Another School Violated a Student’s First Amendment Rights by Disciplining Her For Facebook Posts — R.S. v. Minnewaska Area School Dist. No. 2149
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] R.S. ex rel. S.S. v. Minnewaska Area School Dist. No. 2149, 2012 WL 3870868 (D.Minn. September 6, 2012) R.S. was a twelve year old student at a Minnewaska Area middle school. She posted a message to…
Stored Communications Act Does Not Bar Discovery of Employee Phone Records–Mintz v. Bartelstein Assocs.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Mintz v. Bartelstein & Assocs, CV 12 02554 SVW (SSx) (Aug. 14, 2012) Mintz is a sports agent who represents among others, some NBA players. He worked for Bartelstein & Associates for 11 years. After leaving…
No Privacy Claim Against Netflix for Disclosing Viewing Histories and Instant Queue Titles Through Netflix-Enabled Devices — Mollett v. Netflix
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Mollett v. Netflix, 11-CV-01629 (N.D. Cal.; Aug 17, 2012) This is a putative class action under the Video Privacy Protection Act alleging Netflix violated the VPPA (and Cal. Civ. Code 1799.3) by .. get this …..
6th Circuit Allows Police GPS Tracking on Prepaid “Burner” Phones — United States v. Skinner
[Post by Jake McGowan] United States v. Skinner, 09-6497 (6th Cir. August 14, 2012) If the name Stringer Bell means anything to you, you probably know what a “burner” is. The third season of The Wire saw aspiring drug runner…
No Fourth Amendment Violation When Your Facebook “Friend” Shares Profile Information With Law Enforcement–US v. Meregildo
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] US v. Meregildo, No. 11 CR 576 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y.; Aug 10, 2012) Colon moved to suppress evidence seized from his Facebook account pursuant to a warrant. He did not contest the finding of probable cause, but…
Bank Might Bear Loss for Fraudulent Money Transfers Initiated From Its Website–Patco v Ocean Bank (Catch-Up Post)
By Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan (with Venkat’s supervision), with a comment from Eric Patco v. Ocean Bank, 11-2031 (1st Cir. July 3, 2012) When a scammer siphons money from a customer’s online bank account, should the bank or the customer…
Court Declines to Dismiss Video Privacy Protection Act Claims against Hulu
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re Hulu Privacy Litigation, C 11-03764 LB (N.D. Cal.; Aug. 10, 2012) Hulu is facing a putative class action alleging that Hulu improperly disclosed the video viewing choices of its users without obtaining consent. Hulu…
Ex-Employee’s Access/Misuse of Employer Files States CFAA Claim — Weingand v. Harland Financial
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Weingand v. Harland Financial Solutions, C 11 3109 EMC (N.D. Cal.; June 19, 2012) Weingand involves claims brought by an employee, and proposed counterclaims brought by the employer against the employee. Nor…
CA Court Confirms that Pineda v Williams-Sonoma (the Zip-Code-as-PII Case) Applies Retrospectively — Dardarian v. OfficeMax
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Dardarian v. OfficeMax North America, Inc., 11-CV-0947-YGR (N.D. Cal.; Jun. 25, 2012) The Song-Beverly Act is a California statute that prohibits retailers from requesting personal identification information in connection with credit card transactions. In Pineda v….
4th Circuit Limits the Reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – WEC Carolina Energy Solutions v. Miller
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] WEC Carolina Energy Solutions LLC v. Miller, et al., 2012 WL 3039213 (4th Cir.; July 26, 2012) We’ve blogged about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act being stretched by plaintiffs in civil…