Federal courts have long authorized service via email under Rule 4(f) for foreign defendants. The rule says that an individual in a foreign country can be served by (1) internationally agreed upon means such as the Hague Convention; (2) if…
I’ve often joked that the FTC and state AGs choose to live in a fantasy world where Section 230 doesn’t exist. A new ruling from the Second Circuit has turned my joke on its ear, suggesting that my underlying fears–of…
It’s a highlight of my day to read an opinion that starts out: the litigants “are competitors in the dog waste disposal industry.” Blogging can be a crappy gig, but someone’s gotta do it. The litigants have competing offerings that…
Con-way and R+L compete in the freight business. XPO bought Con-way, and the acquisition sparked apparently non-speculative concerns that some Con-way employees would be laid off (which layoffs did indeed ensue, e.g., 1, 2). Before any definitive layoff plans were…
This is a consolidated lawsuit brought by Uber drivers asserting FCRA and employee misclassification claims. Both named drivers were terminated after negative information surfaced in their credit report. Both drivers agreed to a 2013 version of Uber’s driver agreement, and…
Publicity right laws often prohibit the use of third parties’ names (or other aspects of their personalities) “for commercial purposes.” So what’s a “commercial purpose”? Fuck if I know. We might make the term coextensive with the Constitutional law definition…
Last night, the House passed the Consumer Review Fairness Act. The Senate passed the nearly identical Consumer Review Freedom Act back in December. I’ll discuss in a moment the minor variations between the two. Because of these differences, the Senate…
[Note: Venkat represented Yelp in this case but was not involved in the preparation of this post.] For all of the drama associated with Section 230 jurisprudence this year–including in the Ninth Circuit–it’s easy to forget that Section 230 still…
This is a copyright lawsuit over real estate photos. This genre of litigation has surprising vitality! Stross is a photographer and broker who participates in multiple listing services (MLSs).He alleges that Redfin infringed because (1) it used “Stross’s photographs of sold…
Knutsson was a technology reporter and creator of the “CyberGuy” persona. He worked for TV station KTLA between 1996 and 2011. In 2005, he entered into an agreement with KTLA to be paid an annual salary of $325,000 a year…