Rip-off Report Lawsuit Updates: Certain Approval Programs and Ecommerce Innovations

March 12, 2009 · by · in Content Regulation, Derivative Liability, Privacy/Security, Publicity/Privacy Rights

By Eric Goldman

Certain Approval Program v. Xcentric

Certain Approval Programs, L.L.C. v. XCentric Ventures L.L.C., 2009 WL 596582 (D. Ariz. March 9, 2009). I previously blogged about this case in November. This ruling is in response to the plaintiff’s request to file an amended complaint, which Rip-off Report resisted on several grounds. Of particular interest is the plaintiff’s desire to add a claim for “misappropriation of name or likeness.” Rip-off Report responded that such a claim is futile due to 47 USC 230. The court rejected the futility argument at this early procedural stage, saying

Plaintiffs have alleged enough facts regarding Defendants’ “creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service” to make it plausible that Defendants are an “information content provider” for some content and therefore the CDA does not completely immunize Defendants.

This is not the first time that plaintiffs’ allegations against Rip-off Report have survived the equivalent of a motion to dismiss, but getting further into the litigation process has proven difficult for plaintiffs.

The court didn’t reach the issue, but it’s also germane to the futility argument whether a “misappropriation” claim is even preempted by 230 at all or if qualifies as an “intellectual property” claim that is excluded from the immunization. Compare ccBill and Friendfinder.

Ecommerce Innovations v Doe

Ecommerce Innovations, L.L.C. v. Does 1-10, No. MC-08-93 (D. Ariz. Feb. 10, 2009). Thanks to Jeff Neuburger for calling attention to this case. In this case, a defamation plaintiff is seeking identifying information for an anonymous Rip-off Report contributor. The Rip-off Report initially fought the request, but the district court ordered Rip-off Report to comply because the plaintiff had established a prima facie case. The Rip-off Report responded that it plans to appeal the judge’s order to the Ninth Circuit, and the district court has stayed the order pending the appeal (although I can’t find any evidence that the appeal has been filed yet). As Jeff points out, an appeal by Rip-off Report may prompt the Ninth Circuit to articulate its standards for when plaintiffs can unmask anonymous defendants; it also could become a backdoor way to gauge the Ninth Circuit’s attitude towards Rip-off Report in light of some ambiguous language in the initial Ninth Circuit Roommates.com opinion.