Knapke sued PeopleConnect for alleged violations of her publicity rights under Ohio law. PeopleConnect moved to compel arbitration on the basis that Knapke’s counsel Reilly assented to the terms of service in the course of his pre-filing investigative efforts. The…

School Can Discipline Student for Impersonating Teacher Online, Even if Other Students Added the Worst Content--Kutchinski v. Freeland School District

This case involves a 14 year old student HK (and his friends) who, while off-campus, thought it would be funny to create a fake Instagram profile of his biology teacher, Schmidt. I’ve blogged SO MANY similar cases since 2005 (see…

Who Owns a Disputed Social Media Account? – JLM v. Gutman

This is a case focusing on ownership of social media accounts. The dispute is between bridalwear designer Hayley Paige Gutman and JLM Couture, a bridalwear company. We blogged this case twice before. (See “Social Media Ownership Disputes Part II: Bridal…

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…

This lawsuit involves the online retailer dropps.com (apparently it sells cleaning products). Martinez claims that the website isn’t ADA compliant. Martinez sued for an Unruh Act violation, predicated on an ADA violation. The court rejects the claim because a “place…

Is the California Legislature Addicted to Performative Election-Year Stunts That Threaten the Internet? (Comments on AB2408)

It’s an election year, and like clockwork, legislators around the country want to show they care about protecting kids online. This pre-election frenzy leads performative bills that won’t actually help any kids. Today I’m blogging about one of those bills,…

Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 8 (Editorial Transparency)

* NY Assembly Bill A7865A. A dangerous new mandatory editorial transparency law to supplement Florida and Texas. Definition of “Hateful conduct” means “the use of a social media network to vilify, humiliate, or incite violence against a group or a…

Ninth Circuit: Elected Officials Violated the First Amendment by Blocking Constituents on Social Media--Garnier v. O’Connor-Ratcliff

This case involves two elected trustees of the Poway Unified School Board (PUSD), Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane. (Poway is a San Diego suburb). They used their Facebook and Twitter pages “to inform constituents about goings-on at the School District…

Trademark Owner Fucks Around With Keyword Ad Case & Finds Out--Las Vegas Skydiving v. Groupon

I’ve often wondered about the conversations that take place between trademark owner and counsel before filing a keyword advertising lawsuit. How extensively do they discuss the risks? There’s plenty to discuss. You can get bad publicity and alienate customers (and…

By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa Eleven days ago, the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed that: (1) the discovery rule of accrual applies to the Copyright Act’s three-year statute of limitations; and (2) when the discovery rule applies, the copyright owner is not…