Court Dissolves hiQ’s Injunction Against LinkedIn–hiQ v. LinkedIn
hiQ was a data snarfer. Specifically, it was “a ‘people analytics’ company that provided information to businesses about their workforces based on statistical analysis of LinkedIn members’ wholly public profiles.” In May 2017, LinkedIn sent hiQ a C&D and blocked…
More Evidence of the CFAA Post-Van Buren/hiQ Jurisprudential Anarchy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) is a law that was written before the commercial Internet was a thing (1984). And many judges—particularly Boomers in the rarified air of the appellate courts—grew up in…
Can Facebook Stop Data Snarfers?–Meta v. BrandTotal
I refer to “data snarfers” as businesses that aggregate (via scraping or APIs) lots of sensitive online personal information to offer analytics, business/competitive intelligence, and similar services. Academic researchers can also fit this paradigm. Many of these businesses legitimately fill…
Once Again, LinkedIn Can’t Use CFAA To Stop Unwanted Scraping–hiQ v. LinkedIn
The hiQ v. LinkedIn lawsuit started in 2017. In 2019, the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s injunction ruling in favor of hiQ. The Supreme Court vacated that decision and told the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling in light…
Database Access After Failed Negotiations Didn’t Violate the CFAA–Carfax v. Accu-Trade
Plaintiff (Carfax) manages information regarding used cars and light trucks. It owns a “QuickVIN” tool that allows users to search vehicle-related information by license plate number, rather than by VIN number. Defendant Accu-trade is a valuation platform and is a…
The CFAA “Gates-Up-or-Down” Metaphor Is Baffling Courts–ACI v. Conservice (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy I have a friend who is a professor of literature. He once joined a book club with other professors of literature dedicated to analyzing James Joyce’s notoriously opaque classic, Finnegan’s Wake. They met weekly and…
Airline Sues to Stop Popular Web-Scraping Service–American Airlines v. The Points Guy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Those interested in web scraping legal issues had high hopes that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Van Buren v. United States last summer would provide clear guidelines on which types of online data access were…
Georgia Supreme Court Blesses Google’s Keyword Ad Sales–Edible IP v. Google
Edible Arrangements objected to Google selling its trademark to trigger keyword ads. They filed a trademark lawsuit in 2018 but abandoned the suit when it got sent to arbitration. However, they didn’t give up! The Edible team had the brilliant…
Another Confused Entry in the Social Media Account Ownership Jurisprudence–JLM v. Gutman
This is a lawsuit between a wedding gown company, JLM, and Hayley Paige Gutman, a designer/influencer who worked for JLM. For background, check out my post on the district court’s ruling here: “Social Media Ownership Disputes Part II: Bridal Wear…
If “Trespass to Chattels” Isn’t Limited to “Chattels,” Anarchy Ensues–Best Carpet Values v. Google
Trigger warning: this is a terrible opinion. Let’s hope the judge corrects his errors or that the appeals court does it for him. * * * This opinion addresses a venerable issue in Internet Law: can a website control how…