Search Results for: CDA
My Open Letter to Congressman Poe on the Houston Business and Technology Roundtable
Yesterday, I had the privilege of taking part in a “Business and Technology Roundtable” with Congressman Ted Poe. The event was put on by SEMPO, HiMA and Google and was attended by marketing firms, well-known Houston brands and small business owners. The focus of the conversation centered on online marketing.
As the only lawyer in the room, I had to … Continue Reading
Trends for 2013 in internet and marketing law
After looking at the most popular posts from 2012 in our last edition, today we look at what are likely going to be the big trends for 2013 in internet and marketing law.
Privacy and COPPA – Although this issue is not likely to dominate the general business population, privacy and COPPA will continue to dominate the media’s … Continue Reading
Does the Communications Decency Act Protect Human Trafficking?
The State of Texas may find out and it may be more applicable to your site than you think. In early filing for the 2013 legislative session, Democratic state Senator Leticia Van de Putte proposed a bill aimed at stopping at stopping human trafficking. The entire text is here.
It allows for human trafficking victims to bring … Continue Reading
Texas Court dismissed online defamation claim but may open hole in Section 230 defense
The court of appeals in Beaumont affirmed a dismissal of the all-too-typical online defamation case last week . Plaintiffs Walter Milo and Anthony Shelton sued the Watchdog website because of something put on the site by anonymous posters in the “Guest Book” portion of the site. Plaintiffs also sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The … Continue Reading
www.meatnomeat.com may be enough to weaken 230 immunity
Quizno’s ran a contest asking for its loyal sandwich eaters to send in their own videos comparing Quizno’s sandwiches to Subway’s through its contest website previously found at www.meatnomeat.com. As you can tell from the domain name, Quizno’s had a position on the “debate.”
Subway, having at least some meat in its sandwiches, sued under the Lanham … Continue Reading
Can you sue over anonymous online consumer reviews?
When you type in some business names on a search engine, one of the results can often be a negative consumer review site such as www.ripoffreport.com. Or, perhaps, a seller an EBay is ripped by an anonymous consumer. Is there anything that can be done at the courthouse?
GOING AFTER THE WEBSITE
Rip Off Report gets sued a … Continue Reading
September was a busy month for the Communications Decency Act
The CDA and event tickets
As we have discussed before, the Communications Decency Act shields many website operators from the acts of others posting on their site. The bread and butter case is the defamatory post, but it is applied in other contexts as well. For example websites www.stubhub.com and www.eBay.com allow folks to sell tickets to … Continue Reading
Celebrating Freedom on the Net With More Work to Be Done
Before leaving the office for the Fourth of July weekend, I thought we would take a look at the status of free speech in the ever-evolving online world. As discussed in prior posts here, here and here, one aspect protecting free speech online is the Communications Decency Act. Although prior cases have placed some holes … Continue Reading
MySpace Wins CDA Battle
In his Technology and Marketing Law Blog, Professor Goldman reports that MySpace, Inc. has bucked the recent trend of treating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as a punching bag. In Doe v. MySpace Inc., 2008 WL 2068064 (5th Cir. May 16, 2008), the Fifth Circuit granted MySpace immunity when the plaintiffs, several underage … Continue Reading
Roommates.com could be on the hook for violating federal housing statute
Roommates.com is a roommate-matching website that allows for users to post information for those seeking roommates or rooms. A public interest group previously filed suit against the website claiming many of the user-generated posts violated federal fair housing statutes preventing discrimination.
Roommates.com moved to dismiss the case relying upon the Communications Decency Act which, generally speaking, … Continue Reading
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