Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Finals: 1st Amendment Takes On Section 230

Techdirt

from the could-it-be-any-other-way? dept

VOTE NOW for the Single Most Misunderstood Legal Concept!

It’s become something of a mantra around these parts, that much of the time when people are complaining about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, what they’re really complaining about is the 1st Amendment. Hell, the NY Times itself has repeatedly had to run a correction admitting that it falsely blamed Section 230 for things that were enabled by the 1st Amendment. And, of course, people regularly get confused about the 1st Amendment, who it applies to (hint: not Twitter), what it means for hate speech or misinformation, and how it intersects with things like the Fairness Doctrine. Oh, and also what it has to do with fires and crowded theaters.

So, really, after a few weeks of our March Madness of legal misunderstandings, could the finals really have come down to anything but Section 230 vs. the 1st Amendment? That’s where we are:

Only one can win it.

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Finals. Which of the following is the *most* misunderstood legal concept.

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 4, 2022

If you’d like to see the final bracket leading up today, it’s here:

It’s been quite a ride, and now it’s down to just two, so get your votes in now:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Finals. Which of the following is the *most* misunderstood legal concept.

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 4, 2022

Filed Under: 1st amendment, legal misconceptions, legal misunderstandings, march madness, misunderstood legal concepts, section 230

The Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four!

Techdirt

from the crunch-time dept

Vote On the Final Four Now!

And here we are. The inaugural Techdirt Legal March Madness is down to its Final Four! There are just four concepts left, and (to be honest) none are that surprising. The 1st Amendment faces off against RICO and Free Speech faces off against Section 230. I don’t think any are complete surprises, even if number one seeds HIPAA and Treason were defeated earlier in the tournament.

Either way you can check out the full current bracket here to see how we got here:

And while this set of competitors is completely understandable, the fact that so many people filled out brackets with very, very different results highlights what a tough competition this has been.

Still, the Elite 8 was actually a pretty easy affair with only one matchup really being even remotely close: RICO beating out Defamation 52.6% to 47.4%. The other matchups were more boring. The 1st Amendment easily defeated the Fairness Doctrine (as it should) 76.2% to 23.8%. Section 230 easily dominated Treason 79% to 21%. And Free Speech cruised to a straightforward win over States Rights 80.5% to 19.5%.

Anyway, now there are just four. Voting will run into tomorrow, and the championship matchup will take place on Monday… So who do you take? In a matchup designed to drive Ken “Popehat” White crazy, we have RICO vs. the 1st Amendment:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four. Which of the following is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 1, 2022

And, then on the flip side we have Free Speech facing off with Section 230:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four. Which of the following is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 1, 2022

Who will win? Will we have a final matchup of the 1st Amendment vs. Free Speech? What will that even mean? It might be fitting to have Section 230 face off against the 1st Amendment since many people mistakenly blame Section 230 for things the 1st Amendment enables. Or is the wild card going to be RICO, telling us that not all the biggest legal misunderstandings are about speech… Stay tuned to find out.

Filed Under: legal misconceptions, legal misunderstandings, march madness, misunderstood legal concepts

The Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding Elite 8: Getting Tougher

Techdirt

from the everything-is-misunderstood dept

Go Vote On the Elite 8!

The inaugural Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness is getting to crunch time. In the Sweet 16 we had our first number 1 seed fall to a challenger. Here’s the latest bracket:

In the Sweet 16 the first major upset happened when HIPAA lost (just barely) to Free Speech. HIPAA had actually been leading the voting on the first day (though it was close), but Free Speech pulled ahead towards the end and won by the tiniest of margins: 50.7% to 49.3%. Every vote counts!

In one of the most watched matches, two crowd favorites — Fire in a Theater and Section 230 — matched up, with Section 230 taking an early, commanding lead, and never really letting up, even as Fire in a Theater made a late run. Section 230 closed out the victory 59.6% to 40.4%. The only other really close one was Sedition vs. States Rights, which bounced back and forth early on before States Rights closed out the victory at 52.3% to Sedition’s 47.7%.

As for the Elite 8, we have some great matchups, though it seems like some of these matches may be easier than previous ones as some of the concepts had an easier run to this position and are now matching up against juggernauts of misunderstood legal concepts. We’ve got the 1st Amendment up against the Fairness Doctrine, which is only fair, given how little people seem to realize that the Fairness Doctrine requires an understanding of the 1st Amendment:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding Elite 8: Which of the following two legal concepts is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) March 30, 2022

Next up we have RICO up against strong contender Defamation:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding Sweet 16: Which of the following two legal concepts is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) March 30, 2022

Then there’s Free Speech, fresh off its HIPAA upset, taking on States Rights (which narrowly beat out Sedition):

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding Elite 8: Which of the following two legal concepts is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) March 30, 2022

And, finally, there’s number one seed Treason up against fan favorite Section 230:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding Elite 8: Which of the following two legal concepts is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) March 30, 2022

Get your votes in, as there will be a relatively quick turnaround with the Final Four starting on Friday.

Filed Under: legal misconceptions, legal misunderstandings, march madness, misunderstood legal concepts

The Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Reaches The Sweet Sixteen

Techdirt

from the getting-tougher dept

Go Vote On The Sweet Sixteen!

Our inaugural Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness has been getting lots of buzz (and votes) and now we’re down to just sixteen remaining legal misunderstanding matchups! Some of these are starting to get tough!

In round two there were some pretty closer matchups… and some total laughers. Of the close ones, Treason barely edged out Net Neutrality 52.2% to 47.8% and With Prejudice edged out the 4th Amendment by a similar 52.3% to 47.7%. Even some of the “favorites” had a tougher matchup in round two. RICO (which many have picked to win) had a tougher-than-expected battle with Hearsay, eventually winning 61.1% to 38.9%. Does that suggest RICO may run into some headwinds?

In this Sweet 16 there are some interesting matchups. Section 230 v. Fire in a Theater will be a key one to watch. Many, many brackets have one of those as the final champion, so I imagine it should be quite the fight. Another interesting one will be HIPAA v. Free Speech. So far, both have cruised along, but now they face off against each other! Anyway, the voting will run through Tuesday mid-day, so go vote!

Filed Under: legal misconceptions, legal misunderstandings, march madness, misunderstood legal concepts

Techdirt’s Legal Misunderstanding March Madness: Round Two!

Techdirt

from the second-round-is-where-the-true-greats-show-up dept

Round Two is happening right now. Go vote!

Well, our inaugural Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness is off to quite a start. Round one ended with most of the matchups getting thousands of votes, so now we’re on to round two. You can still see the official bracket to see how it matches up with your own personal bracket.

By far the biggest vote getter was the 1st Amendment against the Rules of Evidence, which ended up with just under 5,000 votes. The 1st Amendment won easily, though quite a few lawyers insisted this was the wrong result.

The most dominant winner was “Free Speech” which won over “works made for hire” with a vote ranking of 92.9% (copyright lawyers might disagree with this result).

We had several extremely close battles including Logan Act (51%) over State Action Doctrine (49%) and Citizens United (51.6%) over Copyright (48.4%), but the closest one was ERISA (50.3%) over Joint & Several (49.7%). Those two bounced back and forth a lot, and at moments were tied 50% each!

The biggest upsets, according to our careful seeding were Entrapment (#14) winning over DMCA (#3) (and winning easily) and the 14th Amendment (#14) winning over the Affordable Care Act (#3). For me, the biggest surprise was the GDPR losing out to Trademark law. I wasn’t expecting that at all!

Also, I will note that many people were upset about various legal concepts that were left off, or the seeding. I’ll note that immigrations lawyers were particularly perturbed about all of immigration law being lumped into a single category and then seeded 16th (and put up against HIPAA). They tried to rally support, but HIPAA still won easily. Perhaps next year we’ll have a bit more on the immigration front…

Anyway, round two has now begun, so make sure to get in your votes. It will run through Friday morning…

Go Vote In Round Two!

Filed Under: legal misconceptions, legal misunderstandings, march madness, misunderstood legal concepts