There have been thousands of SAD Scheme cases in the Northern District of Illinois, but this extensive litigation activity has produced only a small handful of Seventh Circuit opinions. This lack of appellate review has played a major role in perpetuating the SAD Scheme. District court judges have repeatedly found ways to rationalize bogus arguments
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How Often Do Consumers Balk at Doing Online Age Authentication?
In search engine parlance, the “bounce” rate is the percent of searchers who click on a search results link and then immediately hit the back button. High bounce rates usually signal that something has gone wrong. Either the destination website didn’t appeal to the user enough to convert them to engage more, or the search
Ninth Circuit Panel Goes Out of Its Way to Question Section 230–Doe v. Meta
[I’ve been sitting on this ruling for almost a month because blog posts like this are time-consuming and emotionally draining to write. It may not look it, but this post took about 6 hours to write.]
This case involves a terrible tragedy: genocidal violent attacks on the Rohingya minority in Myanmar at the beginning of
Section 230 Ends Lawsuit by Twitter Premium Subscriber–Taddeo-Waite v. X
This court summarizes: “At the core of Taddeo-Waite’s complaint is his desire to hold X liable for allegedly maintaining a graphic and upsetting post on its platform, amplifying the reach of that post, and hampering the extent of Taddeo-Waite’s own content.”
In a prior ruling, the court upheld Twitter’s TOS and sent the case from
New Book Chapter Tells the TSPA and TSF Origin Stories
I’ve posted a transcript of a conversation between me and my TSPA and TSF cofounders Adelin Cai and Clara Tsao, guided by Amanda Menking of TSF. In the conversation, we discuss the origin stories of the Trust & Safety Professional Association and the Trust & Safety Foundation. I hope telling their origin stories highlight some
The YOLO Remand Shows Why the 9th Circuit Should Stop Carving Up Section 230–Bride v. Snap
This is the remand of the troubling Ninth Circuit Section 230 decision in Bride v. YOLO. As you may recall, the plaintiffs claims that YOLO made statements about its content moderation and the safety of its environment that the plaintiffs believe were not true; and based on that, YOLO should be liable for users’
Raj Abhyanker’s Firm Ordered to Pay $90k+ for Ill-Advised Trademark Enforcement Lawsuit–LegalForce v. LawFirms
In one of Judge Alsup’s last rulings before he retired, after a bench trial he rejected LegalForce’s trademark claims over the LawFirms logo (the first logo was pre-litigation; the defendant switched to the second logo during the litigation).
(Reminder: LegalForce runs Trademarkia).
It was a classic Judge Alsup move. The plaintiff’s dubious assertions survived a
WorldStarHipHop Gets Section 230 Dismissal–Eizenga v. MediaLab
The court describes the video in question (as alleged):
an anonymous social media account and online “persona” known as Rain Drops Media (“Rain Drops”) published a defamatory video falsely suggesting that Eizenga was an abusive partner who battered Monroe Capri Bryant (“Bryant”), a young social media influencer. The video in question consists of a collage
Court Rejects Lawsuit Over Online Criticisms of a Dater–D’Ambrosio v. Meta
Abbigail Rajala posted a critical review of her dating experience with Nikko D’Ambrosio on the Chicago subboard of Facebook’s Spill the Tea group. According to the district court, D’Ambrosio “sued anyone remotely associated with those posts for all possible, imaginable claims, including the woman who dated him and her parents, women commenting on posts, the operators
Blogger’s Photo Republication Isn’t Fair Use–Vedros v. Endless Mt. Labradors
This is a run-of-the-mill photographer copyright enforcement action. As a commission for an advertiser, Vedros created a photo that depicts “a dog placing its front paws on a scale with a cat nearby, and shows both animals looking at the dog’s weight….[including] removing the dog’s collar and placing it next to the scale.” The defendant