Strike 3’s Copyright Litigation Campaign Completely Strikes Out
Another judge denies an unmasking subpoena to Strike 3, even though the judge has previously issued subpoenas to Strike 3, and even though it may mean that Strike 3’s infringement case will fail and Strike 3 will be left without…
Amazon Can’t Force Arbitration of Minors’ Privacy Claims Based on Alexa Recordings–BF v. Amazon
This lawsuit alleges that Alexa improperly stores the voiceprints of minor users. The trial court declines to order arbitration. (It’s the recommendation of a magistrate, so it will go to the district judge for adoption or modification of the order.)…
Section 230 Helps Tumblr Defeat Nonconsensual Pornography Suit–Poole v. Tumblr
This ruling came out in March, but it just showed up in my Westlaw alerts. I don’t know why it was delayed over 6 months. The opinion is topical and clear, so I thought it’s still worth blogging now. This…
More Teenagers Mistakenly Think “Private” Chat Conversations Will Remain Private–People v. JP
This is a story of four teenage girls and one teenage boy. The girls use the aliases “7Up” (a/k/a JP, the defendant in this case), “Lady Gaga,” “Dream Ruiner,” and “Me.” The boy, called S, allegedly engaged in anti-social behavior…
Ninth Circuit Declines to Shelve Lawsuit Alleging Facebook Violated Illinois Biometric Privacy Statute
Illinois enacted a biometric privacy statute which restricted the collection of biometric identifiers. Plaintiffs, Illinois residents and Facebook users, alleged that Facebook violated this statute by collecting, storing, and processing their face-scans without their consent and without establishing the requisite…
Terrible Ninth Circuit 230(c)(2) Ruling Will Make the Internet More Dangerous–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
The Ninth Circuit has issued a Section 230(c)(2) opinion that creates significant problems for anti-spyware/spam/virus vendors (I’ll call them “anti-threat vendors”). The ruling will paralyze their decision-making, expose them to greater legal threats, and reduce their ability to protect consumers…
And At the End of the Day, the CCPA Remains Very Much the Same (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tanya Forsheit I am back to provide a post mortem on what many have portrayed – inaccurately – as a long and successful battle by business interests to gut the CCPA. The legislative session is over and,…
Ninth Circuit Says LinkedIn Wrongly Blocked HiQ’s Scraping Efforts
Fans of scraping cases may rejoice. The Ninth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in the hiQ v. LinkedIn case (it was argued in March 2018, so the opinion took about 18 months). It rules in favor of hiQ. hiQ was…
The Circuitous International Travel of Your Data (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble Most Internet users probably do not know where their online data (aka “cloud data”) reside. Even fewer users likely have any idea of the paths over which their data travel. It is not difficult to picture…
Facebook Defeats Pro Se Consumer Privacy Suit–Hassan v. Facebook
This is a pro se privacy lawsuit by 4 longtime Facebook users (from 2007-09). It covers a lot of the same topics as the dozens of pending privacy class action lawsuits against Facebook. Not surprisingly, as a pro se suit,…