Q2 2015 Quick Links, Part 2 (Censorship and More)
Content Regulation * Oxera: The economic impact of safe harbours on Internet intermediary start-ups * South Korea is mandating that all cellphones sold to minors have an app called “Smart Sheriff” that censors their online experience. What could possibly go…
California’s Resale Royalty Statute Violates the Dormant Commerce Clause—In Part (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Tyler Ochoa On Tuesday, May 5, an eleven-judge en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit held that California’s Resale Royalty Statute, Civil Code § 986, could not Constitutionally be applied to sales of works of art that…
More Section 230 Cases Than I Can Handle!
My cup runneth over with Section 230 cases! This long blog post catches up on a few from the past couple months. Warning: there are some stinkers in this batch. Google, Inc. v. Hood, 2015 WL 1546160 (S.D. Miss. March…
LinkedIn’s “Reference Search” Service Doesn’t Violate Fair Credit Reporting Act–Sweet v. LinkedIn
Plaintiffs alleged that potential employers found references about them through LinkedIn’s Reference Searches functions, they were denied employment as a result, and thus LinkedIn violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. LinkedIn users, including prospective employers, generally can search LinkedIn user…
Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 4 (Potpourri)
Commerce * NAD tells CheapoAir that it can’t run keyword ads showing the lowest priced flight in its database if it can’t deliver that fare to the consumer. * United Airlines sues 22-year-old who found a method for buying cheaper…
Court Might Enforce A Contract Ban On Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
Claude and Violaine Galland own an apartment in Paris, France. They offer it for rental through VRBO, an online service for vacation rentals. The Gallands’ rental agreement include the following language: “The tenants agree not to use blogs or websites…
Scribd Must Comply With The Americans With Disabilities Act (Forbes Cross-Post)
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is an important civil rights law intended to ensure that people with physical disabilities can enjoy the same social and economic interactions as everyone else. The law had ambitious visions about social equality, but…
QVC Can’t Stop Web Scraping–QVC v. Resultly (Forbes Cross-Post)
“Web scraping,” also called crawling or spidering, is the automated gathering of data from someone else’s website. Scraping is an essential part of how the Internet functions. For example, Google uses web scraping to build its search database worth hundreds…
In IMDb Privacy Case, 9th Circuit Rejects Hoang’s Appeal
Hoang alleged that IMDb improperly used her personal information to find out her real age and published her real age on its website. She argued that this harmed her employment prospects in the industry. The jury ruled for IMDb. Hoang…
Court Says Uber and Lyft Drivers May be Employees
Drivers for Uber and Lyft claimed they are employees, not independent contractors. Two different judges hearing these cases both held that factual questions preclude summary judgment in favor of Uber and Lyft. As Judge Chhabria, who is hearing the Lyft…