Virtual Casino Doesn't Violate California's Gambling Law--Mason v. Machine Zone (Guest Blog Post)

Virtual Casino Doesn’t Violate California’s Gambling Law–Mason v. Machine Zone (Guest Blog Post)

By Guest Blogger Angie Jin [Eric’s note: Angie Jin is a Cornell Law 3L who volunteered to write up this post on a case that was festering in my queue for a few months.] Plaintiff, Mia Mason, filed a Class…

Online Dating Services Must Give California Users a "Cooling Off" Period--Howell v. Grindr

Online Dating Services Must Give California Users a “Cooling Off” Period–Howell v. Grindr

California has a statute applicable to dating contracts that gives consumers the right to cancel within 3 days of signing up. Companies must advise clients of this and provide a cancellation mechanism and a full refund. Grindr, an online dating…

YouTube Wins Another Case Over Removing And Relocating User Videos (Forbes Cross-Post)

YouTube Wins Another Case Over Removing And Relocating User Videos (Forbes Cross-Post)

I recently blogged about a lawsuit against YouTube for taking down a user’s video and relocating it to a different URL. Users get upset when their videos are removed-and-relocated because the process strips the video of its view count and…

Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon's Terms of Service--Fagerstrom v. Amazon

Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service–Fagerstrom v. Amazon

This lawsuit alleges that Amazon overstated the extent of discounts it offered customers (in stating the extent of the discount customer achieved when shopping at Amazon versus competing retailers). Amazon moved to compel arbitration, and the court grants the motion….

Senate Passes Consumer Review Freedom Act

Senate Passes Consumer Review Freedom Act

As you recall, the Consumer Review Freedom Act would prevent businesses from restricting consumers’ reviews of their businesses. This week, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent. On the floor, the sponsors introduced a new version of the bill….

Can YouTube 'Remove And Relocate' User Videos Capriciously?--Darnaa v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)

Can YouTube ‘Remove And Relocate’ User Videos Capriciously?–Darnaa v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)

Most of us uploading YouTube videos aren’t deeply invested in their continued availability. If YouTube removed our videos or relocated them to a different URL, we might be puzzled why but otherwise would probably shrug our shoulders. However, YouTube is…

Senate Commerce Committee Approves Consumer Review Freedom Act (Forbes Cross-Post)

Senate Commerce Committee Approves Consumer Review Freedom Act (Forbes Cross-Post)

The Consumer Review Freedom Act (S. 2044) would prevent businesses from contractually restricting their customers from writing online reviews (I call those “anti-review clauses,” but they are also called “gag clauses” and “non-disparagement clauses”). It seems ridiculous that we need…

You Can't Buy A Copyright Just To Bury It--Katz v. Chevaldina (Forbes Cross-Post)

You Can’t Buy A Copyright Just To Bury It–Katz v. Chevaldina (Forbes Cross-Post)

In the United States, copyright law principally serves as an economic policy by protecting creators’ ability to recoup the investments they make in generating new works that have value to society. As a result, copyright law gets weird when it’s…

Google Books Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Using 512(c)--Avdeef v. Google

Google Books Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Using 512(c)–Avdeef v. Google

The wheels of justice move slowly. To wit, the main Authors Guild vs. Google Books litigation has been percolating in the courts for almost a decade (September 20 is the 10 year anniversary–how do you plan to celebrate?!). Despite the…

Gmail Terms of Service Apply to reCAPTCHA During Account Formation--Rojas-Lozano v. Google

Gmail Terms of Service Apply to reCAPTCHA During Account Formation–Rojas-Lozano v. Google

This lawsuit against Google alleges that Google unfairly benefits from deploying a CAPTCHA process when users sign up for free gmail accounts. Specifically, the complaint alleged that Google unnecessarily included a second image in the CAPTCHA, and it relies on users…