Facebook Isn’t Liable for Account Hack/Hijack–Damner v. Facebook
This is a pro se lawsuit. Damner claims his Facebook account was hacked in April 2020 and the hacker(s) took it over. He notified Facebook but allegedly it never responded. Damner sued Facebook for Stored Communications Act claims and others….
2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 5 (Contracts, E-Commerce, Defamation, Censorship, & More)
Contracts * Kidstar v. Facebook, Inc., 2020 WL 4382279 (D.N.J. July 31, 2020). The plaintiff sued Facebook because he lost access to photos in his account. assuming, arguendo, that Plaintiff opened a Facebook account in 2004, the 2009 User Agreement…
Laura Loomer Loses Another Lawsuit Related to Her Twitter Ban–Illoominate v. CAIR
This is the detritus of Laura Loomer’s lawsuit against Twitter for banning her account. A court previously dismissed those claims on Section 230 grounds. She also sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation (CAIR), claiming they complained to Twitter about…
Jury Will Decide If Videogame Character Infringes a Wrestling Persona–GI Bro v. Call of Duty
The plaintiff is a wrestler, primarily known as Booker T. When he wrestles for WWE, he used the stage name G.I. Bro. There’s also a comic book line based on the G.I. Bro character. The defendant makes the Call of…
Another Court Says Embedding Instagram Photos May Be Fair Use–Boesen v. United Sports
This is another Instagram embed case. For my most recent post on that topic, see this post. Plaintiff Boesen is a professional photographer. He captured an image of professional tennis player Caroline Wozniacki near the beginning of her career. Ms….
It’s Meshugenah to Operate a Streaming Mixtape Site–Atlantic v. Spinrilla
[Note: Meshugenah is Yiddish for “crazy.”] This is a brutal opinion. No matter how successful this defendant has been in the marketplace, copyright owner lawfare will almost certainly take it down. R.I.P. Spinrilla. Spinrilla is “a streaming and downloading service…
Who Owns Vacation Photos of You? Probably Not You–Hubay v. Mendez
A perennial copyright law professor hypothetical: who own the copyright to a person’s vacation photos? Obviously the vacationer owns the photos they take, including any selfies. But if you hand over the camera to a stranger/passerby, who owns that photo?…
Court Sends Wyze Labs Privacy Suit to Arbitration
Wyze provides home security monitoring and cameras. (They have a range of “smart home” products.) Plaintiffs sued Wyze on behalf of a putative class alleging that Wyze failed to safeguard their personal information. Wyze moved to compel arbitration. The court…
Facebook Can Block Scraper (For Now)–Facebook v. BrandTotal
BrandTotal offered a Chrome extension called “UpVoice.” Once installed, the extension allegedly scraped public and non-public information from the users’ Facebook and Instagram accounts. Facebook attempted to crack down on the extension. It terminated BrandTotal’s Facebook and Instagram pages and…
Court Upholds Gaming App’s Clickthrough TOS–Ball v. Skillz
Skillz’s app 21 Blitz allowed players to play blackjack against each other. To sign up for the app, players had to navigate the following screen: The linked TOS contained a prominent arbitration clause. Two plaintiffs sued Skillz for locking them…