Repeated Unwanted Emails to Politician’s Personal Email Address Can be Harassment–Hagedorn v. Cattani
This is a First Amendment retaliation case. Plaintiff alleges that local officials retaliated against her for exercising her First Amendment rights. One of the defendants is mayor of the small village where plaintiff resided (Timberlake, “a small village of six-…
Court Rejects Gossip Site’s Fair Use Defense–Barcroft v. Coed Media
This is a copyright lawsuit by owners of celebrity photos against a gossip and entertainment website. It’s noteworthy because it went to trial and the plaintiffs prevailed, but the damage award is modest. The court finds that plaintiffs owns or validly…
App Listening For Audio Beacons May Be Illegal Wiretapping–Rackemann v. Colts
This is a lawsuit against the Colts and app developers, alleging that the Colts’ app activates a device’s microphone and temporarily records portions of audio, for advertising purposes. The app monitors the audio for “beacon tones” which are then used…
Ninth Circuit Blesses Amazon’s Terms of Service
Plaintiff appealed from a district court order granting Amazon’s motion to compel arbitration based on an arbitration clause in its “Conditions of Use.” My blog post on the trial court ruling: “Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service–Fagerstrom…
Face Scanning Lawsuit Against Shutterfly Survives Motion to Dismiss
This is a lawsuit against Shutterfly alleging violations of Illinois’ biometric information privacy act. The plaintiff, who is not a Shutterfly customer, alleged that a photograph of him was uploaded (by a Shutterfly customer) to Shutterfly’s site and the uploader…
No “Contract By Tweet” for Plaintiff Who Pitches Movie Idea via Social Media
This is an idea theft case based on the idea behind “Creed” the movie, a spinoff of the famous Rocky movies. Jarrett Alexander alleged that he came up with the idea for Creed, drafted the screenplay, and put together a…
Non-Compete Applies To Facebook Page for Unlaunched Business–Joseph v. O’Laughlin
This is another case where the defendant allegedly solicits customers or employees over social media in the face of a restrictive covenant. We recently blogged a couple of cases involving solicitations over LinkedIn. This case involves solicitations over Facebook. O’Laughlin…
On Remand, Ninth Circuit Says Robins Satisfied Article III Standing
Robins v. Spokeo is a putative class action that looked like it would examine the contours of Article III standing. The Supreme Court remanded to the Ninth Circuit so it could take a second look as to whether Spokeo’s allegations amounted…
‘Reaction’ Video Protected By Fair Use–Hosseinzadeh v. Klein
Plaintiff Matt Hosseinzadeh published a video skit featuring the “Bold Guy” character, “Bold Guy vs. Parkour Girl” video. Ethan and Hila Klein created a “reaction video” to it. Hosseinzadeh’s video is five minutes and twenty-four seconds. The Kleins used three…
Uber’s Contract Upheld in Second Circuit–Meyer v. Uber
This is a lawsuit alleging price fixing against Uber and its former CEO Travis Kalanick. Uber (and Kalanick) moved to compel arbitration on the basis of the arbitration clause in Uber’s terms of service. The district court found that Uber’s…