Well, I got through the en banc opinion in the CDA immunity case of Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, case no. 04-56916 (9th Cir. Apr. 3, 2008) this weekend. There’s too much on the merits at the links provided in this post for me to get into them. Suffice it to say I’m terribly disappointed the court did not even address the free speech and free association issues I had hoped it would, based on the rehearing petition arguments made in those regards. It boggles my mind that someone might not be able to discriminate in their choice of roommate, and unless Roommates.com offers a very different service than its…
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En Banc Decision in Roommates.com Case
It’s killing me that I don’t have had time yet to digest the combined 56 pagers of the majority opinion and the concurring/dissenting opinion in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, case no. 04-56916 (9th Cir. Apr. 3, 2008). You can read my prior coverage in this series of posts. (When you click that link, this post will appear at the top, with prior posts below it.) I’ll digest the opinions over the weekend, and post a round-up of links on Monday. As expected, The Volokh Conspiracy and Professor Eric Goldman were all over it yesterday, with The Conspiracy’s post garnering the usuall large number of comments. (Plug in “roommates.com” into…
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Apple v. Bloggers Settlement includes Shutdown of Apple Rumor Blog
This isn’t really appellate-related, but I figure that at least some of you must be, as I am, a Mac-using lawyer, and will find this of interest. In this post at The UCL Practitioner, Kimberly Kralowec updates some of her earlier reporting on the Apple lawsuit against some bloggers that had leaked internal Apple information. She provides links to a few articles about the settlement, reminds us that “in 2006, the Court of Appeal ruled that the bloggers were ‘journalists’ and that California’s shield law therefore protected their sources,” and links to some of her earlier coverage about the case.
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Roommates.com Developments
How Appealing has a detailed post regarding the recent order in the Roommates.com case, in which the Ninth Circuit refused leave for Amazon.com to file an amicus brief in the en banc rehearing proceedings. I’ve posted about the case here, here, and here. Professor Eric Goldman has really been staying on top of it, with lots of links to court documents at his Technology & Marketing Law Blog. Oral argument was held on Wednesday. Here’s a link to audio of the oral argument posted at the Ninth Circuit website.
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Cyber Law Update
Professor Eric Goldman has a post up at his Technology & Marketing Law Blog with an important update on Perfect 10 v. Amazon.com, which I blogged about last May. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit issued an amended opinion Monday that reverses itself on the issue of which party has the burden of proof on a fair use defense in a copyright preliminary injunction context. As Professor Goldman sums up: In the original Ninth Circuit Perfect 10 v. Amazon ruling, the court put the burden on the plaintiff to disprove fair use as part of its PI obligations. Now, in an amended opinion, the Ninth Circuit has put the burden on the…
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New Amicus Briefs in Roommates.com Case
Professor Eric Goldman continues to stay on top of the Roommates.com case with a new post at his Technology & Marketing Law Blog linking to some amicus briefs filed in connection with the en banc rehearing. If you’re not familiar with this case about whether the immunity provision of the Communications Decency Act protects an online roommate locating service from liability for discriminatory roommate advertisements — as well as the issue of whether one’s right to free intimate association precludes liability for discrimination in advertising for and selecting a roommate — check out my prior posts on the occasions of last May’s panel decision and last month’s order granting rehearing…
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En Banc Rehearing Granted in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, LLC
Last May, I covered the panel decision in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, LLC (9th Cir. 2007) 489 F.3d 921. I had only been blogging for about two weeks at the time, so I stuck to the more technical aspects of the case; specifically, the issue of the scope of immunity that the Communications Decency Act provides for internet service companies. I voice my personal opinion more these days . . . but we’ll get to that in a minute. The 60-second review, for those who do not want to go to the original post, (though I encourage you to visit it because it contains so many related links) is…
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Bloggers Beware
Kevin O’Keefe at Lexblog posts a link to an article on twelve laws every blogger should know. According to the bullet points, the article covers such issues as a blogger’s duty to monitor comments, the applicability of journalism shield laws, ownership of user-developed content, and more. The article itself begins: Internet activity, and particular [sic] blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. In this article we highlight twelve of the most important…
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More Googlelaw
Perfect 10 publishes photographs of nude women and owns the copyrights in those images. Google displays thumbnails of those images in its image search results. Perfect 10 says this is infringement and obtains a preliminary injunction against the practice, but the Ninth Circuit, in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., case no. 06-55405 (May 16, 2007), reverses. The most written about aspect of the decision is the court’s finding that Google’s display of thumbnail images in its image search results constitutes a non-infringing “fair use” of the images. Since Perfect 10 failed to show that it was likely to overcome Google’s fair use defense, the court reverses the grant of…
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Legal Blogosphere Reacts as Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on CDA Immunity for Online Services
Yesterday’s Ninth Circuit decision in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, LLC, case no. 04-56916 (May 15, 2007) has the digital legal world abuzz . . . as one should expect of the latest decision on the scope of immunity afforded to online services by the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), 47 U.S.C. § 230(c). In this case, two municipal fair housing councils sued Roommates.com, an online clearinghouse for those seeking to obtain roommates or move in as one. They alleged that the website published discriminatory roommate preferences in violation of the Fair Housing Act and various state laws. The district court found Roommates immune under the CDA and granted summary judgment…