Will the Americans with Disabilities Act tear a hole in Internet law?

[Commentary] Last week saw a ruling in the case National Association of the Deaf v. Netflix, Inc., 3:11-cv-30168-MAP (D. Mass. June 19, 2012), requiring Netflix to close-caption its online video. This is a bad ruling. Really terrible. It's the kind of results-oriented judicial activism that undermines the public's trust in the judiciary. The judge made it clear he was going to rule for the plaintiff, no matter what. But in doing so, he has potentially ripped open a huge hole in Internet law. Hey jobless recent law school grads—if this ruling sticks, there may be buckets of money to be made in ADA litigation against Internet companies. The most crucial ruling is where the court says that a website qualifies as a "place of public accommodation." The court deviated from—and, incredibly, didn't cite—a nearly unbroken line of precedent rejecting that conclusion.

[Goldman is an associate professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law and directs that school's High Tech Law Institute.]