Jan.-Feb. 2012 Quick Links, Part 2 (Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secrets, Innovation Edition)

March 8, 2012 · by

…Connect, Inc. v. Code Rebel LLC, No. 2:11-cv-05764-RSWL-MAN (C.D. Cal. Feb. 15, 2012). User downloaded trial software and agreed to a EULA restricting reverse engineering. The user reversed engineered anyway….

Facebook and Zynga Privacy Litigation Dismissed With Prejudice [Catch up Post]

March 7, 2012 · by

…clarity. California Penal Code sec. 502 This statute creates a cause of action against someone who introduces a “computer contaminant” into the plaintiff’s computer or computer system. Plaintiffs’ own allegations…

California Appeals Court Says Emails That Don’t Identify Sender Violate State Spam Statute – Balsam v. Trancos

February 29, 2012 · by

…court also rejects Balsam’s arguments on cross appeal. Violations of Cal. Code Sec. 17529.5(a)(2) Section (a)(2) makes it unlawful for anyone to advertise in an email sent from or to…

Facebook Gets Decisive Win Against Pseudo-Competitor Power Ventures — Facebook v. Power Ventures

February 21, 2012 · by

…Power Ventures came to a close last week, with Judge Ware granting Facebook’s motion for summary judgment on Facebook’s claims under CAN-SPAM, California Penal Code section 502, and the Computer…

Egregious/Overreaching Ex Parte Orders for Rightsowners Keep Coming — Deckers and Richemont

January 17, 2012 · by

…there is always a proper basis for it. There are a lot of cites to “the court’s inherent equitable power” in these orders. That’s judicial code for: “there is no…

Mass Ct: ZIP Code is Personal Identification Info Under Credit Card Statute But Plaintiff Must Still Allege Harm — Tyler v. Michaels Stores

January 10, 2012 · by

…not expect compensation for turning over their ZIP code, and plaintiff did not allege that, had she known all the facts, she would have “charged” Michaels for the ZIP code….

Facebook “Sponsored Stories” Publicity Rights Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss–Fraley v. Facebook

December 19, 2011 · by

…to burst the plaintiffs’ bubbles about a new exception to 230. The Statutory Publicity Rights Claim (CA Civil Code 3344) Facebook took a few cracks at the claim, all of…

“Economics of Privacy” Conference Recap

December 12, 2011 · by

…• Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense. Berin Szoka. Lessig outlined a dystopian view that code will become a perfect form of control. In contrast, the Supreme Court has said that technology…

The Cookie Crumbles for Amazon Privacy Plaintiffs – Del Vecchio v. Amazon

December 2, 2011 · by

…to personal information. There was an element of plaintiffs’ allegations which did not receive as much attention as I expected. Plaintiffs alleged that Amazon used a piece of code, or…

Employers Demanding the Right to Remotely Wipe Employees’ Phones?

November 9, 2011 · by

…how enforceable that might be….Since I work with a lot of source code for my profession, this doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me. UPDATE 5: Another response: Such policies and…