The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals jolted the social media world when it ruled last week that Mavrix Photographs could proceed with its lawsuit against LiveJournal for posting 20 photographs without permission. LiveJournal had claimed that users posted the photos so it could not be sued under the safe harbors provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (Metropolitan News-Enterprise, April 10, 2017, by Kenneth Ofgang)
After the district federal court sided with LiveJournal, the Ninth Circuit ruled that since the company used moderators to review and delete content, the moderators were agents of the company and could possibly be a party to copyright violations. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, April 8 2017, by Corynne McSherry)