9th Circuit Issues a Blogger-Friendly First Amendment Opinion–Obsidian Finance v. Cox
This case involves defamation claims brought by Kevin Padrick of Obisidian Finance Group against Crystal Cox. Obsidian (Padrick) was the Chapter 11 Trustee for Summit Accomodators, and Cox wrote a series of posts accusing Padrick and Obsidian of fraud, corruption,…
Federal Court in Virginia Court Says Domain Names Are Not Property, But Contractual Rights
Following the sex.com case from the Ninth Circuit, it is taken for granted that domain names are property that can be converted, sold, transferred, or subject to a creditor’s collection efforts. Interestingly, a federal district court in Virginia took a…
Nurse Properly Fired and Denied Unemployment Due to Facebook Rant
Guevarra worked as a staff nurse at Seton Medical Center for 12 years. In mid-May 2011, shortly before she went to work, she posted the following Facebook post: Instead of spending my birthday celebrating, I will be working all night…
Protip: Don’t Send Emails Threatening to “Inflict the Maximum Amount of Financial Pain” Allowed By Law
Dr. Karan wanted to open a call center in India to assist doctors in handling patient calls. He entered into agreements with Computech and mLogica, two entities owned by his childhood friend, Amit Okhandiar. Under the agreement, the two entities…
Video Privacy Protection Act Plaintiffs Can Proceed Against Hulu Absent Showing of Actual Injury
Plaintiffs sued Hulu asserting violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act based on alleged disclosures to Comscore and Facebook of plaintiffs’ viewing information. The court denied an initial motion to dismiss by Hulu based on standing. Hulu later brought a…
Company That Facilitates Digital Access to Public Records Uses CFAA to Block Scraper
[Eric’s introduction: this post has been sitting in our tank over a month. I put a hold on it when I was considering using this fact pattern for my Internet Law exam. I decided to go in a different direction,…
Minors’ Suit Over Facebook Credits Continues – I.B. v. Facebook
This is a lawsuit over minors’ purchase of Facebook credits. The court only partially granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss on the first go-around, and on the second go-around does the same. (Previous post: Minors’ Suit Over Facebook Credits Survives in Part…
Court Accepts Narrow View of CAN-SPAM Preemption but Ultimately Dismisses Claims – Davison Design v. Riley
This is a lawsuit over spam emails. I know, it’s 2013, but bear with me. Riley sent a demand letter alleging that numerous emails sent by or on behalf of plaintiff violated California’s spam statute. Plaintiff turned around and filed…
Prosecutor Makes Ill-Advised Tweets During Criminal Case–State v. Polk
Polk was convicted of assaulting an 11 year old some 20 years after the event, in part based on DNA evidence. The prosecutor (@JenniferJoyceCA) tweeted about the case during the trial: Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce repeatedly used her Twitter…
Police Officer’s Facebook Post Criticizing Her Boss Isn’t Protected Speech–Graziosi v. Greenville
Graziosi was a Sergeant of the Greenville Police Department. She alleges she was wrongfully discharged due to comments she posted to Facebook. She posted the following to her page and to the “Elect Chuck Jordan Mayor” page: I just found out…