In a decision that sets up a potential international comity showdown, a California district court granted Google’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement in the U.S. of a Canadian court order that...more
11/10/2017
/ Canada ,
Comity ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Delisting ,
E-Commerce ,
EU ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Google ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Right to Be Forgotten ,
Section 230 ,
Supreme Court of Canada ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
The controversial consumer gripe site, RipoffReport.com, is at it again. The First Circuit recently affirmed a lower court’s ruling that RipoffReport.com was entitled to immunity under Section 230 of the Communications...more
10/25/2017
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Defamation ,
Novell ,
Section 230 ,
Terms of Use ,
The Copyright Act ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
User-Generated Content ,
Websites
This past week, the Supreme Court denied the petitions for certiorari in two noteworthy Ninth Circuit decisions that had interpreted the scope of liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the context...more
10/16/2017
/ Appeals ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Facebook ,
Former Employee ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
US v Nosal ,
Web Scraping
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that had sent a putative class action against Amazon over its pricing practices to arbitration, as per Amazon’s terms of service. (Wiseley v....more
10/9/2017
/ Amazon ,
Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Internet Retailers ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unconscionable Contracts ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Websites
In a new development in an important scraping dispute, LinkedIn appealed the lower court’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction compelling LinkedIn to disable any technical measures it had employed to block the...more
This month, in one of the many recently-filed Illinois biometric privacy suits, a class action complaint alleging violations of Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) was lodged against Wow Bao, a restaurant...more
9/28/2017
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Retention ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Private Right of Action ,
Social Media ,
Written Consent
This week’s Apple X announcement was not more than a few hours old, and the questions began to come in. Apple’s introduction of Face ID facial recognition on its new phone – although already available in some form on several...more
9/15/2017
/ Apple ,
Biometric Information ,
COPPA ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Use Policies ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
iPhone ,
Mobile Apps ,
Mobile Privacy ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Spoofing
In a resounding victory for well-drafted terms and conditions and robust immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“CDA Section 230”), a Massachusetts district court granted summary...more
9/2/2017
/ Communications Decency Act ,
E-Commerce ,
Fraud ,
Immunity ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Privacy Policy ,
Screening Procedures ,
Summary Judgment ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Third-Party ,
Vacation Rentals
In recent years, courts have issued varying rulings as to whether online or mobile users adequately consented to user agreements or terms of service when completing an online purchase or registering for a service. In each...more
9/1/2017
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Mobile Apps ,
Mobile Devices ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
Privacy Policy ,
Registration ,
Terms of Service ,
Uber
Court Issues Injunction Barring Blocking of Scraping and Holds CFAA Likely Doesn’t Apply -
Websites make information available to clients, users, customers and subscribers. Data aggregators, investors, competitors and...more
8/29/2017
/ Breach of Contract ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Injunctive Relief ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Public Disclosure ,
Revocation ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
Craigslist has used a variety of technological and legal methods to prevent unauthorized parties from violating its terms of use by scraping, linking to, or accessing user postings for their own commercial purposes. For...more
8/25/2017
/ Breach of Contract ,
CAN-SPAM Act ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Craigslist ,
Data Collection ,
LinkedIn ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Software Developers ,
Solicitation ,
Terms of Use ,
Web Scraping ,
Websites
No blockchain phenomenon has garnered more attention lately than Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs"), which have exploded in value and raised more than $1.2 billion thus far this year....more
Even though Washington passed its own biometric privacy law last month (HB 1493), and other states are currently debating their own bills, Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is still the crux of biometric and...more
6/13/2017
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
Notice and Comment ,
Notice Requirements ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Supermarkets
Screen scraping is a problem that has vexed website owners since the early days of e-commerce – how to make valuable content available to users and customers, but prevent competitors from accessing such content for commercial...more
4/24/2017
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
DMCA ,
Fair Use ,
Motion to Compel ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Terms of Use ,
Transformative Use ,
Web Scraping
The blockchain or “distributed ledger network” was originally conceived as the peer-to-peer technology platform that allows for the transfer of Bitcoin without the need for a trusted intermediary. However, the blockchain...more
For years, craigslist has aggressively used technological and legal methods to prevent unauthorized parties from violating its terms of use by scraping, linking to or accessing user postings for their own commercial purposes....more
The blockchain protocol (a form of a ‘distributed ledger system’) was originally designed as a platform to process Bitcoin transactions. The protocol enables peer-to-peer transactions and eliminates the need for a trusted...more
We’ve closely followed the numerous biometric privacy disputes and legislative developments surrounding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which precludes the unauthorized collection and storing of some...more
3/3/2017
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Google ,
Information Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Social Media ,
Technology Sector
We’ve written extensively about the numerous lawsuits, dismissals and settlements surrounding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The statute, generally speaking, prohibits an entity from collecting,...more
2/24/2017
/ Article III ,
Background Checks ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Retention ,
Data Security ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Parental Consent ,
Personal Data ,
Popular ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers ,
Software ,
Standing ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector
For the second time in the past six months, a district court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging procedural and technical violations of the Illinois biometric privacy statute for lack of Article III standing. In Vigil v....more
2/3/2017
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Retention ,
Dismissals ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Software ,
Standing ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector ,
Video Games
Earlier this month, an Illinois state court approved a $1.5 million settlement in a class action against L.A. Tan Enterprises, Inc., operator (directly and through franchisees) of L.A. Tan tanning salons. The settlement...more
Service Providers Must Re-register Online to Maintain Safe Harbor Protection -
A service provider seeking to take advantage of certain of the safe harbors under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is required...more
12/7/2016
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Office ,
DMCA ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Music Industry ,
Popular ,
Registration Requirement ,
Safe Harbors ,
Takedown Notices ,
Websites
This past summer, we wrote about two instances in which courts refused to enforce website terms presented in browsewrap agreements. As we noted, clickthrough agreements are generally more likely to be found to be enforced. ...more
11/22/2016
/ AirBnB ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Mobile Apps ,
Mobile Devices ,
Motion to Compel ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Sharing Economy ,
Technology ,
Terms of Service ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms ,
Vacation Rentals ,
Website Design ,
Websites ,
Young Lawyers
In a dispute that touches on the intersection of copyright, contract law and cloud technology, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of copyright claims against Barnes & Noble (“B&N”) related to ebook samples stored on a...more
11/11/2016
/ Authors ,
Barnes and Noble ,
Cloud Storage ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Digital Downloads ,
Digital Media ,
e-Books ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Popular ,
Summary Judgment
Last month, a New York district court refused to dismiss most of the copyright infringement claims asserted against a website operator based on an allegation that the website linked to an infringing copy of plaintiff’s...more
10/7/2016
/ Computer-Related Inventions ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
E-Commerce ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Internet ,
Online Platforms ,
Software Patents ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector ,
Vendors ,
Websites