Text Spam Lawsuit Against Citibank Moves Forward Despite Vague Allegations of Consent — Ryabyshchuk v. Citibank

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Ryabyshchuk v. Citibank, 11-cv-1236 – IEG (S.D. Cal.; Nov. 28, 2011) Plaintiff alleged that he contacted Citibank and inquired about a credit card. Later that day, he alleged he received the following unsolicited text from Citibank:…

Employee’s Claims Against Employer for Unauthorized Use of Social Media Accounts Move Forward–Maremont v. SF Design Group

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Maremont v. Susan Fredman Design Group, Ltd., et al., 10 C 7811 (N.D. Ill.; Dec. 7, 2011) I blogged about a case earlier this year where a plaintiff sued her former employer for improperly accessing the…

Facebook’s Trademark Enforcement Effort Against “Faceporn” Hits Jurisdictional Snag — Facebook v. Pedersen

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Facebook, Inc. v. Pedersen, et al., 10-cv-04673 (N.D. Cal.; Nov. 29, 2011) Facebook sued Pedersen and Retro Invent, who are based in Norway and run the “Faceporn” site. “Faceporn” is a website which features pornographic content…

The Cookie Crumbles for Amazon Privacy Plaintiffs – Del Vecchio v. Amazon

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Del Vecchio v. Amazon, C11-366-RSL (W.D. Wash.; Dec. 1, 2011) Plaintiffs sued Amazon, alleging that Amazon’s use of “flash” cookies and certain browser “tokens” was misleading. In a putative class action, Del Vecchio asserted claims against…

Spiritual Group’s Attempt to Unmask Online Critics Goes South–Art of Living Foundation v. Does

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Art of Living Foundation v. Does, 10-cv-05022-LHK (N.D. Ca.; Nov. 9, 2011) Art of Living Foundation is an organization based in India that is dedicated to teaching the spiritual lessons of “His Holiness Ravi Shankar.” Defendants…

Pennsylvania Court Orders Personal Injury Plaintiff to Turn Over Facebook Password to Defendant — Largent v. Reed

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Largent v. Reed, 2009-1823 (Pa. Ct. of Common Pleas; Nov. 8, 2011) Keith and Jessica Largent were involved in an accident in 2007. They sued Jessica Rosko and Sagrario Pena alleging negligence and loss of consortium….

Facebook Settles With the FTC — In re Facebook, Inc.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] In re Facebook, Inc. (Nov. 29, 2011) (Settlement & Proposed Consent Decree [pdf]) (Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post) The FTC announced its long-rumored settlement with Facebook. The key terms: • Facebook is barred…

Court OKs Private Seizure of Domain Names Which Allegedly Sold Counterfeit Goods–Chanel, Inc. v. Does

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Chanel, Inc. v. Does, et al., 11-cv-01508-KJD-PAL (D. Nev.) (Sept. 26, 2011 Order) (Oct. 11, 2011 Order) (Nov. 14, 2011 Order) Luxury brand Chanel has engaged in a fierce campaign against counterfeit websites in federal court…

Redbox Can be Liable Under the Video Privacy Protection Act for Failure to Purge Video Rental Records — Sterk v. Redbox

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Sterk v. Redbox, 11 c 1729 (N.D. Ill. Aug 19, 2011) Redbox is a company which rents DVDs to customers from automated, self-service kiosks, typically charging $1 per rental. The customer is required to return the…

Court Awards Damages for Wrongful Disruption of Web Presence — Ordonez v. Icon Sky Holdings

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Ordonez v. Icon Sky Holdings LLC, 10-cv-60156-PAS (S.D. Fla. Aug. 30, 2011) This was another dispute involving two parties who jockeyed for control of an online presence. I guess you could say that one “jacked” the…