Ninth Circuit Rejects Plaintiffs’ Bad Misreadings of eBay’s User Agreement–Block v. eBay
Even after all of these years, I remain amazed by the bizarre contract misinterpretations that plaintiffs’ lawyers are capable of. Today’s case targeted the eBay user agreement, a document of special interest to me given my contributions to the agreement…
Court Spoils “Banana Lady’s” Appeal Over Online Recordings of Her Act
Catherine Conrad is the “Banana Lady” (see her Facebook photos) who delivers singing birthday telegrams. I didn’t know such things still exist, but perhaps they do in the Midwest (she’s based in the Madison, Wisconsin area). For reasons the court…
CafePress May Not Qualify For 512 Safe Harbor – Gardner v. CafePress
Gardner is a wildlife photographer. He sued CafePress and Beverly Teall alleging that Teall sold a product through CafePress displaying one of Gardner’s images. While only one image was at issue in the operative complaint, prior to mediation, plaintiff’s counsel…
Court Blesses Instagram’s Right to Unilaterally Amend Its User Agreement–Rodriguez v. Instagram
Instagram revised its terms of service in December 2012. The revisions (1) stated that Instagram was disclaiming “ownership of content” posted by users, as opposed to disclaiming “any ownership rights in content” posted by users; (2) broadened the scope of…
Employer Who Takes Over Employee’s Social Media Accounts May Commit Privacy Violation–Maremont v Susan Fredman Design
We’ve blogged about the dispute between Maremont and Susan Fredman Design Group before. Maremont was employed as SFDG’s social media consultant, and when she was injured in a severe accident, SFDG allegedly continued to access (1) a Twitter account registered…
Daughter’s Celebratory Facebook Post Really “Sucked”–Gulliver Schools v. Snay
Patrick Snay was headmaster at Gulliver Preparatory School, a private school in the Miami area. The school didn’t renew his contract, so he sued for age discrimination and retaliation. The parties settled confidentially for $150k, broken down as $10k of…
In Its “Innocence of Muslims” Ruling, the Ninth Circuit is Guilty of Judicial Activism–Garcia v. Google
In a ruling that sent shockwaves through the internet community, the Ninth Circuit, with one judge dissenting, found that an injunction should have been granted against YouTube, requiring removal of the “Innocence of Muslims” film. Does Garcia have a copyright…
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 5 (Miscellaneous)
* Ars Technica: How the feds took down the Dread Pirate Roberts. A great story on how hard it is to remain anonymous online against determined federal agents. * Nice Reuters retrospective on Judge Rader. * DailyDot: The battle to destroy Wikipedia’s biggest sockpuppet army. Related: Is Wikipedia…
Copyright Suit Over Second Life Terraforming Survives Summary Judgment, Then Settles — FireSabre v. Linden
What happens when a virtual world designer sues for “unauthorized” use of a virtual “island?” In late September, a New York district court denied summary judgment and cleared the way for a full trial on a virtual world copyright infringement…
Federal Court in Virginia Court Says Domain Names Are Not Property, But Contractual Rights
Following the sex.com case from the Ninth Circuit, it is taken for granted that domain names are property that can be converted, sold, transferred, or subject to a creditor’s collection efforts. Interestingly, a federal district court in Virginia took a…