Section 230 the IP Carve Out and Platform Liability for User Generated Infringement

68 questions on section 230 the IP carve out and platform liability for user generated infringement, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are trade-secret claims covered by the Section 230 IP carve-out?
• A video platform receives a copyright notice, a trademark demand, and a defamation complaint about the same user video. Why do they resolve so differently?
• Can a plaintiff avoid Section 230 by recharacterizing an ordinary tort claim as an IP claim?
• Could algorithmic amplification of infringing content create secondary liability?
• Did Cox v. Sony affect vicarious copyright liability?
• Does Section 230 protect online platforms from copyright infringement claims?
• Does the DMCA require platforms to monitor for infringement?
• Does the EU's Digital Services Act affect U.S. platforms and users?
• Does the § 230(e)(2) IP carve-out cover state intellectual property claims, or only federal ones?
• Have copyright and trademark secondary liability converged?
• How broadly do courts define “interactive computer service”?
• How did the CJEU's Louboutin v. Amazon decision treat marketplace liability?
• How does automated content moderation affect remix and minority creators?
• How does Cox v. Sony change strategy for suing internet service providers?
• How does the EU's Digital Services Act differ from Section 230?
• How do the EARN IT Act and STOP CSAM Act relate to intellectual property enforcement?
• How is DMCA § 1201 different from the § 512 safe harbors?
• How should rights holders adjust enforcement strategy after Cox v. Sony?
• If Congress repealed Section 230 tomorrow, would copyright enforcement change?
• Is a right-of-publicity claim against a platform barred by Section 230?
• What are the four DMCA safe harbors?
• What are the requirements of the § 512(c) hosting safe harbor?
• What are the statutory exceptions to Section 230 immunity?
• What are the “twenty-six words” of Section 230?
• What did Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh decide about algorithmic recommendations?
• What did Hepp v. Facebook hold?
• What did Justice Sotomayor's concurrence in Cox v. Sony argue?
• What did Moody v. NetChoice hold, and why does it matter for platform liability?
• What did the Supreme Court decide in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment?
• What did the Third Circuit hold in Anderson v. TikTok?
• What did Tiffany v. eBay decide about marketplace liability for counterfeits?
• What did Zeran v. America Online establish?
• What does it mean to “reasonably implement” a repeat-infringer policy?
• What does the “publisher or speaker” prong actually do?
• What exactly does 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(2) say?
• What happened to Cox Communications in the BMG and Sony litigation over its repeat-infringer policy?
• What is a DMCA counter-notice, and what happens after one is filed?
• What is a DSA “trusted flagger,” and what does it mean for rights holders?
• What is “collateral censorship,” and why does it threaten fair use?
• What is “notice-and-staydown,” and could it arrive without new legislation?
• What is “red-flag knowledge” under the DMCA, and how specific must it be?
• What is the difference between a “material contribution to the alleged illegality” and a “neutral tool”?
• What is the Good Samaritan clause in § 230(c)(2)?
• What is the inducement theory from MGM v. Grokster?
• What is the Inwood test for contributory trademark infringement?
• What is the practical risk for a small platform facing an IP suit it would probably win?
• What is the staple-article-of-commerce rule from Sony v. Universal City Studios?
• What is the Sunset Section 230 Act?
• What is the TAKE IT DOWN Act?
• What is the three-part test courts use to decide whether Section 230 immunity applies?
• What is willful blindness in the DMCA safe-harbor context?
• What obligations does the DSA impose, and how are they tiered by platform size?
• What problem was Section 230 written to solve?
• What remedy does § 512(f) provide against abusive takedown notices?
• What should a content creator know about takedowns and fair use?
• What should a platform operator do today to minimize IP exposure?
• What threshold conditions apply across all four DMCA safe harbors?
• What was the “knowledge plus material contribution” test, and where did it come from?
• What was the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Perfect 10 v. CCBill for limiting the carve-out to federal law?
• What would the SAFE TECH Act do?
• When does an online marketplace cross from “venue” to “vendor” for trademark purposes?
• When does a platform lose Section 230 immunity by helping create content?
• Why did Congress pass DMCA Section 512 two years after Section 230?
• Why did the Supreme Court find 163,000 infringement notices insufficient to hold Cox liable?
• Why do platform-accountability reforms tend to entrench the largest platforms?
• Why is there no DMCA-style safe harbor for trademark claims?
• Why would Section 230 reform that never mentions copyright still change copyright enforcement?
• Would platforms be defenseless if Section 230 were repealed?