On January 14, 2021, Southwest Airlines Co. (“Southwest”) filed a complaint in a Texas district court against an online travel site, Kiwi.com, Inc. (“Kiwi”), alleging, among other things, that Kiwi’s scraping of fare...more
Many online services feature comprehensive terms of use intended to protect their business from various types of risks. While it is often the case that a great deal of thought goes into the creation of those terms, frequently...more
9/16/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
E-Commerce ,
Hyperlink ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
Privacy Policy ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Retailers ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Terms of Service ,
Terms of Use ,
Websites
UPDATE: On the afternoon of May 28, 2020, the President signed the executive order concerning CDA Section 230. A copy/link to the order has not yet been posted on the White House’s website.
According to news reports,...more
In continuing its push to enforce its terms and policies against developers that engage in unauthorized collection or scraping of user data, Facebook brought suit last month against mobile marketing and data analytics firm...more
3/10/2020
/ Breach of Contract ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Facebook ,
Personal Information ,
Popular ,
Public Disclosure ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
The ink is barely dry on the landmark Ninth Circuit hiQ Labs decision. Yet, a new dispute has already cropped up testing the bounds of the CFAA and the ability of a platform to enforce terms restricting unauthorized scraping...more
9/30/2019
/ Breach of Contract ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
Injunctive Relief ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Public Disclosure ,
Revocation ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
In a ruling that is being hailed as a victory for web scrapers and the open nature of publicly available website data, the Ninth Circuit today issued its long-awaited opinion in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783...more
9/10/2019
/ Appeals ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
E-Commerce ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Revocation ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
User Agreements ,
Web Scraping ,
Website Owner Liability
In early July, Ticketmaster reached a favorable settlement in its action against a ticket broker that was alleged to have used automated bots to purchase tickets in bulk, thus ending a dispute that produced notable court...more
Two recent web scraping disputes highlight some important issues regarding whether a website owner may successfully allege a breach of contract action against a commercial party that has scraped website content contrary to...more
7/11/2019
/ Actual or Constructive Knowledge ,
Breach of Contract ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Cease and Desist ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Forum Selection ,
Lanham Act ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
State Law Claims ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Unfair Competition ,
Web Scraping ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
This month, an Illinois district court considered another in the series of web scraping disputes that have been working their way through our courts. In this dispute, CouponCabin, Inc. v. PriceTrace, LLC, No. 18-7525 (N.D....more
A recent dispute between an advertiser AXTS Inc. (“AXTS”) and a video production company GY6vids (“GY6”) produced an interesting issue involving the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) – that is, whether an entity...more
This past week, an Illinois district court dismissed, with leave to amend, claims relating to a competitor’s alleged scraping of sales listings from a company’s website for use on its own site. (Alan Ross Machinery Corp. v....more
This past week, a Texas district court denied a bid from a web service for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin a competitor that allegedly scraped a large amount of proprietary data from its closed site via several...more
Such Scraping “Plausibly Falls within the Ambit of the First Amendment”
The Ninth Circuit is currently considering the appeal of the landmark hiQ decision, where a lower court had granted an injunction that limited the...more
5/1/2018
/ Breach of Contract ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Collection ,
DMCA ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Privacy Policy ,
Terms of Use ,
Web Scraping ,
Websites
A California district court issued an important opinion in a dispute between a ticket sales platform and a ticket broker that employed automated bots to purchase tickets in bulk. (Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. Prestige...more
Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit issued a noteworthy ruling in a dispute between an enterprise software licensor and a third-party support provider. The case is particularly important as it addresses the common practice...more
1/25/2018
/ Breach of Contract ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping ,
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
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
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
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
In Nghiem v Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc., No. 16-00097 (C.D. Cal. July 5, 2016), the Central District of California held browsewrap terms to be unenforceable because the hyperlink to the terms was “sandwiched” between two...more
7/29/2016
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Class Action ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Motion to Compel ,
TCPA ,
Terms of Use ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms ,
Website Design ,
Websites ,
Young Lawyers
This past week, the Ninth Circuit released two important decisions that clarify the scope of liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. The Act was originally designed to target...more
7/15/2016
/ Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Facebook ,
Former Employee ,
Passwords ,
Popular ,
Summary Judgment ,
Terms of Use ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unauthorized Access ,
US v Nosal ,
Web Scraping ,
Young Lawyers
The District Court for the Northern District of California recently issued what could be a very significant decision on a number of important digital law issues. These include: the enforceability of “clickwrap” as compared...more
5/10/2016
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Choice-of-Law ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Enforceability ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Shutterfly ,
Terms of Use
Operators of public-facing websites are typically concerned about the unauthorized, technology-based extraction of large volumes of information from their sites, often by competitors or others in related businesses. The...more