Another CDA Case--Roommates.com

It's been an interesting few weeks for CDA cases. Earlier, the 7th Circuit found that the CDA insulated Craigslist from liability under the Fair Housing Act. See my March 17 post, below. Then, a New Hampshire court said that the CDA did NOT insulate from claims arising under the right of publicity. And now we have the latest 9th Circuit decision on CDA, holding that the Act does not insulate Roommates.com from Fair Housing Act liability. The differences between the 7th Circuit holding in the Craigslist case and the 9th Circuit's in Roommates.com appears to be the level of interaction the site has with posters--Roommates.com actively solicited information that could be used for discriminatory purposes. To read the Roommates.com case, click here:http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=493781&da=y

A Chink in the CDA Armor?

A New Hampshire federal court has ruled that a state-law right of publicity claim against a Web service, arising from material posted by a third-party user, is not subject to dismissal under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The court rejected the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Perfect 10 Inc. v. CC Bill to hold that the plaintiff's right of publicity under state law is an intellectual property right excluded from CDA immunity. Case name is Doe v. Friendfinder Network Inc. You can view the opinion here: http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=492151&da=y

Muxtape, Mixwit and the RIAA

OK, how is this NOT copyright infringement? Checkout http://muxtape.com/ and http://www.mixwit.com/. Cool idea, right? Share your mix tapes? You can try to rely on the DMCA, but if they're betting the farm on that they better read Grokster again. See http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=488991&da=y
I will bet that RIAA will commence legal action against one or both within three months. Watch this space for updates.