Print-on-Demand Vendor Doesn’t Qualify for DMCA Safe Harbor–Feingold v. RageOn
This case involves two copyright-protected photos that users submitted to the RageOn print-on-demand service. Among other defenses, RageOn invoked the DMCA safe harbor. The Greg Young v. Zazzle case held that Zazzle qualified for the 512(c) safe harbor for displaying…
Local Craigslist Ads Are Part of Interstate Commerce–US v. Luong
Luong advertised a used car on Craigslist’s San Francisco Bay Area site, in the “Dublin/Pleasanton/Livermore” subsection of the “East Bay” section. This area is sometimes called the Livermore Valley. From Livermore to the closest point in Nevada is about 200…
Supreme Court Promotes Weaponization of Generic Domain Names–USPTO v. Booking.com
The USPTO believed that “generic.com” domain names were almost always generic and therefore unregistrable. On that basis, it denied registration for Booking.com. The Supreme Court holds that generic.com domain names aren’t necessarily generic, which means they have the potential to…
Court Upholds Formation of a Lengthy Contract Presented on a Mobile Device–Hidalgo v. AAU
The plaintiffs are suing over a data breach. The defendant sought to invoke its arbitration clause in its membership agreement. The court finds the contract formed and sends the case to arbitration. The case involves the following screenshot as part…
Another Court Rejects Turo’s Eligibility for Section 230–Turo v. Los Angeles
As I previously blogged: Turo is a peer-to-peer marketplace for car rentals. “Colloquially put, Turo is the ‘Airbnb’ of private motor vehicles.” Though Turo doesn’t dictate where the buyer and seller exchange the car, Turo facilitates matches at airports, either…
Reviewing the Americans With Disabilities Act’s Application to Websites–Martinez v. SDCCU
Following the Ninth Circuit’s Robles v. Domino’s opinion, we’ve entered a period of relative clarity about when websites constitute “places of public accommodation” for purposes of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). A recent court opinion, over a financial institution’s…
The CCPA Proposed Regs’ Data Valuation Calculation Provisions Provide Flexibility, But Raise Ambiguity & Transparency Concerns
by guest blogger Lourdes M. Turrecha, Privacy Tech & Law Fellow at Santa Clara Law [Eric’s Note: I am working on a mondo blog post about the AG’s final CCPA regulations. In the interim, I’m sharing this post from Lourdes…
Brokerage Account Formation Process Upheld–Valelly v. Merrill Lynch
The plaintiffs contend that their Merrill Lynch brokerage money was swept into unduly low-earning accounts. Among other things, they alleged breach of a quasi-contract, a claim that cannot work if there was an express contract. So, at issue in this…
Armslist Wins Another Section 230 Ruling–Stokinger v. Armslist
This case involves the tragic shooting of a police officer. The shooter acquired the gun illegally from a seller who had acquired the gun via Armslist. Among other defendants, the victim sued Armslist for a variety of claims, including negligence….
A Sure Way to Ruin My Day: The Phrase “Enforceable Browsewrap”–HealthplanCRM v. Avmed
Cavulus is a software licensor. Avmed is the customer/licensee. Avmed decided to migrate from Cavulus to Salesforce, and it asked vendor NTT to help with the data migration. Avmed purportedly sublicensed software access to NTT (as the license allegedly permitted),…