Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

November 22, 2023
As High Court Mulls Tester’s Suit, 4th Circuit Vacates Sanction Of Her Ex-Counsel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A self-appointed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) tester filed a letter with the U.S. Supreme Court in a recently argued appeal focusing on testers’ standing in such suits, informing the high court that a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel had recently vacated a disciplinary ruling against her former attorney, whom she had described as a “distraction” and one of her reasons for unsuccessfully seeking to dismiss the case as moot prior to argument.
November 21, 2023
Google, Consumers, States Reach Final Settlement Of Play Store Antitrust Suits

SAN FRANCISCO — More than two months after announcing a tentative settlement of monopolization and unfair competition claims centering on Google Inc.’s Play Store, a group of consumers and a coalition of U.S. states, comprising the plaintiffs from two of the antitrust suits consolidated with one filed by Epic Games Inc., teamed up with Google on a notice of executed settlement, informing a California federal court that the parties had finalized the settlement.
November 21, 2023
Judge Dismisses ‘Nonsensical’ Copyright Claims For Meta’s Use Of Books To Train AI

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Nov. 20 granted a motion to dismiss the bulk of claims brought by authors in two related putative class actions against Meta Platforms Inc. for copyright infringement based on its use of their written works to train its artificial intelligence software, calling the plaintiffs’ “derivative works” argument “nonsensical.”
November 20, 2023
Dismissal, Protective Order Denied In WhatsApp, NSO Spyware Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — An Israeli spyware firm saw two of its motions denied by a California federal judge in a computer fraud suit brought against it by WhatsApp Inc., as she denied a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens and declined to issue a protective order barring much of the discovery sought by the plaintiff.
November 20, 2023
Judge Certifies Class Of Child Victims In Trafficking Suit Against Pornhub Owners

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge on Nov. 17 certified a class and subclass of victims who were in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) distributed through pornography websites, including Pornhub, that are owned by several Canadian and U.S. entities, writing that a class proceeding would lead to greater “efficiency” in the litigation of the victims’ claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), child trafficking laws and other statutes, and denied defense motions to exclude two experts.
November 17, 2023
Real Estate Law Firm Sues Cyber Security Insurer For Breach Of Contract

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A real estate law firm sued its insurer and a third-party administrator in a North Carolina court, seeking cyber security coverage for gross negligence and obstruction of justice cross-claims arising from a “cyber incident” in 2021 that resulted in the misdirection of funds.
November 17, 2023
Man Allegedly Defamed By ChatGPT Appeals Attorney Fee Ruling

ATLANTA — A man said in a Nov. 16 notice that he is appealing to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a federal judge in Georgia not to award him attorney fees after OpenAI LLC conceded that it could not defend removal of a defamation case alleging that ChatGPT incorrectly named him as a defendant in a financial misconduct suit.
November 17, 2023
Teens’ Social Media Addiction Claims Partly Dismissed In Products Liability MDL

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a lengthy and detailed ruling, the California federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation alleging products liability claims against the operators of the major social networks partly granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss assertions that they intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive for adolescent users.
November 17, 2023
Record Labels To 2nd Circuit: Vimeo’s Cite Of ‘Stale’ Ruling Doesn’t Show Fair Use

NEW YORK — A 13-year-old “stale, unpublished” magistrate recommendation does not support the fair use defense of Vimeo Inc. in a copyright infringement dispute over the website operator’s hosting of infringing videos, a group of record labels tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, responding to Vimeo’s post-trial letter brief, which it filed at the appeals court’s direction.
November 15, 2023
3 Damages Classes Certified In Student Athletes’ Likeness Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted a motion to certify three damages classes in a consolidated case by college athletes who allege that they are injured by certain National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules that restrict the compensation they may receive for the commercial use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL) by the schools they attend.
November 14, 2023
Commentator Seeks Certiorari, Argument With Social Media Government Coercion Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a supplemental letter brief supporting his bid for certiorari, a conservative political commentator tells the U.S. Supreme Court that his appeal of the dismissal of his free speech claims against California’s secretary of state and Twitter Inc. is irreconcilable with, and would make an excellent companion piece to, another case pertaining to governmental coercion of social media platforms that was recently granted certiorari.
November 14, 2023
Certiorari Sought For 1st, 4th Amendment Issues Over Livestreaming Traffic Stops

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A North Carolina man who was prevented by police from livestreaming a traffic stop asks the U.S. Supreme Court to confirm that his rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution were violated, arguing in a reply brief supporting his bid for certiorari that a police department’s attempts to distinguish between recording and livestreaming “are immaterial” to the matters of free speech and qualified immunity at issue in the parties’ competing certiorari petitions.
November 13, 2023
9th Circuit Upholds Scope Of Relief In Row Over ‘Northpointe’ Mark

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in Arizona had “an ample basis for finding” that a defaulting defendant’s use of “NorthPointe” would likely cause confusion with a plaintiff’s “Northpointe at Vistancia” trademark, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded.
November 13, 2023
11th Circuit Upholds Jury Instructions, Sanctions Ruling In Bitcoin Ownership Row

ATLANTA — Deferring to a trial court’s ruling, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no error or abuse of discretion in the lower court’s jury instructions, vacating of a sanctions ruling or denial of a new trial motion in finding that a Florida man and his deceased colleague did not have a bitcoin mining partnership that would have entitled the decedent’s estate to half of the value of the voluminous cache of mined bitcoin.
November 10, 2023
SEC Blasts ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Crypto Platform, Says Case Should Proceed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A cryptocurrency platform is attempting to tear down decades of precedent on securities laws to avoid repercussions for operating as an unlicensed security and misconstrues a longstanding securities precedent in support of its claims, the Securities and Exchange Commission says in a memorandum in opposition to the platform’s motion to dismiss the commission’s complaint against it filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
November 10, 2023
Lending Platform Says Judge Misapplied Scienter Factor, Should Fully Dismiss Suit

CINCINNATI — A day after a lending platform filed a motion asking a federal judge in Ohio to reconsider a ruling that claims made by shareholders about the platform’s use of artificial intelligence to approve loans are actionable, several investment funds filed a motion to intervene in the suit, seeking to ensure that their claims are preserved.
November 09, 2023
Indiana Federal Judge Issues Injunction In Computer Code Theft Row

HAMMOND, Ind. — Allegations by Illinois Central Railroad Co. (IC) that a former employee stole its computer code and then attempted to copyright the code will proceed with a preliminary injunction in place, a federal judge in Indiana has ruled.
November 06, 2023
DOJ: Deny Kennedy’s Motion To Intervene In State Action Social Media Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a motion by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intervene in an appeal of a presently stayed injunction preventing the Biden administration and other governmental parties from getting involved in social media platforms’ content moderation decisions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) says in a brief filed on behalf of the government, arguing that the presidential candidate and his co-plaintiffs in a similar lawsuit against the government have not established the necessary “rare, unusual, or extraordinary” circumstances that would warrant intervention.
November 06, 2023
Divided Panel Upholds $5M Attorney Fee Award In Longstanding Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 3 weighed in for a third time in a dispute over patents allegedly infringed by Amazon.com Inc.’s “S3” and “CloudFront” products, this time affirming in a divided ruling a California federal judge’s $5,187,203.99 attorney fee award on behalf of the e-tailer and Twitch Interactive Inc.
November 03, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Coinbase Appeal Over Arbitration Agreement Clauses

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 3 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. regarding the enforcement and application of delegation clauses in determining who is tasked with resolving an arbitrability dispute.
November 03, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of UCL, Omission Claims In Intel MDL

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 2 affirmed the dismissal of consumers’ putative class claims in a multidistrict litigation against Intel Corp. accusing it of concealing security vulnerabilities in its microprocessors, including claims for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), after finding that Intel didn’t have a duty to disclose the issues and didn’t make statements that would deceive a reasonable consumer.
November 02, 2023
Epic, Google Debate Whether Antitrust Suit Merits Jury Or Bench Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — With a trial date fast approaching, Google LLC and Epic Games Inc. submitted briefs Nov. 1, at a California federal judge’s instruction, taking opposite positions on whether a jury or bench trial is appropriate in a consolidated antitrust suit over the Google Play Store in light of a just-announced settlement between Google and co-plaintiff Match Group LLC.
November 02, 2023
Judge Allows Some Copyright Claims Against AI Apps

SAN FRANCISCO — Where a cartoonist alleges that her protected works were scraped from the internet and used to train artificial intelligence, her copyright claims survive motions to dismiss, but the balance of the California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims fail, a federal judge in the state said Oct. 30 in granting leave to amend a class action.
November 01, 2023
Panel Orders Transfer Of False Advertising, Copyright Claims Against TikTok

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 31 granted a petition for writ of mandamus by TikTok Inc. and others, agreeing that allegations that the popular video sharing app engages in false advertising and copyright infringement should proceed in California federal court.
November 01, 2023
Justices Ponder State Actor Standards In Back-To-Back Social Media Suits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Weighing questions of when a public official is acting as a private citizen or in a governmental capacity, the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31 heard oral arguments in two cases addressing when an official’s decision to ban someone from a social media page that includes posts related to matters connected with his or her position constitutes state action in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.