Court Orders Plaintiff to Turn Over Facebook and MySpace Passwords in Discovery Dispute — Zimmerman v. Weis Markets, Inc.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Zimmerman v. Weis Markets, Inc., CV-09-1535 (Pa. Ct. Common Pleas; May 19, 2011) Courts continue to struggle with the discoverability of social network evidence in civil cases and the logisictal problems posed by these discovery disputes….
Supreme Court Strikes Down Statute Restricting Sale and Use of “Prescriber” Data on First Amendment Grounds — Sorrell v. IMS
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., 10-779 (June 23, 2011) [pdf] The Supreme Court struck down a Vermont statute restricting the dissemination of “prescriber-identifiable” information for marketing purposes. While this case was viewed…
Court Finds That the Value of Bartered-For Services Constitutes Loss Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — Animators at Law v. Capital Legal Solutions
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Animators at Law, Inc. v. Capital Legal Solutions, 10cv1342 (E.D. Va.; May 10, 2011) This lawsuit presented an increasingly familiar fact pattern. Employees leave a company and the employer sues the ex-employees under the Computer Fraud…
Judge Ware: Google Not Entitled to “Readily Accessible to the General Public” Defense in Street View Class Action
[Post by Venkat Balasubrmani, with comments from Eric] In re Google Inc. Street View Electronic Communications Litigation, 2011 WL 2571632 (N.D. Cal. June 29, 2011) (Order) (Google’s Motion to Dismiss) (Google’s Reply) (Google’s Supplemental Brief) (EPIC’s Amicus Brief) The multitudinous…
San Diego County Bar Tackles Lawyer Friend Requests and the Ex Parte Rule
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] The San Diego County Bar Association recently tackled the issue of whether a lawyer’s friend request to an employee of a party violates the rule barring ex-parte communications by a lawyer with a party whom the…
Court Conducts in camera Review of Plaintiff’s Facebook Page to Resolve Discovery Dispute — Offenback v. Bowman
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Offenback v. Bowman, 10-CV-1789 (M.D. Pa.; June 22, 2011) Background: Discovery disputes over Facebook accounts and whether they are discoverable in civil cases are piling up. Courts and litigants continue to grapple with the central problem…
Employer Who Fails to Consistently Enforce Computer Usage Policy Cannot use the Policy to Justify Dismissal — Branson v. Harrah’s
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Branson v. Harrah’s Tunica Corp., et al., 08-cv-02804-BBD-cgc (W.D. Tn; June 3, 2011) (decision) Background: Branson was an employee with the Grand Casino for over ten years, from 1996 to 2007. Harrah’s acquired Grand in 2006….
Bank ACH Fraud Victims Get Mixed Rulings — Experi-Metal v. Comerica Bank & Patco Constr. v. People’s United Bank
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] We have posted on numerous cases involving data breach plaintiffs who are rebuffed by courts because they have not suffered cognizable harm such as out-of-pocket losses. A pair of recent cases involved businesses whose bank accounts…
April-May 2011 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * Google is working on a deal with the DOJ over illegal pharmaceutical ads and has set aside $500M for fines. Some background on the problem. Google isn’t the only search engine with problematic pharmaceutical…
NebuAd Deep Packet Inspection Lawsuits Sputter — Deering v. CenturyTel & Green v. Cable One
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] The alleged monitoring and use of ISP subscribers’ internet activity for advertisement targeting purposes by NebuAd spawned a slew of class actions. NebuAd shut down, leaving plaintiffs to go after the individual ISPs who partnered with…