Property Law Developments—Joseph William Singer

A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that websites are “places of public accommodation” regulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. §12182(a)), and thus the online movie service Netflix was required to provide closed captioning for all it “Watch Instantly” content. Nat’l Ass’n of the Deaf v. Netflix, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84518 (D. Mass. June 19, 2012). The court’s judgment rested on the First Circuit’s conclusion that “places of public accommodation” under the ADA were not limited to “actual physical structures.” Carparts Distrib. Ctr. v. Auto. Wholesaler’s Ass’n, 37 F.3d 12, 19 (1st Cir. 1994).