Bev Stayart Racks Up Two More Losses–Stayart v. Yahoo and Stayart v. Google
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Yahoo, Inc., 2011 WL 3625242 (E.D. Wis. Aug. 17, 2011) Stayart v. Google Inc., 2:10-cv-00336-LA (E.D. Wis. Aug. 17, 2011) Persistence is a virtue, but sometimes, enough is enough. You probably remember Bev Stayart as…
TheDirty Defeats Publicity Rights Claims–Gauck v. Karamian
By Eric Goldman Gauck v. Karamian, 2011 WL 3273123 (W.D.Tenn. July 29, 2011) TheDirty.com has an increasingly active litigation docket. This case comes from Lauren Lee Gauck Giovanetti, a TV news reporter for Fox 13 in Memphis, Tennessee. She sued…
Court Smacks Down Koch Industries’ Attempt to Shut Down Satirical Website — Koch Industries v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Koch Industries, Inc. v. Does, 10CV1275DAK (D. Utah; May 9, 2011) [.pdf] [This is one of those cases that I intended to cover when it came out, but it got lost in the shuffle. Eric talks…
NJ Appeals Court: No Privacy Violation When Spouse Uses GPS to Track Vehicle — Villanova v. Innovative Investigations, Inc.
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Villanova v. Innovative Investigations, Inc., et al., A-0654-10T2 (N.J. Ct. App. July 7, 2011) A New Jersey appeals court decided that a wife’s use of a GPS device to track her husband’s movements did not violate…
Court Dismisses Misappropriation Claims Against Facebook Over Its Friend Finder Service — Cohen v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Cohen v. Facebook, C 10-5282 RS (N.D. Cal. June 28, 2011) There are a slew of publicity rights lawsuits pending against Facebook. This one alleged that Facebook misappropriated the names and likenesses of Facebook users by…
Buying Personal Names for Keyword Ads Isn’t a Publicity Rights Violation–Habush v. Cannon
By Eric Goldman Habush v. Cannon, 09-CV-18149 (Wis. Cir. Ct. June 8, 2011). The June 2010 denial of the motion to dismiss. A good overview article from when the complaint was filed. Introduction A Wisconsin court has said that a…
April-May 2011 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * Google is working on a deal with the DOJ over illegal pharmaceutical ads and has set aside $500M for fines. Some background on the problem. Google isn’t the only search engine with problematic pharmaceutical…
TheDirty Defeats Privacy Invasion Lawsuit–Dyer v. Dirty World
By Eric Goldman Dyer v. Dirty World LLC, 2011 WL 2173900 (D. Ariz. June 2, 2011). The summary judgment motion, Dyer’s opposition and thedirty’s reply. An ex-boyfriend submitted to thedirty.com 2 photos of Dyer in a bikini and a comment…
Ohio Appeals Court: GoDaddy can be Held Liable for Wrongly Transferring Control Over Domain Name and Email Accounts — Eysoldt v. ProScan
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Eysoldt v. GoDaddy, et al., C-100528 (Ohio Ct. App.; May 18, 2011) Actions against registrars for allowing domain names to be wrongly transferred have been relatively rare. Members of the Eysoldt family brought claims against GoDaddy…
Court Allows Fair Credit Reporting Act Claims Against Spokeo to Move Forward — Robins v. Spokeo
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Robins v. Spokeo, No. CV10 05306 ODW (AGRx) (C.D. Cal.; May 11, 2011) I previously blogged about Spokeo, which is being sued for disseminating reports which allegedly contain inaccurate information about plaintiff….