Google Gets Dismissal of Lawsuit Over Privacy Policy Integration–In re Google Privacy Policy
This is another potentially important but head-scratching Northern District of California ruling in an Internet privacy lawsuit. This lawsuit involves Google’s integration of its various product-specific databases of user information into one giant across-Google Database of Ruin. It was inevitable…
Why Google’s Fair Use Victory In Google Books Suit Is A Big Deal–And Why It Isn’t (Forbes Cross-Post)
Last month, federal judge Denny Chin rejected a copyright challenge Google’s practices of scanning books into digital format and presenting snippets of those scans in search results because the practices qualify as fair use. It’s an exciting and hard-fought victory…
Previewing Lexmark vs Static Control, A Rare Supreme Court Case On False Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)
[Introductory note: Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Lexmark v. Static Controls case. The transcript. Yesterday at Forbes, I posted a case preview. I’m sharing that here with you now; it’s still useful context-setting for the oral…
Privacy Plaintiffs Lose Because They Didn’t Rely on Apple’s Privacy Representations — In re iPhone App Litigation
Plaintiffs sued Apple claiming they relied on privacy representations from Apple and that the iOS environment was designed to “easily” allow for transmission of user information to third parties. A separate sub-class alleged that Apple collected location information even when…
It’s Illegal For Offline Retailers To Collect Email Addresses–Capp v. Nordstrom
The California Supreme Court issued a decision a couple of years ago holding that a zip code is “personal identification information” under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1974, making it illegal for retailers to ask consumers to provide zip…
Facebook Rant Against ‘Arial’ Font Helps Reverse Sex Offender Determination
Another day, another workplace problem due to an off-hours Facebook rant. Doe is a convicted sex offender. He fought the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board’s determination that he needed to register as a level 3 sex offender. As part of…
AFP & Getty’s Republication of Twitter/Twitpic-Sourced Photos Turns Out to Be Costly – AFP v. Morel
This is a long-running copyright infringement case that we’ve covered repeatedly. (My most recent post with a pre-trial recap: AFP v. Morel – Lawsuit Over Haiti Photos Taken From Twitter/Twitpic Goes to Trial.) AFP and (through AFP) Getty thought they had…
WhitePages Gets Its Inevitable Section 230 Win–Nasser v. WhitePages
WhitePages.com publishes white pages information (get it?). It obtained and published information from third parties that incorrectly listed Nasser’s phone number as a Comcast phone number. As a result, Nasser got a voluminous number of angry phone calls intended for…
Google’s Forum-Selection Clause Upheld Again–Rudgayzer v. Google
Over the years, Google has defended its standardized agreements numerous times in court. As with its litigation portfolio generally, Google has had an excellent success rate in these cases. Recently, another court upheld Google’s member agreement–not a surprising outcome, but…
Did Monster Energy Make A ‘Dope’ Contract With DJ Z-Trip? Nope (Forbes Cross-Post)
What is the legal meaning of the word “Dope”? Monster Energy argued that the word “Dope!” granted it permission to publish copyrighted material. The court says nope. Monster Energy put together a promotional YouTube video that used a remix (the…