Eric Goldman
LightNews LightNews
banner
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Eric Goldman
@ericgoldman.bsky.social
6.6K followers 47 following 1.3K posts
Associate Dean for Research & Professor, Santa Clara Law. Internet Law, IP, Advertising Law. He/him. Website: http://www.ericgoldman.org. Email: egoldman@gmail.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
ericgoldman.bsky.social
In the 1996 movie Independence Day, this was the apex of the evil invading aliens' villainy #ETTD 📉
October 23, 2025 at 1:05 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Another 🤖😵 case

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Turning to the instant case, the Court finds Mr. Cho’s conduct plainly violated Rule 11. Mr. Cho—admittedly—failed to make a diligent inquiry into the veracity of the cases submitted to the Court within the Reply and still inexplicably signed and certified the submission. ECF No. 44 at 1-2. In particular, Mr. Cho advised that one case citation could not be verified at all, while another case citation addressed a topic irrelevant to the subject of the motion. See id. at 3 ¶ 4. It is axiomatic that attorneys’ certifications reflect that any cited authorities are correct and verified to the best of their ability. Indeed, to certify a submission without conducting an adequate citation check is the negligent conduct that Rule 11 was intended to prevent. Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(2); see Napier, 855 F.2d at 1091. Proper verification did not occur here. Thus, the Court is satisfied that Mr. Cho violated Rule 11 due to his negligent certification and submission of unverified case law due in part to “overreliance on generative [AI] prompts during early-stage research.” ECF No. 44 at 1-2.
September 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Another court (CA Ct. App.) is angry about Generative AI-hallucinated citations in legal filings 🤖😵

www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/doc...
We conclude by noting that “hallucination” is a particularly apt word to describe the darker consequences of AI. AI hallucinates facts and law to an attorney, who takes them as real and repeats them to a court. This court detected (and rejected) these particular hallucinations. But there are many instances— hopefully not in a judicial setting—where hallucinations are circulated, believed, and become “fact” and “law” in some minds. We all must guard against those instances. As a federal district court recently noted: “There is no room in our court system for the submission of fake, hallucinated case citations, facts, or law. And it is entirely preventable by competent counsel who do their jobs properly and competently.” (Versant, supra, 2025 WL 1440351, at *7.)
September 13, 2025 at 2:36 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
After reviewing carefully all of the evidence presented, the Court agrees, and on that basis issues a modified version of the requested preliminary injunction. Specifically, the Court concludes that federal agents’ indiscriminate use of force—targeting journalists standing far from any protest activity, launching scorching-hot tear gas canisters directly at people, and shooting projectiles at protestors attempting to comply with dispersal orders—will undoubtedly chill the media’s efforts to cover these public events and protestors seeking to express peacefully their views on national policies. To be clear, the Court expresses no sympathy for those private individuals who engaged in violence during this period. Indeed, this Order does not prevent any appropriate enforcement of the law against these individuals. But the actions of a relative few does not give DHS carte blanche to unleash near-lethal force on crowds of third parties in the vicinity. Indeed, under the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protestors, legal observers, and journalists—as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable. The First Amendment demands better.
September 11, 2025 at 3:02 AM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Preparing new memes for my TOS formation module in Internet Law. I'm hoping to explain courts' valorization of clickwraps in a way that 5 year olds might understand
Dr. Suess: One click? Two click! Underline. Blue text.
August 31, 2025 at 6:56 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
TFW I think about the universities, law firms, and companies that have bargained with Trump 📉
Thanos conversation with young Gamora. "Did you do a deal with Trump?" "Yes." "What did it cost?" "Everything."
August 30, 2025 at 8:24 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
The Ohio State Univ. has banned "land acknowledgements" by categorizing them--even when they are purely statements of historical fact--to be impermissible "statements on behalf of an issue or cause" 📉

compliance.osu.edu/focus-areas/...
Land acknowledgements are considered statements on behalf of an issue or cause and cannot be issued on behalf of a unit, college, department, etc., used at university-sponsored events (virtual or in person) or placed on any university channel or resource such as websites, social media, signage, meeting or event agendas, event programs, etc. Land acknowledgements should not be used in written class materials or stated verbally unless there is a direct tie to the subject of the course. Ohio State respects the history of the state and university and will continue to engage in research, academic scholarship, conversations and opportunities to honor this history, but will not issue statements taking a position on, endorsing, opposing or engaging in advocacy or calls to action around this. This prohibition does not restrict the freedom of faculty to teach, conduct research and publish research findings or to discuss in classrooms, in their own manner, any material that is relevant to the subject matter within an academic discipline as defined in the course syllabus. See Faculty Rule 3335-5-01.
August 28, 2025 at 1:42 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Yet another hallucinated citations case. Sanctions this time include:

* lawyer kicked off the case
* lawyer must notify all judges in the lawyer's other cases nationwide
* lawyer must write to judges who were falsely cited
* lawyer reported to state bar

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

🤖😵
1. The pro hac vice status of Counsel shall be revoked and Counsel will be removed from this case; 2. Plaintiff’s Opening Brief shall be stricken; 3. Counsel will be ordered to promptly serve a copy of this Order on Plaintiff, who will in turn be afforded time to engage new counsel or proceed as a selfrepresented litigant; 4. Counsel will be ordered to write a letter to the three Judges to whom she attributed fictitious cases, Hon. Douglas L. Rayes, Hon. Michael T. Liburdi, and Hon. John Z. Boyle, notifying them of her use of fake cases with their respective names attached; 5. Counsel will be ordered to transmit a copy of this Order to every Judge who presides over any case in which Counsel is attorney of record; and 6. The Clerk of Court’s Office will be directed to serve a copy of this Order on the Washington State Bar Association, of which Counsel is a member.7 If Counsel is a member of any other state’s bar, she shall serve a copy of this Order on that state’s bar office.
August 16, 2025 at 8:43 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
“the Schedule A mechanism should no longer be perpetuated in its present form” 💥💥💥 18/18
meme of a smiling young man flashing a victory hand gesture over a grave. The headstone says "SAD Scheme 2010(?)-2025" and the man is labeled "SAD Scheme critics"
August 11, 2025 at 2:22 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
"Fearing deportation, international students go silent at California’s universities"

calmatters.org/education/20...

<== this is what government censorship looks like 🤐
“I came to the United States because those are things that I wasn’t comfortable doing in my country,” the sophomore said. “I wasn’t comfortable speaking out. It was like a dictatorship, and that’s why I came to America, which is, like, where the freedom is supposed to be. And then I got met with this. It’s really, really disappointing.”
August 8, 2025 at 1:22 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
I know many people feel powerless to improve the world, especially as so many institutions are falling apart, but we can always make a difference to someone #TikkunOlam

(From Babylon 5, season 3, episode 20)
Reverend Will Dexter: You know, before I got married, Emily used to come by sometimes and help me clean out my apartment. Well, I asked her, "How come you're so eager to help clean up my place when your place is just as bad?" She said, "Because cleaning up your place helps me to forget what a mess I've made of mine, and - when I sweep my floor, all I've done is sweep my floor. But, when I help you clean up your place, I am helping you."
August 2, 2025 at 10:44 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
It doesn't have to be this way. Lawmakers claim they are doing what their constituents want. CALL YOUR LAWMAKERS. Tell them they got it wrong & age authentication is not what you want. At all.

(My article offers some policy ideas that might actually help kids online ssrn.com/abstract=520...) 3/3
A screenshot of a section from Eric Goldman’s Segregate and Suppress article: "There are no easy paths to protecting minors online, and no single policy intervention will magically make children safe online. Making real progress on child safety online will require multiple overlapping and coordinated policy efforts. Similarly, **no single player in the ecosystem can unilaterally solve the problem.** As the expression goes, it takes a village to raise a child. To help minors stay safe—and to help them grow, learn, and self-actualize—online will require cooperation and coordination among many stakeholders, including children, parents, other family members, other community members, teachers and the school system, the publishers, outsourcing vendors, civil society advocates, the government, and others. In contrast, segregate-and-suppress laws try to force online publishers to magically solve a society-wide problem, even though the publishers lack the required expertise, resources, or—" Now
July 30, 2025 at 9:48 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
The paper concludes with some policymaking ideas, but it also observes that there is no single "magic bullet" solution and it will take coordinated efforts from many stakeholders to actually help children online
July 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Something I can't recall seeing before: a court cited to an emoji by referencing its Unicode code point

cases.justia.com/federal/dist...

(Apparently, the 22nd edition of the Bluebook Rule 18.9 encourages citations to emojis by code point)
7 The text message included at the end an emoji of a downcast face with a drop of sweat, identifiable as Unicode U+1F613
July 9, 2025 at 10:11 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
In addition to Trump's horrifying efforts to wield military power against his constituents, there's the indignity that our tax dollars are funding the kind of argument you'd expect from a 5-year-old

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Defendants assert that they complied with § 12406 because written at the top of the June 7 and June 9 DOD Orders was the label “THROUGH: THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA.” Opp. at 17. True enough. But an interpretation of § 12406 that permits the President to federalize a state’s National Guard by typing the phrase “Through the Governor of [insert state here]” at the top of a document that the President never sends to the governor strains credibility, especially given that Congress specifically amended the statute to add the requirement that orders “shall be issued through the governors.” See Militia Act of 1908 § 3.
June 13, 2025 at 1:29 AM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
To compare, see my SAD Scheme paper with stats through the end of 2022. For example, TMs used to be 88% of SAD Scheme cases 📉

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
June 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
My new estimates re. Schedule A Defendants (SAD Scheme) cases:

* 7,700 total cases, 40% of those filed since 1/1/24 📈
* 1.5M SAD Scheme defendants
* $600M court filing fees not paid due to SAD Scheme
* 70% of cases are ™️ cases, 20% ©️, 10% patent
* 88% in N.D. Ill.

#StopTheSADScheme
Chart showing rise of SAD Scheme cases by year
June 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Calvin describing the rules of Calvinball
June 7, 2025 at 2:44 AM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Judge Chhabria rips plaintiffs' class action lawyers because (1) "named plaintiffs are not being vetted carefully enough" & (2) "plaintiffs' lawyers seem to stick their heads in the sand rather than addressing [problems with named plaintiffs] proactively"

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
If the only named plaintiff you can find is someone whose presence threatens to weaken the claims of the absent class members, don’t bring the lawsuit. And if you’ve already brought the lawsuit, don’t just plow ahead hoping that it won’t become a big deal.
June 1, 2025 at 9:37 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
When is a house brand's product packaging too similar to a national brand's? Mondelez v. Aldi complaint www.gerbenlaw.com/wp-content/u...

Does it matter if consumers know that Aldi primarily carries its own house brands?
Exhibit from complaint showing similarity of packaging to Oreos, Wheat Thins, Nutter Butter, and Chips Ahoy!
May 30, 2025 at 11:21 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
The court ruling striking down Trump's anti-Jenner & Block EO is 🔥🔥🔥

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Usually, figuring out whether retaliation would chill a speaker of ordinary firmness—and ascertaining just how much a speaker would have to trim her advocacy to avoid reprisal—requires some guesswork.7 Not here. The serial executive orders targeting law firms have produced something of an organic experiment, control group and all, for how firms react to the orders and how they might escape them. Over the course of that experiment, several firms of (presumably) ordinary firmness have folded rather than face similar executive orders. Indeed, it appears to take extraordinary firmness to resist. And the experiment has shown what folding entails: compromising speech. A firm fearing or laboring under an order like this one feels pressure to avoid arguments and clients the administration disdains in the hope of escaping government-imposed disabilities. Meanwhile, a firm that has acceded to the administration’s demands by cutting a deal feels the same pressure to retain “the President’s ongoing approval.” The order’s chilling effect is uniquely harmful for its focus on pro bono work. When law firms volunteer to represent vulnerable individuals and groups without pay, they embody the best of the profession. This order and the others like it seek not only to prevent that noble undertaking but to manipulate it. The orders strongarm firms into redirecting their uncompensated services to work the President prefers—or even perhaps to work for the President himself. So when this order retaliates for (and endeavors to steer) Jenner’s “powerful pro bono practice[],” E.O. § 1, it sullies a tradition that instructs lawyers to pursue ideals higher than profit. The public will suffer.
May 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Google AdSense stopped serving ads on my Lil Nas X copyright blog post due to "sexual content." Note: every image was included in the Ninth Circuit's opinion & had been published on Instagram. 🤷‍♂️ Content moderation is hard

The now-demonetized blog post: blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/202...
Screenshot of Google AdSense's demonetization notice
May 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Senators @durbin.senate.gov @whitehouse.senate.gov @klobuchar.senate.gov & others will propose to sunset Section 230, hoping that will extort "Big Tech" into concessions that will gut the law

theinformation.com/go/40d1940ea6 (by @paris.nyc)

Last time this idea was floated, I made this meme 🐶🔫
March 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM
ericgoldman.bsky.social
Gavin Newsom is proving to the world that you can alienate 100% of your political supporters in only 4 podcast episodes. Seriously...how difficult is it to NOT PLATFORM NAZIS???
March 12, 2025 at 2:23 AM