Misguided Catfishing Scheme Leads to Discipline of College Students — Zimmerman v. Ball State
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment from Eric] Zimmerman v. Ball State Univ., et al., 12-cv-01475-JMS-DML (S.D. Ind. Apr. 15, 2013). (The complaint.) Zimmerman and Sumwalt were students at Ball State University, a public university in Indiana. They apparently…
Cynthia Moreno Guest Lecture to My Internet Law Course
By Eric Goldman Internet Law is blessed with some fantastic teaching cases, including the modern classic, Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel. Read the Ode to Coalinga that started it all. Cynthia works in Sacramento–about 2 hours from SCU–so in November 2012…
No Claim Based on Perez Hilton’s Publication of Unsolicited but Inflammatory Reader Email – Wargo v. Lavandeira
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Wargo v. Lavandeira, JAMS Arbitration No. 1220041183 (Mar. 24, 2013) Lavandeira runs the popular Perez Hilton website, which has been involved in its fair share of legal disputes. In response to an item (presumably about Angelina…
Privacy on Trial: Reflections on Hoang v. IMDb
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Hoang v. IMDb.com, C11-1709MJP (W.D. Wash. Mar. 18, 2013) [Added: the jury ruled against Hoang and in favor of IMDb.] At Eriq Gardner’s suggestion, I attended the trial in Hoang v. IMDb and reported on the…
Accessing Ex-girlfriend’s MySpace Account and Posting Offensive Content Results in Conviction
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] State v Kucharski, 2013 Il App (2d) 120270 (Mar. 29, 2013): Steven and the victim were in a relationship. Because the victim was “kind of computer illiterate,” Steven set up a MySpace account for her. After…
Judge Boots Privacy Lawsuit Against Pandora but Plaintiffs Can Replead – Yunker v. Pandora
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Yunker v Pandora Media, Inc., 2013 US Dist LEXIS 42691 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2013) Pandora has been sued before for allegedly revealing listening preferences, but this is a more run-of-the-mill privacy lawsuit against Pandora. Pandora…
Another Credit Card Breach Lawsuit Fails – Willingham v. Global Payments
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Willingham v. Global Payments, Inc., 12-CV-01157 (N.D. Ga. Feb 5, 2013) (case later dismissed by the parties) This is a data breach lawsuit arising out of an incident in which credit card information was purloined from…
IMDB’s Disclosure of Actress’s Age Will Go To Trial – Hoang v. Amazon
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric] Hoang v. IMDb.com, C11-1709MJP (W.D. Wash. Mar. 18, 2013) We’ve blogged about this dispute—involving an actress’s attempt to hold IMDb liable for publishing her age against her wishes—before. The court recently…
Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Software Company Liable for Surveillance Conducted by Its Customer – Luis v. Zang
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Luis v. Zang, 12 cv 629 (S.D. Oh. Mar. 5, 2013) Divorces have spawned some of the most interesting privacy disputes, such as the cases involving whether GPS surveillance of a vehicle violated one spouse’s privacy…
“Regulation of Social Media and Mobile Media” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman Last month, I spoke at the ABA Antitrust Section’s always-well-done Consumer Protection Conference. This time I was recruited as the provocateur to discuss the challenges of regulating social media and mobile media. Regular readers know where I…