Top all-time · #466
Eric Goldman
Personal blog · blog.ericgoldman.orgweb
Eric Goldman writes Technology & Marketing Law Blog, a personal blog at blog.ericgoldman.org about web. Since 2007, 122 different Hacker News readers have linked it 333 times, most often “Web Scraping for Me, but Not for Thee”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 6 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Eric Goldman's blog for legal analysis of internet cases, such as Section 230, DMCA takedowns, web scraping, Yelp fake reviews and FOSTA.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called decent, excellent, pretty good and astutely analyzed; also highly recommended and worth reading in full.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Eric teaches and publishes in the areas of Internet Law, Intellectual Property and Advertising & Marketing Law.
Most-linked posts?
- /archives/2022/12/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-web-scraping-laws-guest-blog-post-part-2-of-2.htm4 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2023-01-30
- Web Scraping for Me, but Not for Thee3 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2023-08-24
- The Plan to Blow Up the Internet, Ostensibly to Protect Kids Online (AB 2273)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-08-29
- /archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-defeats-a-false-advertising-lawsuit-over-its-review-functionality-demetriades-v-yelp.htm3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-10-15
- Ninth Circuit Allows TOS Amendment by Email–Ireland-Gordy v. Tile3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-03-05
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-06-15
- Scribd Puts My Old Uploads Behind a Paywall and Goes Onto My Shitlist3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-09-20
- Technology and Marketing Law Blog3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-09-13
- Ninth Circuit Says LinkedIn Wrongly Blocked HiQ’s Scraping Efforts2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-10-13
- /personal/archives/2005/02/ravikant_v_toli.html2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-06-22
What Hacker News says?
This? https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-d...
Comment linking /archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-defeats-a-false-advertising-lawsuit-over-its-review-functionality-demetriades-v-yelp.htm
on “A warning about Glassdoor”Submitted Ticketmaster’s attempt to game arbitration services fails as a story · 308 points
HN discussion> TOS are not binding contracts American courts have had no difficulty in holding that TOS are binding IF done correctly. It wouldn't be prudent to imagine that YouTube's lawyers don't know how to do that. Santa Clara Law professor Eric Goldman knows approximately everything about this subject. He posts frequent updates on his blog. https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/category/licensingcont...
Comment linking /archives/category/licensingcontracts
on “YouTube's new anti-adblock measures”Submitted Scribd Puts My Old Uploads Behind a Paywall and Goes Onto My Shitlist as a story · 294 points
HN discussionThere are a mountain of lawsuits with Yelp over fake reviews. This is a decent post, as it lists the outcome of a long-standing lawsuit (Yelp won) but also links out to several other lawsuits filed over the years about fake reviews on the site. https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-d...
Comment linking /archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-defeats-a-false-advertising-lawsuit-over-its-review-functionality-demetriades-v-yelp.htm
on “Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)”Submitted “Tweet” and the bird logo apparently enter the public domain as a story · 227 points
HN discussionLinked FTA: https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/08/how-section-23...
Comment linking /archives/2017/08/how-section-230-helps-sex-trafficking-victims-and-sesta-would-hurt-them-guest-blog-post.htm
on “With SESTA/FOSTA, lawmakers failed to separate good intentions from bad law”Submitted Will California Eliminate Anonymous Web Browsing? (Comments on CA AB 2273) as a story · 191 points
HN discussionHere's http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/11/court_oks_priva... an example court order giving "an injunction against the top-level domain name registry, directing it to change the registrar of record for the domain names to GoDaddy".
Comment linking /archives/2011/11/court_oks_priva.htm
on “Jotform domain seized by US due to user generated content”Submitted How Zappos' User Agreement Failed In Court and Left Zappos Legally Naked as a story · 168 points
HN discussionThis blog post is an excellent summary, and covers what was actually decided and what is still unknown: https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2019/09/ninth-circuit-...
Comment linking /archives/2019/09/ninth-circuit-says-linkedin-wrongly-blocked-hiqs-scraping-efforts.htm
on “LinkedIn loses appeal over access to user profiles”Submitted Internet Access Providers Aren't Bound by DMCA Unmasking Subpoenas–In Re Cox as a story · 145 points
HN discussionI'm guessing it's some sort of a rule here to have at least one anti-google link on the front page at all times but I think this needs addressing: 1. Ads keep the lights on and they are labeled as such. 2. The Basecamp guy was complaining that ads for competing services are showing when searching for his service which is something that courts have affirmed time and again as being pro consumer because it exposes new…
Comment linking /archives/2018/05/another-court-says-competitive-keyword-advertising-doesnt-cause-confusion.htm
on “Google is not a search engine, but an ad engine”Submitted Minnesota Wants to Ban Under-18s from User-Generated Content Services as a story · 134 points
HN discussionWith no sense of irony, this blog is written on a platform that allows some Nazis, algorithmically promotes publishers, allows comments, and is thus only financially viable because of Section 230. If you actually want to understand something about the decision, I highly recommend Eric Goldman's blog post: https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2024/08/bonkers-opinio...
Comment linking /archives/2024/08/bonkers-opinion-repeals-section-230-in-the-third-circuit-anderson-v-tiktok.htm
on “Judges rule Big Tech's free ride on Section 230 is over”Submitted Another Conflict Between Privacy Laws and Age Authentication–Murphy v Confirm ID as a story · 117 points
HN discussionBenchmark and especially Bill Gurley have never been friendly to common shareholders: http://blog.ericgoldman.org/personal/archives/2005/02/ravika...
Comment linking /personal/archives/2005/02/ravikant_v_toli.html
on “Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud”Submitted My Reddit AMA on the Law of Web Scraping as a story · 114 points
HN discussionThrough [1] I found this article [2], and it seems even if you pay people for content (Blumenthal v. Drudge, page 7; AOL was paying somebody for writing articles and somebody sued both that person and AOL for defamation) you're still explicitly immune under Section 230. (I'm not a lawyer, I find this kind of confusing sometimes.) [1] https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2020/07/want-to-learn-... [2] https://papers.…
Comment linking /archives/2020/07/want-to-learn-more-about-section-230-a-guide-to-my-work.htm
on “You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Section 230 of the CDA”Submitted There is no bottom when it comes to Section 230 reform proposals as a story · 97 points
HN discussionI find Venkat Balasubramani's post linked to at the end of that article worth reading in full: http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/11/court_oks_priva...
Comment linking /archives/2011/11/court_oks_priva.htm
on “US judge orders hundreds of sites "de-indexed" from Google, Facebook”Submitted Ninth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Internet Personal Jurisdiction Law as a story · 88 points
HN discussionYou’re required under the ADA to make “reasonable accommodations” for people with disabilities. This has been tested numerous times in court, most recently against Dominos: https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2021/06/domino-pizzas-...
Comment linking /archives/2021/06/domino-pizzas-website-violated-the-americans-with-disabilities-act-ada-robes-v-dominos.htm
on “Custom JavaScript controls can't capture the nuance of form fields (2021)”Submitted A Privacy Bomb Is About to Be Dropped on the California Economy and the Internet as a story · 87 points
HN discussionBlockbuster, Zappos, and AOL have all been burned by having language in their ToSes to that effect. It's a bad idea if you want any legal cover from your TOS. IANAL, but this guy is and he says STOP PUTTING CLAUSES INTO YOUR CONTRACTS THAT SAY YOU CAN AMEND THE CONTRACT AT ANY TIME IN YOUR SOLE DISCRETION BY POSTING THE REVISED TERMS TO THE WEBSITE http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2009/06/stop_saying_we_...
Comment linking /archives/2009/06/stop_saying_we_1.htm
on “Disqus bait and switch, now with ads”Submitted Emoji evidence errors don’t undo a murder conviction as a story · 75 points
HN discussionhttps://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2020/01/new-civil-fost... Several examples here.
Comment linking /archives/2020/01/new-civil-fosta-lawsuits-push-expansive-legal-theories-against-unexpected-defendants-guest-blog-post.htm
on “As Qualified Immunity Takes Center Stage, More Delay from SCOTUS”Submitted How an informal IM exchange cost one business a million dollars as a story · 75 points
HN discussion> Does anyone know of any other incidents that make case against centralized servers? Yes. Many of these are undemocratic, but others are merely unintentional problems of reliability induced by a single point of failure. http://www.delicious.com/kragen/decentralization-stories has a few dozen items up through 2008. http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html livejournal users want more control of livejournal. dece…
Comment linking /personal/archives/2010/09/scribd_puts_my.html
on “Why I do not want to work at Google”Submitted Section 230 Immunizes OnlyFans for User-Uploaded Video–DOE vs. Fenix as a story · 52 points
HN discussion
