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Independent Contractor Relationship Between Sender and Advertiser Dooms Spam...
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Kramer v. NCS, 12-1956 (8th Cir. May 28, 2013) Kramer, who operated an internet service provider in Clinton, Iowa, filed an ambitious–and as it turned out, ultimately...
View ArticleH1 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Miscellaneous)
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan CFAA/Trespass * My colleague Kyle Graham traces the early history of California Penal Code Sec. 502. * Andrew Sellars on the Aaron Schwartz prosecution and Rep....
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Multiple Listing Service Gets Favorable Appellate Ruling in Scraping Lawsuit
By Jake McGowan, with comments from Eric & Venkat Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., 2013 WL 3722365 (4th Cir. July 17, 2013) This is a follow-up...
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Craigslist Wins Routine But Troubling Online Trespass to Chattels Ruling in...
By Eric Goldman Craigslist Inc. v. 3Taps Inc., 2013 WL 4447520 (N.D. Cal. August 16, 2013) I ran out of time to blog this ruling when it first came out, but it’s worth noting now. You may recall this...
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Creating Parody Social Media Accounts Doesn’t Violate Computer Fraud & Abuse...
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Matot v. CH, et al, 13-cv-153-TC (D.Or.) (Report and Recommendation, Aug. 19, 2013) (Order Dismissing Lawsuit, Sept. 26, 2013) This is a strange lawsuit brought by an...
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Calling Out Scraper for “Stealing” Data Is Not Defamatory – Tamburo v. Dworkin
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Tamburo v. Dworkin, 04 C 3317 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 26, 2013) This is an interesting dispute that brings together several legal doctrines we love to cover here. It’s the type...
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Presentation About the Problems of Online Trespass to Chattels
You may recall my prior post where I outlined my conceptual objections to online trespass to chattels doctrines, including the common law, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act and state computer crime...
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Google Wins Cookie Privacy Lawsuit
In re Google Inc. Cookie Placement Consumer Privacy Litigation, MDL Civ No. 12-2358 (D. Del. Oct. 9, 2013) [pdf] The factual background in the court’s order is fairly brief. In a nutshell, plaintiffs...
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Think Hoarding Passwords Keeps You Safe From Firing? Think Again (Forbes...
Golden key with password // ShutterStockMost employees think they are indispensable to their employers, but in fact, most employees are easily replaced. A recent legal ruling involved an IT manager who...
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Fake LinkedIn Profile May Cause Trademark Infringement – Avepoint v. Axceler
Avepoint, Inc. v. Power Tools, Inc. d/b/a Axceler, 7:13CV00035 (W.D. Va. Nov. 7, 2013) Shutterstock – Andrey Burmakin: man holding a gold mask theater comedy Avepoint and Axceler are competitors...
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Company That Facilitates Digital Access to Public Records Uses CFAA to Block...
[Eric's introduction: this post has been sitting in our tank over a month. I put a hold on it when I was considering using this fact pattern for my Internet Law exam. I decided to go in a different...
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H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Photo credit: 3D Quick Link Crossword // ShutterStock Facebook * MarketingLand’s coverage of Facebook’s increasingly complicated algorithm for ranking news feed stories. * People v. DeJesus, 2013 WL...
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Lawsuit Against Adware Vendor Fails–Halperin v. Text Enhance
Text Enhance, a program developed by Affluent Ads, scans web page text for certain keywords. When the user mouses over any of those keywords, the adware serves up a pop-up ad on the user’s computer....
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QVC Can’t Stop Web Scraping–QVC v. Resultly (Forbes Cross-Post)
Something most Californians are completely unfamiliar with. “Eiskratzer” by Stefan Flöper / Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.“Web scraping,” also called crawling or...
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Q4 2014 & Q1 2015 Quick Links Part 4 (Potpourri)
Photo credit: 3D Quick Link Crossword // ShutterStock Commerce * NAD tells CheapoAir that it can’t run keyword ads showing the lowest priced flight in its database if it can’t deliver that fare to the...
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Third Circuit Revives a Sliver of Plaintiff’s Cookie-Blocking Circumvention...
shutterstock/schmetfad: a hand taking cookies from a glass jar on white background This is a lawsuit alleging that Google and others circumvented cookie-blocking settings of popular browsers. Our blog...
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2H 2015 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trespass To Chattels, Privacy/Security)
Photo credit: 3D Quick Link Crossword // ShutterStockTrespass to Chattels * Crapps v. State, 2015 WL 8114247 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Dec. 8, 2015). This is a revenge porn case, and the defendant was...
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Using Scraper to Harvest Records Isn’t Fraudulent Access Under CFAA–Fidlar v....
Fidlar works with counties to digitize and index land records. It also makes available a software client (Laredo) that allows end users to access these records. Billing is handled by the counties, and...
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Q1 2016 Quick Links, Part 3 (DOJ v. Apple, ISIS, Censorship & More)
Photo credit: 3D Quick Link Crossword // ShutterStockSurveillance * The whole Apple v. DOJ fracas was insane! NY Times: In Nod to Law Enforcement, Obama Ends Attempt to Straddle Privacy Divide. Vice:...
View ArticleThe New ‘Defend Trade Secrets Act’ Is The Biggest IP Development In Years...
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...
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