After hiQ Labs, Is Scraping Public Data Legal? (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Last year, the most important case in the history of web scraping—hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.—settled. After two trips to the 9th Circuit, a remand from the Supreme Court, and nearly six years of…
Form “Non-Disparagement” Clause Violated Consumer Review Fairness Act–State v. Ideal Horizon Benefits
In 2016, Congress enacted the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), which bans businesses from trying to contractually restrict their customers’ reviews. It represents a rare federal intervention into contract law, and it does so for good reasons–to reduce the ability…
A Preliminary Analysis of Trump’s Copyright Lawsuit Over Interview Recordings (Trump v. Simon & Schuster) (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: Prof. Ochoa calls this a “preliminary” analysis, but that doesn’t mean it’s short!] Two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward and his publisher, Simon & Schuster…
If You Ask Your Friend to Take Your Photo Using Your Camera, Who Owns the Copyright?–Shah v. NYP
Vivek Shah attended several Hollywood parties. While there, he preset the settings on his phone camera (including shutter speed, white balance, ISO, metering type, and exposure value) and asked friends or bystanders to use his phone to take photos of…
2022 Internet Law Year-in-Review
Three dynamics combined to make 2022 a brutal year for Internet Law. First, the techlash is taking its toll. There is widespread belief that the major incumbents are too big, too rich, and too capricious to avoid pervasive government control….
Twitter Defeats Account Suspension Lawsuit Again–Al-Ahmed v. Twitter
I previously described the case: This case involves the tragic situation where two Twitter employees allegedly became operatives for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and turned over sensitive information about the government’s critics to the Saudi Arabia government. I’m going…
Conflicting Terms of Service Provisions Undermine Arbitration Clause–Suski v. Coinbase
Coinbase launched “Dogecoin promotion” sweepstakes in 2021. Users sued Coinbase and its marketing agency, asserting claims under state law. Coinbase sought to send the case to arbitration, but there was a possible conflict in the governing TOSes. Coinbase’s standard terms…
2H 2022 Quick Links, Part 1 (Marketing, Privacy)
Marketing * FTC cracks down on live reads on the radio. * NY Times: Meta Agrees to Alter Ad Technology in Settlement With U.S. * Comcast v. Comptroller, No. C-02-cv-02-10509 (Md. Cir. Ct. Oct. 21, 2022). Court strikes down Maryland’s…
FitBit’s Contract Formation Upheld Despite Different Ways of Linking to the TOS—Houtchens v. Google (with Bonus Contracts Quick Links)
This is a consumer protection lawsuit against FitBit, now owned by Google. Google sought to send the case to arbitration based on the TOS provisions. The court sees this as a simple formation question because FitBit used a “clickwrap” (i.e.,…
Ninth Circuit Easily Rejects Another Jawboning Case–Huber v. Biden
I previously described the case: Twitter suspended Huber pursuant to its COVID misinformation policy. Huber claimed that Twitter took that action in league with the Biden administration. If this setup sounds familiar, that’s because at least a dozen cases riff…