Court Rules That Kids Can Be Bound By Facebook’s Member Agreement
The status of kids’ ability to form contracts via online terms of service was somewhat uncertain over the last several years, with a few Facebook-related rulings raising questions. A group of minor plaintiffs who opted out of the Fraley v. Facebook…
Ninth Circuit Rejects Plaintiffs’ Bad Misreadings of eBay’s User Agreement–Block v. eBay
Even after all of these years, I remain amazed by the bizarre contract misinterpretations that plaintiffs’ lawyers are capable of. Today’s case targeted the eBay user agreement, a document of special interest to me given my contributions to the agreement…
IP Battle Between Jumpy House Manufacturers Isn’t Bounced – WhatRU Holding v. Bouncing Angels
At any moment, a product manufacturer can find itself trapped in a tangled nightmare of IP infringement claims. In WhatRU Holding, LLC v. Bouncing Angels, Inc., a district court in Minnesota found personal jurisdiction over a defendant company that sold…
Android and Pandora Privacy Rulings Accept Low Hurdle for Standing
A pair of rulings from Judge White in lawsuits involving the privacy practices of Android and Pandora employ a loose standard for standing and allowed plaintiffs in both cases to press forward with their claims. In re Google Android Consumer…
Court Blesses Instagram’s Right to Unilaterally Amend Its User Agreement–Rodriguez v. Instagram
Instagram revised its terms of service in December 2012. The revisions (1) stated that Instagram was disclaiming “ownership of content” posted by users, as opposed to disclaiming “any ownership rights in content” posted by users; (2) broadened the scope of…
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Facebook * MarketingLand’s coverage of Facebook’s increasingly complicated algorithm for ranking news feed stories. * People v. DeJesus, 2013 WL 6327657 (Cal. App. Ct. Dec. 4, 2013): As for defendant’s claim about an Internet posting to a group as potentially violating the trial court’s…
Sony PlayStation Data Breach Lawsuit Whittled Down but Moves Forward
We blogged previously about the claims resulting from the breach of the PlayStation networks. The claims did not receive a warm reception. (“Sony Network Data Breach Class Action Suffers Setback — In re Sony Gaming Networks”.) Plaintiffs were given a…
Federal Court in Virginia Court Says Domain Names Are Not Property, But Contractual Rights
Following the sex.com case from the Ninth Circuit, it is taken for granted that domain names are property that can be converted, sold, transferred, or subject to a creditor’s collection efforts. Interestingly, a federal district court in Virginia took a…
Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013 (Forbes Cross-Post)
A look back at the Internet law highlights of 2013: #10: Copyright Defendants Get High-Stakes Wins. 2013 saw several copyright defendants win long-running litigation affairs–and potentially crack open new markets, including (1) Google’s stirring win in its nearly decade-long Google…
Is Sacramento The World’s Capital of Internet Privacy Regulation? (Forbes Cross-Post)
It’s only two hours between Sacramento, California’s state capitol, and the Silicon Valley, the world’s technology capital, but when it comes to regulating the Internet, philosophically they are worlds apart. The two worlds collided in 2013 when Sacramento enacted a…