Texas Court of Appeals Rejects Privacy Claims Based on Facebook Firing – Roberts v. Careflite
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Roberts v. Careflite, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8371 (Tex. Ct. App.; Oct. 4, 2012) This is a companion case to one Eric blogged about, Sumien v. Careflite. Both cases involve EMTs who were fired for making…
Battle Over LinkedIn Account Between Employer and Employee Largely Gutted–Eagle v. Morgan
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Eagle v. Morgan, 2012 WL 4739436 (E.D. Pa.; Oct. 4, 2012) We’ve repeatedly posted about employer-employee (or ex-employee) disputes involving social media accounts (PhoneDog; Maremont; Kremer; Insynq). Eagle v. Morgan is in…
Marilyn Monroe’s Image is Cast Into the Public Domain — Sort Of (Guest Blog Post)
by Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [check out Prof. Ochoa’s casebook on publicity rights / affiliate link] In 2011, Marilyn Monroe was #3 on Forbes magazine’s annual list of top-earning dead celebrities, earning $27 million for her estate. Next year, however,…
Split 9th Circuit Panel Approves Facebook Beacon Settlement – Lane v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Lane v. Facebook, 10-16380 (9th Cir. Sept. 20, 2012) Facebook’s Beacon initiative has generated more than a few blog posts. Judge Seeborg approved the class settlement, over the objections of several objectors, including Ginger McCall. The…
Pointing Out Possible Hypocrisy by a Self-Claimed Sextortion Expert Protected by Anti-SLAPP Laws–Backlund v. Stone
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Backlund v. Stone, B235173 (Ca. Ct. App.; Sept. 4, 2012) When is it OK to tweet a threat to expose seminude photographs of a teenage girl? When you’re a law student? When you’re a self-professed expert…
Ongoing Website Editing Doesn’t Trump Single Publication Rule–Yeager v. Bowlin
By Eric Goldman Yeager v. Bowlin, No. 10-15297 (9th Cir. Sept. 10, 2012) The single publication rule says that the statute of limitations starts with the first publication of the work, and so long as the work doesn’t change, further…
Judge Seeborg Rejects Sponsored Stories Settlement For Now — Fraley v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Fraley v. Facebook, C 11-1726 RS (N.D. Cal.; Aug 17, 2012) We’ve covered the Facebook Sponsored Stories litigation before. It’s a putative class action arguing that Facebook improperly used the likeness and personality rights of its…
Breastfeeding Mom Can Sue Video Producer Despite Signing a Blanket Release–Sahoury v. Meredith
By Eric Goldman Sahoury v. Meredith Corp., 2:11-cv-05180-KSH-PS (D. N.J. Aug. 2, 2012) Sahoury consented to being video-recorded while breastfeeding for inclusion in an instructional video. She claims that the video producers orally agreed to two conditions: (1) the instructional…
Judge Koh Puts the Kibosh on LinkedIn Referral ID Class Action — Low v. LinkedIn
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Low v. LinkedIn, 11-CV-01468-LHK (N.D. Cal.; July 12, 2012) This case involves the fact that LinkedIn put users’ unique identifiers into its URLs, allowing advertisers (and others) to associate that unique identifier with users–and, potentially, access…
The “I Didn’t Understand Facebook’s Privacy Settings” Argument Isn’t Persuasive to Judges–Sumien v. CareFlite
By Eric Goldman Sumien v. CareFlite, 2012 WL 2579525 (Tex. App. Ct. July 5, 2012). Appellate court docket. Sumien and Roberts were CareFlite EMTs. Roberts posted on a third employee’s Facebook wall how she wanted to slap a patient. Responding…