Court Declines to Dismiss Data Breach Claims Against Facebook Based on Access Token Incident–Bass v. Facebook
This is a data breach lawsuit against Facebook. Judge Alsup denies Facebook’s motion to dismiss, although he does find that Facebook’s contract disclaimer (likely) neutralizes numerous contract-based claims. Background: Facebook announced a vulnerability that allowed third parties to obtain “access…
Court Rejects Service of Process Via Amazon Messaging–Noco v. Chang
This is a trademark infringement lawsuit. Plaintiff alleges that defendant improperly uses plaintiff’s brand name to sell infringing or counterfeit products “entirely online through [an] Amazon merchant account.” Defendant used the merchant account named “Co2Crea,” and defendant also applied to…
Ex-Employee’s Continued Use of Twitter Account May Be Conversion–Farm Journal v. Johnson
This is another ownership dispute over a Twitter account. We last blogged this topic several years ago, and none of the disputes we’ve seen have resulted in any definitive rulings. Plaintiff publishes trade publications in the agricultural sector, including “The…
Second Circuit Judges Brawl Over the Meaning of “Volition” in Copyright Cases–BWP v. Polyvore
This is an appeal of a summary judgment ruling in favor of Polyvore, an image clipping and sharing site, also known as a “mood board” app. (The site itself was acquired and, as the court notes, is now shut down.)…
Allegedly Defamatory Tweet About Non-Resident Insufficient to Confer Jurisdiction
This is a lawsuit for defamation brought by Jason Miller. The particular claims in question arise out of a tweet. Miller was an advisor on the Trump campaign and later became a commentator and consultant. He was allegedly involved in…
Another Government Impermissibly Censors Constituents on Facebook–Robinson v. Hunt County
This lawsuit alleges censorship by the administrators of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. The Facebook page invited “input and POSITIVE comments regarding the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office.” The page was intended to discuss “matters of public interest,” but…
Court Says California’s Anti-Spam Statute Doesn’t Regulate Affiliate Networks–Bank v. Hydra
This judgment followed a bench trial in a case over three unwanted email messages. The case was originally filed in 2010! The plaintiff is a lawyer suing pro se. The defendant is Hydra Group, which operated an affiliate network. The…
Tweet Containing Question Mark Isn’t Defamatory–Boulger v. Woods
In 2016, the Chicago Tribune published a photo of a woman giving a Nazi salute at a Trump rally. Twitter user @voxday wrongly identified the plaintiff as that woman. Shortly afterwards, actor James Woods, who then had 350,000 twitter users,…
Post-Charlottesville Doxxing and Misidentification Creates Legal Risks–Vangheluwe v. GotNews
This is a lawsuit brought by former owners of a car who were incorrectly identified as the driver of the vehicle (and his father, respectively) who ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians in Charlottesville. In the wake of the planned…
Illinois Supreme Court Authorizes Biometric Lawsuits Without Any Allegation of Harm–Rosenbach v. Six Flags
Six Flags, the amusement park operator, allegedly violated Illinois Biometric Privacy Statute by collecting a minor’s fingerprint without consent. The state appeals court held that plaintiff had to allege harm beyond the information collection without consent. The Illinois state supreme…