Facebook Complaints About Boss’s Creepy Hands Can’t Salvage Retaliation/Harassment Claims
DeBord worked for Mercy Health systems. Some five years into her tenure, she wrote several Facebook posts during work hours complaining about her boss, Weaver: [at 900am] Sara DeBord loves it when my boss adds an extra $600.00 on my…
Ill-Advised Student YouTube Video Leads to Conviction For Misusing Computerized Communication System–In re Kaleb K.
Kaleb, a high school student, allegedly created a YouTube video with a rap song about his Spanish teacher that contained “crude and vulgar language” about the teacher. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a “computerized…
Ninth Circuit Kills Contributory ACPA Cybersquatting Doctrine–Petronas v. GoDaddy
A domain name registrant transferred the petronastower.net and petronastowers.net domain names into GoDaddy and used GoDaddy’s name forwarding service to direct them to (NSFW) canfunchat.com. Petronas asked GoDaddy to turn over the domain names to Petronas. GoDaddy declined. Petronas sued,…
Privacy Plaintiffs Lose Because They Didn’t Rely on Apple’s Privacy Representations — In re iPhone App Litigation
Plaintiffs sued Apple claiming they relied on privacy representations from Apple and that the iOS environment was designed to “easily” allow for transmission of user information to third parties. A separate sub-class alleged that Apple collected location information even when…
It’s Illegal For Offline Retailers To Collect Email Addresses–Capp v. Nordstrom
The California Supreme Court issued a decision a couple of years ago holding that a zip code is “personal identification information” under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1974, making it illegal for retailers to ask consumers to provide zip…
AFP & Getty’s Republication of Twitter/Twitpic-Sourced Photos Turns Out to Be Costly – AFP v. Morel
This is a long-running copyright infringement case that we’ve covered repeatedly. (My most recent post with a pre-trial recap: AFP v. Morel – Lawsuit Over Haiti Photos Taken From Twitter/Twitpic Goes to Trial.) AFP and (through AFP) Getty thought they had…
Fake LinkedIn Profile May Cause Trademark Infringement – Avepoint v. Axceler
Avepoint, Inc. v. Power Tools, Inc. d/b/a Axceler, 7:13CV00035 (W.D. Va. Nov. 7, 2013) Avepoint and Axceler are competitors providing “infrastructure management and governance software platforms for Microsoft Sharepoint products and technologies.” Avepoint alleged that Axceler denigrated Avepoint online. Specifically,…
Employee Termination Based on Mistaken Belief of Facebook Post Authorship Upheld — Smizer v. Community Mennonite Early Learning Ctr.
Smizer v. Community Mennonite Early Learning Ctr, 2013 WL 5769936 (7th Cir. Oct. 25, 2013) [pdf] Lawrence Smizer was a teacher’s aide at Mennonite Early Learning Center. His sister was apparently involved in a bitter custody dispute involving her son….
AFP v. Morel – Lawsuit Over Haiti Photos Taken From Twitter/Twitpic Goes to Trial
We’ve previously covered AFP v. Morel, the case where photographer Daniel Morel is suing AFP, Getty and downstream licenses for allegedly infringing on his copyrighted material. In a nutshell, he took some iconic photos following the Haiti earthquake. AFP sourced…
Social Worker’s Facebook Rant Justified Termination — Shepherd v. McGee
Shepherd v. McGee, 2013 U.S. Dist LEXIS 159432 (D. Or. Nov. 7, 2013) Plaintiff Jennifer Shepherd was a child protective services (CPS) caseworker for the Oregon Dept. of Human Services (DHS). She investigated reports of child abuse and made recommendations…