authorizing the Attorney General to bring an in rem action against any domain name "dedicated to infringing activities." Upon obtaining an order for relief, the registrar of, or registry affiliated with, the infringing domain would be compelled to "suspend operation of and lock the domain name." The bill passed the Senate judiciary Committee but, after negative public reaction, never received a full vote at the Senate. It was later resubmitted with amendments as the Protect IP Act.
Securing the Protection of Our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act, 28 U.S. Code § 4101
This statute was unanimously passed by the US Congress in 2010 in response to libel tourism concerns, and in particular in response to UK lawsuits against an American author whose book claimed to document Saudi Arabian financing of terrorism. It partially reflects pre-existing judicial doctrines regarding enforceability of foreign judgments that conflict with the US First Amendment. The SPEECH Act has not been much litigated. The most important case to date is the 2017 EFF v. Global Equity. The Act precludes enforcement of non-US defamation judgments unless the party seeking enforcement can make some very difficult legal showings: That the foreign court applied protections consistent with the US First Amendment and relevant state law That even with US law protections, defendant would have lost the case That the...
Social networking site, Myspace faced a claim for liability arising from an assault on a minor by a nineteen-year-old man whom she met through MySpace. Family of the girl sued Myspace for negligence in not verifying her age during registration. The Fifth Circuit held that Myspace is protected under §230 of Communication Decency Act.
Perfect 10, an adult entertainment magazine providing a subscription-only service online. Third party website publishers posted Perfect 10’s images on their own sites and were searchable on Google, violating Perfect 10’s terms of service as well as copyright. Perfect 10 sued Google for framing and hyperlinking to those websites on their image search service. The Court held Google not liable and Google’s search constituted a fair use of Perfect 10’s images because the use was highly transformative.
US court ruling on enforceability of French judgment
This case is the US follow-on litigation to a French court’s order, in 2000, for US search engine and portal Yahoo to restrict access to Nazi memorabilia auctions and materials. Yahoo maintained that the French order was improper, but also adopted a new, allegedly voluntary, global policy largely complying with it. French plaintiffs represented that they were happy with Yahoo’s compliance and would not seek further enforcement. However, Yahoo filed suit in U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.) for declaratory judgment that the French Court's order was not recognizable or enforceable in the U.S. In two lower court rulings, the District Court determined that it had jurisdiction over the case, and that the First Amendment precluded US enforcement. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the ruling, and then ruled a second...
Songwriters, music publishers, and motion studios brought copyright infringement action against distributors of a P2P file sharing computer networking software. The Supreme Court held that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.