The plaintiffs allege Facebook’s face-scanning functionality (that underlies its “tag suggestion” feature) violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Several lawsuits were originally filed in Illinois, but the parties agreed to transfer the cases to the Northern District of California,…
By Guest Blogger Sharon K. Sandeen Several years ago, I noticed something remarkable. After years (decades really) of being ignored, trade secret law was finally getting the attention it deserved, and on both sides of the Atlantic. First came the…
BWP owns the rights to various celebrity photos. Examiner.com is a “entertainment, news and lifestyle network” that relies on content submitted by independent contractors confusingly called “examiners.” The Examiner’s written agreement specifies that “the examiners” are contractors, not employees. The…
Last week, Congress passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (the DTSA), which President Obama will sign soon. The Defend Trade Secrets Act extends the current Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which criminalizes certain trade secret misappropriations, to allow civil lawsuits….
[Note: my colleague Colleen Chien has circulated this call for participation. I won’t be directly involved in either event, but they look terrific. I’m sharing it here in case you or someone in your network wants to participate. Please follow…
by Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble When the European Commission issued its initial documents (here and here) in May 2015 regarding the Single Digital Market and geoblocking on the internet, the tone of the documents, and in particular their apparent vilification…
This is a Video Privacy Protection Act case alleging that Gannett, the owner of USA Today, improperly disclosed personally identifiable information to Adobe. Adobe offers analytics services to its clients by collecting user information and building user profiles. As alleged…
Copyright * Naruto v. Slater: “Naruto is not an “author” within the meaning of the Copyright Act.” I heart Naruto! * Handshoe v. Abel, 1:14-cv-00159-KS-MTP (S.D. Miss. Jan. 8, 2016) (cites omitted): Given that there is no dispute that the…
Earlier this week, we posted about a Seventh Circuit case where an ambiguous user call-to-action undermined an online contract formation procecss. (See “Defective Call-to-Action Dooms Online Contract Formation–Sgouros v. TransUnion“.) Recently, a couple of trial courts issued rulings denying companies’…
Surveillance * The whole Apple v. DOJ fracas was insane! NY Times: In Nod to Law Enforcement, Obama Ends Attempt to Straddle Privacy Divide. Vice: Obama’s Call for Encryption ‘Compromise’ Is Hypocritical. NY Times: For Apple, a Search for a…