Agence France-Presse Claims Twitter’s Terms of Use Authorize Its Use of Photographs Posted to TwitPic — Agence France-Presse v. Morel

[Post by Venkat] Agence France-Presse v. Morel, Case No. 10-civ-2730 (S.D.N.Y.) (March 26, 2010) The Agence France-Presse (AFP) is involved in litigation over photographs it acquired through Twitter. This could turn into a debacle for AFP, if it hasn’t already…

Email Header Information Claim Preempted by CAN-SPAM, But Subject Line Claim Not Preempted — Asis Internet Servs. v. Member Source Media, LLC

[Post by Venkat] Asis Internet Services v. Member Source Media, LLC, No. C-08-1321 EMC (N.D. Cal.) (April 20, 2010) Yet another CAN-SPAM preemption ruling, this one is also from the Northern District of California and it also involves veteran spam…

Interesting Database Scraping Case Survives Summary Judgment–Snap-On Business Solutions v. O’Neil

[Post by Venkat, with additional comments from Eric below] Snap-on Business Solutions Inc. v. O’Neil & Assocs., Inc. (N.D. Ohio April 16, 2010) [scribd] Snap-on is one of those cases that’s great because the court canvasses the various claims that…

Spammer Convicted on Wire Fraud Charges — United States v. Diamreyan

[Post by Venkat] United States v. Diamreyan, 09-cr-0260 (JCH) (D. Conn.) (April 16, 2010) Earlier this year Okpako Mike Diamreyan was found guilty of wire fraud. The district court recently denied his motion for judgment of acquittal. Diamreyan “was charged…

Reunion.com Revisited Again: Claims Under CA Spam Law Not Preempted by CAN-SPAM — Hoang v. Reunion.com

[Post by Venkat] Hoang v. Reunion.com, No. C-08-3518 MMC (March 31, 2010) Reunion.com is a long-running case that’s been blogged extensively by Ethan and others. A group of plaintiffs who received emails through Reunion’s alleged “invite your friends whether you…

Yahoo! Chat Logs Admitted Over Defendant’s Objections Based on Eavesdropping Statute — People v. Nakai

[Post by Venkat] State v. Singh Nakai, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 446 (Cal. App.) (Div. 2) (April 2, 2010) Division two of the California Court of Appeals recently rejected a defendant’s argument that California’s eavesdropping statute precluded the admission of…

Ninth Circuit Applies California law to Domain Name Ownership Dispute and Remands for Determination of Whether “Innocent Purchaser” Defense Applies — CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton

[Post by Venkat] CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton, 9th Cir. (April 6, 2010). Background: Mayberry registered rl.com through Network Solutions in 1995. At the time, mat.net was also registered to him. Mayberry provided dale@mat.net as the email address for the…

Unmasked Judge/Commenter Sues Newspaper for $50mm — Saffold v. Plain Dealer

[Post by Venkat] Saffold v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (filed April 7, 2010) [scribd] A judge/commenter who was unmasked by the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reportedly suing the newspaper for 50 million dollars. (h/t…

Fourth Circuit: Email, ECF, and Domain Name Woes do not Excuse Failure to Respond to Summary Judgment Motion — Robinson v. Wix Filtration

[Post by Venkat] Robinson v. Wix Filtration Corp. LLC, 4th Cir. (Mar. 26, 2010) [scribd] The Fourth Circuit recently held that the district court properly granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant, and rejected plaintiff’s argument that counsel’s failure…

N.D. Cal Rejects Preemption and Standing Defenses Against Claims Under CA Spam Statute — Asis Internet Servs. v. Subscriberbase Inc.

[Post by Venkat] Asis Internet Services v. Subscriberbase Inc., (N.D. Cal.) Case No. 09-3505 SC; April 1, 2010 [scribd] Judge Conti (in the Northern District of California) issued a potentially significant decision last week that keeps the door open for…