Another Credit Card Breach Lawsuit Fails – Willingham v. Global Payments
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Willingham v. Global Payments, Inc., 12-CV-01157 (N.D. Ga. Feb 5, 2013) (case later dismissed by the parties) This is a data breach lawsuit arising out of an incident in which credit card information was purloined from…
Griping Blogger Protected by Fair Use But Not Section 230–Ascend Health v. Wells
By Eric Goldman Ascend Health Corp. v. Wells, 2013 WL 1010589 (E.D.N.C. March 14, 2013) Brenda Wells gripes about University Behavioral Health of Denton (“UBH”) at two blogs, which she promotes via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. UBH and related parties…
Book Recommendation: “Trademark and Deceptive Advertising Surveys”
By Eric Goldman I read only a couple of books per year. As very long-form scholarship, books usually require big blocks of time to read (and I rarely have such blocks), and I typically find the payoff isn’t worth the…
IMDB’s Disclosure of Actress’s Age Will Go To Trial – Hoang v. Amazon
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric] Hoang v. IMDb.com, C11-1709MJP (W.D. Wash. Mar. 18, 2013) We’ve blogged about this dispute—involving an actress’s attempt to hold IMDb liable for publishing her age against her wishes—before. The court recently…
It’s Legally Okay if Google Thinks Your Name and Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Have Something to Do With Each Other (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Google Inc., 2013 WL 811793 (7th Cir. March 6, 2013). Would you be upset if people searching for your name are prompted to search for your name plus the name of an erectile dysfunction drug like…
Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Software Company Liable for Surveillance Conducted by Its Customer – Luis v. Zang
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Luis v. Zang, 12 cv 629 (S.D. Oh. Mar. 5, 2013) Divorces have spawned some of the most interesting privacy disputes, such as the cases involving whether GPS surveillance of a vehicle violated one spouse’s privacy…
Ex-Employer’s Hijacking of a LinkedIn Account Is a Publicity Rights Violation–Eagle v. Morgan
[By Venkat with comments from Eric] Eagle v. Morgan, 11-4303 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 12, 2013) We’ve previously covered this dispute over a LinkedIn account. (See Another Set of Parties Duel Over Social Media Contacts; Battle Over LinkedIn Account Between Employer…
“Regulation of Social Media and Mobile Media” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman Last month, I spoke at the ABA Antitrust Section’s always-well-done Consumer Protection Conference. This time I was recruited as the provocateur to discuss the challenges of regulating social media and mobile media. Regular readers know where I…
Family Law Judge Discounts Tweets That Threatened Children and Discussed Alcohol Use – R.M. v. D.Z.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] R.M. v. D.Z., 2013 IL App (3d) 120846-U (Mar. 4, 2013) [
Court Dismisses Data Breach Lawsuit Against LinkedIn Based on Compromised Passwords – In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, 2013 WL 844291 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 5, 2013) [pdf] LinkedIn suffered a data breach in 2012. Someone allegedly posted 6.5 million passwords and email addresses from LinkedIn users on the…