Vimeo Wins Section 230(c)(2)(A) Ruling on Motion to Dismiss–Daystar v. Vimeo
This case involves Daystar TV Network, “an evangelical Christian-based television network.” It contracted with Vimeo to host and distribute up to 2,000 hours of videos/year. Daystar uploaded over 3,000 videos to Vimeo pursuant to this contract. Vimeo’s AUP banned content…
If a Lawyer Accepts a TOS While Investigating a Claim, Does It Bind the Client to Arbitration?
Judge Chen (of the Northern District of California) answered this question “no”. The Ninth Circuit affirms in a memorandum opinion. This is a putative class action lawsuit against a people search company for allegedly misusing publicity and personality rights by…
Wouldn’t It Be Great if Internet Services Had To License Technologies Selected by Hollywood? (Comments on the Very Dumb “SMART Copyright Act”)
A new entry in Congress’ parade of terrible Internet bills: the ‘‘Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act of 2022’’ or ‘‘SMART Copyright Act of 2022.’’ The SMART Copyright Act is being pitched as a light update of the…
YouTube Defeats Copyright Lawsuit For Not Removing Users’ Videos Quickly Enough–Business Casual v. YouTube
The plaintiff posted videos to YouTube. It claims that TV-Novosti, which runs the RT Arabic channel, infringed its copyrights. The plaintiff sent takedown notices to YouTube for the allegedly infringing RT Arabic videos. “YouTube removed the First RT Video nine…
Section 230 Survives Yet Another Constitutional Challenge–Huber v. Biden
Twitter suspended Huber pursuant to its COVID misinformation policy. Huber claimed that Twitter took that action in league with the Biden administration. If this setup sounds familiar, that’s because at least a dozen cases riff on this theme. This case…
Departing Employees Rename Their Former Employers’ Facebook Account. That May Be a Problem–La Baguette v. Tito & Tita
This is an employer/ex-employee dispute over a Facebook page. As alleged in the complaint, plaintiffs operated a bakery known as “La Baguette,” and hired defendants to manage aspects of the business. Defendants also managed the social media presence of the…
Airline Sues to Stop Popular Web-Scraping Service–American Airlines v. The Points Guy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Those interested in web scraping legal issues had high hopes that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Van Buren v. United States last summer would provide clear guidelines on which types of online data access were…
California Appellate Court Rejects Poorly Executed “Sign-In Wrap”–Sellers v. JustAnswer (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Contracts are a state-law issue. And online contracts, even though they exist in the friction-less, boundary-less world of the internet, are also generally governed by state-law principles. Which is why it is perhaps odd that…
LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Policy May Cover Theft of Cryptocurrency Assets–Atwal v. LifeLock
This is a lawsuit against LifeLock. In August or September of 2018, Atwal allegedly lost approximately $12 million worth of cryptocurrency because a third party misappropriated his credentials. A few months prior, Atwal had subscribed to a LifeLock “Ultimate Plus”…
Another Confused Entry in the Social Media Account Ownership Jurisprudence–JLM v. Gutman
This is a lawsuit between a wedding gown company, JLM, and Hayley Paige Gutman, a designer/influencer who worked for JLM. For background, check out my post on the district court’s ruling here: “Social Media Ownership Disputes Part II: Bridal Wear…