State Laws Restricting Social Media Use by Sex Offenders Are Failing in Court
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Statutory schemes in three different states intending to regulating the online activities of convicted sex offenders have meet with judicial disapproval. Doe v. Nebraska, 09CV456 (D. Neb. Oct. 17, 2012): Nebraska’s statute…
Is Recusal Required When a Judge is Facebook “Friends” With a Prosecutor? Question Certified to Florida Supreme Court — Domville v. State
[Post by @VBalasubramani] Domville v. State, No. 4D12 556 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Jan. 16, 2013) [pdf] We blogged about a decision where a Florida court ruled that a judge who was hearing a criminal case and was Facebook friends…
Social Media Evidence Roundup – January 2013 Edition
Social media discovery disputes continue to pop up in the courts, and courts haven’t settled on a set of uniform rules to deal with these disputes. Here is a roundup of the latest set of cases dealing with the issue…
Court Definitively Rejects AFP’s Argument That Posting a Photo to Twitter Grants AFP a License to Freely Use It — AFP v. Morel
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] AFP v. Morel, 10 Civ. 02730 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 14, 2013) The court *finally* issued its ruling on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment in AFP v. Morel, the Haiti photo case. Previous posts here and…
Tenured Teacher Properly Fired for Facebook Quips About Her Students–In re Tenure Hearing of Jennifer O’Brien
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] In the Matter of the Tenure Hearing of Jennifer O’Brien, State Operated School District of the City of Patterson, Passaic County, 2013 WL 132508 (Jan. 11, 2013) [pdf] O’Brien taught in New…
Virginia Supreme Court: Litigant Who “Cleans up” His Facebook Page May Be Sanctioned
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Allied Concrete v. Lester, 2013 Va. LEXIS 8 (Jan. 10, 2013) This case generated some attention at the trial court phase, but for whatever reason I didn’t have a chance to blog it. Lester and his…
Privacy Plaintiffs in Deep Packet Inspection Case Get No Love From the Tenth Circuit — Kirch v. Embarq Managmenet
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Kirch v. Embarq Management, No. 11-3275 (10th Cir. Dec. 28, 2012) This is an appeal from one of the many lawsuits against IAPs for implementing the ill-fated NebuAd “deep packet inspection” system. Here’s my post on…
Google’s Privacy Policy Integration Initially Defeats Legal Challenge — In re Google Privacy Policy Litigation
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] In re Google, Inc. Privacy Policy Litigation, C 12-01382 PSG (N.D. Cal.; Dec. 28, 2012) In a decision that should be closely watched by the Instagram plaintiffs who are complaining about Instagram’s…
Sale of “Damn You Auto Correct!” Website Leads to Fights Over Its Google Analytics Numbers — Studio 159 v. PopHang, LLC, et al.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Studio 159 v. PopHang, LLC & NextPoint, Inc., 2012 WL 6675790 (C.D. Cal.; Dec. 21, 2012) (Copy of Purchase and Sale Agreement) Studio 159 sold to PopHang and Nextpoint (Break Media) 22…
Court Dismisses Class Action Against Apple Over Its App Developers’ Information Collection Practices – Pirozzi v. Apple
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Pirozzi v. Apple, 2012 WL 6652453 (N.D. Cal.; Dec. 20, 2012) This is one of several putative class actions over the information collection practices of apps. I previously covered how the lawsuit…