No Privacy Claim Against Netflix for Disclosing Viewing Histories and Instant Queue Titles Through Netflix-Enabled Devices — Mollett v. Netflix
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Mollett v. Netflix, 11-CV-01629 (N.D. Cal.; Aug 17, 2012) This is a putative class action under the Video Privacy Protection Act alleging Netflix violated the VPPA (and Cal. Civ. Code 1799.3) by .. get this …..
6th Circuit Allows Police GPS Tracking on Prepaid “Burner” Phones — United States v. Skinner
[Post by Jake McGowan] United States v. Skinner, 09-6497 (6th Cir. August 14, 2012) If the name Stringer Bell means anything to you, you probably know what a “burner” is. The third season of The Wire saw aspiring drug runner…
Judge Alsup Tells Google to Try Harder With Its Shill Disclosures
By Eric Goldman Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., 3:10-cv-03561-WHA (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 2012) I can’t imagine Google is surprised that Judge Alsup did not like its response to his request that Google and Oracle disclose potential shills in…
Oracle and Google Make Unenlightening Disclosures of their “Shills”
By Eric Goldman In Oracle v. Google, Judge Alsup recently ordered the parties to: [f]ile a statement . . . identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in the case and who…
Section 230 Immunizes Links to Defamatory Third Party Content–Directory Assistants v. Supermedia
By Eric Goldman Directory Assistants, Inc. v. Supermedia, LLC, 2012 WL 3329615 (E.D. Va. May 30, 2012) [For some reason, this case just appeared in my Westlaw alerts today. Even at this late date, it’s worth sharing. I have a…
No Fourth Amendment Violation When Your Facebook “Friend” Shares Profile Information With Law Enforcement–US v. Meregildo
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] US v. Meregildo, No. 11 CR 576 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y.; Aug 10, 2012) Colon moved to suppress evidence seized from his Facebook account pursuant to a warrant. He did not contest the finding of probable cause, but…
Six-Month Retrospective of SOPA’s Demise [Forbes Cross-Post, A Month Late!] + SOPA/PROTECT-IP/OPEN Linkwrap #3
By Eric Goldman [This post is composed of three parts. The first part, all 2,700 words of it, is a cross-post from Forbes last month assessing where we stood 6 months after January 18, 2012. Sorry it’s taken me so…
No Liability for Takedown Notice that Results in Termination of Facebook Page — Lown Cos. v. Piggy Paint
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Lown Companies v. Piggy Paint, LLC, 1:11-cv-911 (W.D. Mich.; Aug. 9, 2012) Lown and Piggy Paint are squabbling over “piggy paint” trademarks. Lown has a registration for “PIGGY POLISH,” and alleges that…
Bank Might Bear Loss for Fraudulent Money Transfers Initiated From Its Website–Patco v Ocean Bank (Catch-Up Post)
By Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan (with Venkat’s supervision), with a comment from Eric Patco v. Ocean Bank, 11-2031 (1st Cir. July 3, 2012) When a scammer siphons money from a customer’s online bank account, should the bank or the customer…
Introducing Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan, and Another Request for Help
By Eric Goldman As I recently mentioned, I am also blogging at my Forbes blog, Tertium Quid. To help balance out some of this blog’s workload, I’m pleased to introduce the Technology & Marketing Law Blog’s first-ever blogging assistant, Jake…