atlanta
  5. Check Out the New Blog Design!
  6. Some Exciting Changes to the Blog–PLEASE READ
  7. California’s New Law Shows It’s Not Easy To Regulate Revenge Porn (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. CFP: Fourth Internet Law Work-in-Progress Symposium, NYC, March 8, 2014
  9. How California’s New ‘Do-Not-Track’ Law Will Hurt Consumers (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Regional Trademark Owner Can’t Block Junior User’s Internet Presence–Dudley v. HealthSource (Catch-up Post)
  11. Social Media Rant Against Airline Employee Wasn’t Defamatory But May Be False Light–Patterson v. Grant-Herms
  12. Organizing an “Internet Safety” Presentation? Don’t Troll Through Students’ Facebook Accounts Looking for Bikini Photos
  13. Presentation About the Problems of Online Trespass to Chattels
  14. California’s Latest Effort To Keep Some Ads From Reaching Kids Is Misguided And Unconstitutional (Forbes Cross-Post)
  15. Calling Out Scraper for “Stealing” Data Is Not Defamatory – Tamburo v. Dworkin
  16. California’s New ‘Online Eraser’ Law Should Be Erased (Forbes Cross-Post)

September 2013

  1. Wiretap Claims Against Gmail Scanning Survive Motion to Dismiss — In re: Google Inc. Gmail Litigation
  2. Creating Parody Social Media Accounts Doesn’t Violate Computer Fraud & Abuse Act – Matot v. CH
  3. Call for Papers: WIPIP, Santa Clara University, Feb. 7-8, 2014
  4. eBay Not Liable for Technical Glitch When Seller Doesn’t Set Reserve Price — D’Agostino v. eBay
  5. Court Upholds Doocing For Snarky Facebook Post — Rodriquez v. Wal-Mart
  6. Craigslist Wins Routine But Troubling Online Trespass to Chattels Ruling in 3Taps Case (Catch-up Post)
  7. Gossip Site That Uses Misidentified Photo May Be Liable for Publicity Rights Violation — Edme v. Internet Brands
  8. Is There Any Way to Cure An “Accidental” Download of Child Pornography?
  9. The First Amendment Protects Facebook “Likes” – Bland v. Roberts
  10. Spam Arrest’s Sender Agreement Fails Because Email Marketer’s Employees Lacked Authority–Spam Arrest v. Replacements (Forbes Cross-Post)
  11. Another Case Involving School Discipline for a Violent Post on a Social Networking Site — Wynar v. Douglas County School Dist.
  12. Big Victory In Effort To Curb Libel Tourism–Trout Point Lodge v. Handshoe (Forbes Cross-Post)
  13. High Schooler’s Facebook Post Can Constitute the Crime of Menacing – In re P.T.
  14. Facebook Sponsored Stories Settlement Approved – Fraley v. Facebook
  15. Email Exchange Creates Binding Settlement Agreement Per UETA–Forcelli v. Gelco
  16. When Should Search Engines Ignore Court Orders To Remove Search Results? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Effort to Game Website User Agreement Rules Fails -– Traton News v. Traton Corp.
  18. Sending a “DTF?” Text Message Supports Restraining Order — Finigan v. Weinberg
  19. Yelp Gets Another Anti-SLAPP Victory in Lawsuit Over Consumer Review—Bernath v. Tabitha J.

August 2013

  1. TripAdvisor’s “Dirtiest Hotels” List Isn’t Defamatory—Seaton v. TripAdvisor
  2. Telephone Consumer Protection Act Case Update – Summer 2013 Edition
  3. App Stores Aren’t Liable For Third Party Apps–Evans v. HP (Forbes Cross-Post)
  4. Supervisor’s Post-Termination Access of Employee’s Gmail Account May Violate ECPA – Lazette v. Kulmatycki
  5. Another Federal Court Rejects Service of Process via Facebook – Joe Hand Promotions v. Shepard
  6. Blasting Your Landlord Online? Pick Your Words Wisely (Forbes Cross-Post)
  7. Employee’s Privacy Claim Based on Allegedly Improper Access to Facebook Post Fails — Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hosp.
  8. Another Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails–Allied Interstate v. Kimmel & Silverman
  9. Another Judge Declines to Dismiss Claims Against Apple over App Privacy Practices — Pirozzi v. Apple
  10. Another Spam Litigation Factory Unravels –- Beyond Systems v. Kraft
  11. 2013 Internet Law Syllabus and Casebook Now Online
  12. Perfect 10 Can’t Sue Yandex for Out-of-Country Activity (Catch-up Post)
  13. Federal Court Doesn’t ‘Like” Service of Process via Facebook — Joe Hand Proms. v. Carrette
  14. Emotional Distress Claim Doesn’t Support Fishing Expedition for Social Media Evidence
  15. More Evidence That Competitive Keyword Advertising Benefits Trademark Owners (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Rationalizing (?) the Hart and Keller v. EA Sports Publicity Rights Rulings (Guest Blog Post)
  17. Gun Classified Ads Website Isn’t Liable for Murder–Vesely v. Armslist
  18. Facebook Posting That Someone Has Herpes Is Criminal Harassment–Pennsylvania v. Cox
  19. The Latest Attempt to Use Copyright Law to Remove Negative Consumer Reviews–Small Justice v. Xcentric (Forbes Cross-Post)

July 2013

  1. Book Review: “The Little Book of Foodie Law”
  2. Breach of Data Retention Policy Doesn’t Create Actionable Injury – Burton v. Time Warner (Catch-up Post)
  3. Multiple Listing Service Gets Favorable Appellate Ruling in Scraping Lawsuit
  4. YouTube Gets Easy Section 230 Win–Gavra v Google
  5. Recap of Stanford E-Commerce Conference Panel on Takedown Notices
  6. Book Review: “Mail-Order Mysteries: Real Stuff from Old Comic Book Ads”
  7. Online Retailer Pays Minimum Damages When Taken Down Item Inadvertently Returns–Rosen v. Netfronts
  8. JDate Member Agreement Upheld–Zaltz v. JDate (Forbes Cross-Post)
  9. Tenth Circuit Kills the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine–1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com
  10. Think You Want To Be Told About Product Placements In Movies? Think Again (Forbes Cross-Post)
  11. University May Be Liable for Improper Access to Student’s Facebook Photos – Rodriguez v. Widener Univ.
  12. Dentist’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Yelp Preempted by Section 230–Braverman v. Yelp
  13. Book Review: “Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein”
  14. Employee Can’t Be Fired When His Login Credentials Are Used on Shared Computer to Access Porn — DOH v. Litten
  15. Catching Up on 512 Safe Harbor Cases (and Other Online Copyright Cases) From the Past Year
  16. Will The FTC’s Crackdown On Search Ad Disclosures Hurt Google’s Revenues? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Judges’ Facebook Friendships Insufficient for Recusal .. Again
  18. Crass and Offensive Tweets by Student May not Justify Suspension — Rosario v. Clark County School Dist.
  19. Some 47 USC 230 Cases From the Past Year You Might Have Missed (Because I Didn’t Blog Them)
  20. Essay Explaining Why 47 USC 230 Should Immunize State Crimes

June 2013

  1. After “Bellwether Trial,” Court Says Malibu Media Isn’t Copyright Troll – Malibu Media v. Does
  2. “Heisman Pose” Photographer’s Lawsuit Whittled Down–Masck v. Sports Illustrated
  3. Freelancer Loses Copyright Claims Against Licensee Who Posted Photos to Facebook – Davis v. Tampa Bay Arena
  4. No New Trials When Jurors Haven’t Adequately Disclosed Facebook Friendships
  5. Why Craigslist’s ‘Casual Encounters’ Is A Bad Spot To Catch Predators (Forbes Cross-Post)
  6. H1 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Miscellaneous)
  7. H1 2013 Quick Links, Part 3 (Social Media and Content Regulation)
  8. H1 2013 Quick Links, Part 2 (Privacy, Search Engines)
  9. H1 2013 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
  10. “FTC Regulation of Social Media” Talk Slides and Recording
  11. Independent Contractor Relationship Between Sender and Advertiser Dooms Spam Claims – Kramer v. NCS
  12. Facebook Posting of Criminal Trial’s Witness List Isn’t a “True Threat”–US v. Amaya
  13. Warranty Disclaimer in PC TuneUp’s EULA Fails — Rottner v. AVG
  14. Online Dating Websites Aren’t Required To Warn That Some Members May Be Murderers (Forbes Cross-Post)
  15. CAN-SPAM Violations For Private WHOIS Information and Putting Disclosures in Remotely Served Images – ZooBuh v. Better Broadcasting
  16. Craigslist’s Anti-Consumer Lawsuit Threatens to Break Internet Law–Craigslist v. 3Taps/Padmapper (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Vermont Enacts The Nation’s First Anti-Patent Trolling Law (Forbes Cross-Post)

May 2013

  1. Second Circuit Summarily Affirms 512(c) Dismissal–Obodai v. Cracked
  2. Year-in-Review Talk on Online Marketing Issues
  3. Overly Cautious Judge Allows Discovery Before Resolving Section 230 Dismissal–Nasser v. WhitePages
  4. Court Denies Restraining Order Against Ex-Boyfriend Who Threatened to Post Revenge Porn — EC v. CBT
  5. Talk on Designing Optimal Safe Harbors and Immunities
  6. Google Crushes Home Decor Center’s Trademark Challenge to AdWords
  7. Suing Over Keyword Advertising Is A Bad Business Decision For Trademark Owners–General Steel v. Chumley (Forbes Cross-Post)
  8. Judge’s Facebook Friendship With Victim’s Parent Does not Taint Proceeding — Youkers v. Texas
  9. UK’s New Defamation Law May Accelerate the Death of Anonymous User-Generated Content Internationally (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. Perfect 10 Gets a Surprising Partial Sumary Judgment in 512 Case–Perfect 10 v. Yandex
  11. Copyright Trolling Is Really Hard to Do Profitably–Righthaven v. Hoehn
  12. Yahoo’s User Agreement Fails in Battle Over Dead User’s Email Account–Ajemian v. Yahoo
  13. Suing Like It’s 2009: Parts.com Sues Google and Yahoo for Keyword Advertising
  14. Crazy SOPA-Like Attempt to Hold International Banks Liable for Pharmacy Spam Fails on Jurisdiction Grounds–Unspam v. Chernuk
  15. Assessing Winners and Losers in Google’s Worldwide Antitrust Battles (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Recap of Washington State’s Employer Social Media Password Bill
  17. More Evidence That Congress Misaligned the DMCA Online Copyright Safe Harbors–UMG v. Grooveshark (Forbes Cross-Post)

April 2013

  1. Differences Between Consumer Surveys for Trademark Cases and False Advertising Cases
  2. Typosquatting Claims Against Security Researcher Are Legally Complicated – Gioconda v. Kenzie
  3. Nosal Convicted of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Crime Despite His Ninth Circuit Win – US v. Nosal
  4. Misguided Catfishing Scheme Leads to Discipline of College Students — Zimmerman v. Ball State
  5. You Shouldn’t Need a Copyright Lawyer to Pick a Dentist–Lee v. Makhnevich (Forbes Cross-Post)
  6. Talk Slides on Section 230, Anti-SLAPP Laws and Housing Anti-Discrimination
  7. Viacom Loses Again–Viacom v. YouTube
  8. Cynthia Moreno Guest Lecture to My Internet Law Course
  9. Why You’ll Soon Be Paying Sales Taxes on All of Your Internet Purchases–Amazon v. NY Taxation Department (Forbes Cross-Post)
  10. No Claim Based on Perez Hilton’s Publication of Unsolicited but Inflammatory Reader Email – Wargo v. Lavandeira
  11. Designing Optimal Immunities and Safe Harbors (Forbes Cross-Post)
  12. Another 512(f) Claim Fails–Tuteur v. Crosley-Corcoran
  13. Privacy on Trial: Reflections on Hoang v. IMDb
  14. Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss–Elcometer v. TCQ-USA
  15. New Entrepreneur’s Law Clinic and Director Announced at Santa Clara University School of Law [SCU Press Release]
  16. Accessing Ex-girlfriend’s MySpace Account and Posting Offensive Content Results in Conviction
  17. Google Immunized for Its Search Results–Mmubango v. Google (Catch-up Post)
  18. A Judge Hopes Mark Zuckerberg Enjoys His Money Because “He’s Going to Hurt a Lot of People”–US v. Culver
  19. First Sale Doctrine Doesn’t Allow Resale of Digital Songs – Capitol Records v. ReDigi
  20. Online Trespass to Chattels Needs Structural Reform (Forbes Cross-Post)
  21. Product Review Website Defeats Trademark Claims–Boarding School Review v. Delta Career Education
  22. More Confirmation That Google Has Won the AdWords Trademark Battles Worldwide (Forbes Cross-Post)

March 2013

  1. Facebook Password Exchange Between Parties to Litigation Results in Spoliation Debacle – Gatto v. United Airlines
  2. FTC Warns Nordstrom Over Tweetup Freebies
  3. Why Google’s Commitment Letter to the FTC Isn’t Commercial Speech (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Judge Boots Privacy Lawsuit Against Pandora but Plaintiffs Can Replead – Yunker v. Pandora
  5. Ex-Lover Can Use Non-Disparagement Provision to Suppress Revenge Porn–Walls v. Klein
  6. The Supreme Court’s Kirtsaeng Ruling Is Good News for Consumers, but the First Sale Doctrine Is Still Doomed–Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley (Forbes Cross-Post)
  7. Minnesota’s Proposed Anti-Trademark Bullying Statute Misses the Mark (Guest Blog Post)
  8. Linkwrap of Google’s Antitrust Deal With the FTC
  9. First Amendment Protects Online Republication of Court Records–Nieman v. VersusLaw
  10. N.Y. Yankees Block Clothing Manufacturer’s “Baseball’s Evil Empire” Trademark Registration (Catch-Up Post)
  11. Another Credit Card Breach Lawsuit Fails – Willingham v. Global Payments
  12. Griping Blogger Protected by Fair Use But Not Section 230–Ascend Health v. Wells
  13. Book Recommendation: “Trademark and Deceptive Advertising Surveys”
  14. IMDB’s Disclosure of Actress’s Age Will Go To Trial – Hoang v. Amazon
  15. It’s Legally Okay if Google Thinks Your Name and Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Have Something to Do With Each Other (Forbes Cross-Post)
  16. Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Software Company Liable for Surveillance Conducted by Its Customer – Luis v. Zang
  17. Ex-Employer’s Hijacking of a LinkedIn Account Is a Publicity Rights Violation–Eagle v. Morgan
  18. “Regulation of Social Media and Mobile Media” Talk Slides
  19. Family Law Judge Discounts Tweets That Threatened Children and Discussed Alcohol Use – R.M. v. D.Z.
  20. Court Dismisses Data Breach Lawsuit Against LinkedIn Based on Compromised Passwords – In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation
  21. Amazon’s Merchandising of Its Search Results Doesn’t Violate Trademark Law (Forbes Cross-Post)

February 2013

  1. Buying Keyword Ads on People’s Names Doesn’t Violate Their Publicity Rights–Habush v. Cannon (Forbes Cross-Post)
  2. Employer Fails to State Stored Communications Act Claims Absent Allegations That Employees Interfered With Company Accounts – Castle Megastore v. Wilson
  3. Resetting One of the Longest Running Cyberbullying Cases–DC v. RR (Guest Blog Post)
  4. Lindsay Lohan Loses Publicity Rights Claim Against Pitbull Over Song Lyrics–Lohan v. Perez
  5. Building Owner Can’t Discover the Identity of Tenant Who Writes Bashing Yelp Review (Forbes Cross-Post)
  6. Before Graduated Response, There Was BSA’s “Define the Line” Program. What Happened to It? (Guest Blog Post)
  7. Telephone Consumer Protection Act Case Update – February 2013 Edition
  8. With Its Australian Court Victory, Google Moves Closer to Legitimizing Keyword Advertising Globally (Forbes Cross-Post)
  9. Facebook Posts and Twitter Invites Don’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause — Pre-Paid Legal v. Cahill
  10. Another Google AdWords Advertiser Avoids Trademark Liability–Whipple v. Brigman
  11. “Heisman Pose” Photographer Sues for Copyright Infringement – Masck v. Sports Illustrated, et al.
  12. Revisiting the Ninth Circuit’s 1979 AMF v. Sleekcraft Case Post-Remand (Guest Blog Post)
  13. Israeli Court Says Full-Text RSS Feeds Create an Implied Copyright License (Guest Blog Post)
  14. Facebook Entry and Blog Post May Support Retaliation Claim – Stewart v. CUS Nashville
  15. Territorial Implications of Antigua’s Internet-Based IP Sanctions Against the US (Guest Blog Post)
  16. Yelp Defeats Legal Challenge to Its User Review Filter (Forbes Cross-Post)
  17. Conference Announcement: A 15 Year Retrospective of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, SCU, March 15
  18. Newspaper Not Liable for Moderated Online Reader Comments–Gains v. Romkey (Catch-Up Post)
  19. What Should We Do About Revenge Porn Sites Like Texxxan? (Forbes Cross-Post)
  20. Washington State’s Proposed Employer Social Media Law: The Legislature Should Take a Cautious Approach — SB 5211
  21. Update: Facebook Countersues Profile Technology For Contract Breach–Facebook v. Profile Technology
  22. Employee’s Facebook Vacation Photos Supported Termination for FMLA Abuse — Lineberry v. Detroit Med. Ctr.
  23. “Privacy Policies in the United States” Presentation Slides
  24. California Supreme Court: Retail Privacy Statute Doesn’t Apply to Download Transactions – Apple v Superior Court (Krescent)
  25. Doctor Loses Defamation Case Over Online Remarks–McKee v. Laurion

January 2013

  1. Another Employee Behaves Badly on Social Media. Really, You “Can’t Make This Up.” — In re Palleschi
  2. Conviction Upheld for Impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls Scholars by Sending Out Emails Signed by Others – People v. Glob
  3. Google and Yahoo Defeat Trademark Lawsuit Over Keyword Ads–Clara Ison v. Google
  4. State Laws Restricting Social Media Use by Sex Offenders Are Failing in Court
  5. 17 USC 512(f) Is Dead–Lenz v. Universal Music
  6. Are Google Search Results Good Proxies for Secondary Meaning in Trademark Law?
  7. Why You Should Consider Teaching Advertising Law (Including Comments from Felix Wu of Cardozo)
  8. My Talk to High Schoolers About Accountability for Online Content
  9. 47 USC 230 Protects Online White Pages for Publishing Incorrect Phone Number–Nasser v. WhitePages
  10. Is Recusal Required When a Judge is Facebook “Friends” With a Prosecutor? Question Certified to Florida Supreme Court — Domville v. State
  11. Social Media Evidence Roundup – January 2013 Edition
  12. Some Concerns About Facebook’s “Graph Search”
  13. “Social Media and Trademarks” Presentation at AALS
  14. Court Definitively Rejects AFP’s Argument That Posting a Photo to Twitter Grants AFP a License to Freely Use It — AFP v. Morel
  15. Tenured Teacher Properly Fired for Facebook Quips About Her Students–In re Tenure Hearing of Jennifer O’Brien
  16. Virginia Supreme Court: Litigant Who “Cleans up” His Facebook Page May Be Sanctioned
  17. Top Ten Internet Law Developments of 2012 (Forbes Cross-Post)
  18. Q4 2012 Quick Links, Part 3 (47 USC 230 and more)
  19. Q4 2012 Quick Links, Part 2 (Privacy, Advertising, Content)
  20. Q4 2012 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP Edition)
  21. Let’s Stop Using the Term “Soft IP”
  22. The FTC Smartly Ends Its Imprudent Google Search Antitrust Investigation (Forbes Cross-Post)
  23. Privacy Plaintiffs in Deep Packet Inspection Case Get No Love From the Tenth Circuit — Kirch v. Embarq Managmenet
  24. In Its Rush to Fix Patent Reform, Congress Didn’t Fix Its Biggest Error (Forbes Cross-Post)
  25. The Problem of “International Orphan Works” (Guest Blog Post)
  26. Section 230 Still Keeping the Pro Se Plaintiffs at Bay–Klayman v. Facebook, and More

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