Eric Goldman spoke with the East Bay Times about how a California appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit claiming Bay Area software giant Salesforce helped pimps and human traffickers by providing a database and services to a website that featured adult ads.
“It’s the right conclusion,” said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor who studies Section 230 issues. “The plaintiffs in this case are alleging that pimps engage in sex trafficking, and that they were helped in doing so by running ads on Backpage, and that Backpage was helped in its operations by Salesforce — the victims are three steps away from Salesforce.”
Professor Goldman’s blog was quoted by Protocol discussing the Shop Safe Act, which is included in the Competes Act. In his blog post, Professor Goldman says that since Shop Safe would overturn an important piece of trademark case law, it “gives trademark owners absolute control over online marketplaces.” He was also quoted by Overton County News about the IRS ending a plan that would have required taxpayers to verify their identities with facial recognition software before logging on to the IRS website; by the Times Colonist about efforts by British Columbia officials to stop Clearview AI collecting images of Canadian citizens’ faces from the internet; and by MediaPost about howGeorgia’s highest court has rejected gift basket company Edible Arrangements’ bid to revive a lawsuit accusing Google of theft for allegedly allowing other companies to use the name “Edible Arrangements” to trigger search ads.
