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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

July 06, 2023
Worker Files Class Petition To Compel Twitter To Pay Arbitration Fees

SAN FRANCISCO — A former Twitter Inc. employee filed a class petition in a federal court in California to compel Twitter and X Corp. to pay all arbitration fees for thousands of pending individual arbitrations pursuant to the rules of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS).
July 06, 2023
Class Suit Filed After Apple Fails To Include Charging Block With IPhone 14 Pro

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Apple Inc.’s sales of the iPhone 14 Pro without a charging block prevented purchasers from being able to use the phones as intended as a component that is necessary to charge the battery is missing, a New York woman alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in New York.
July 05, 2023
Judge Won’t Dismiss UCL Suit Against Company That Posted Woman’s Yearbook Photo

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion by an aggregator of yearbook photographs to dismiss a putative class action against it for violating California right of publicity and unfair competition laws, finding that the lone remaining plaintiff plausibly alleged that the aggregator incorporated her image into its “advertising flow” directing website visitors to make a purchase.
July 05, 2023
OpenAI Contests California Competition, Copyright Claims

OAKLAND, Calif. — Plaintiffs claiming that artificial intelligence programs produce licensed materials posted to GitHub without attribution have not shown the programs produced the code for anyone but themselves or that copyright law would not preempt their case and have not adequately pleaded their claims under the California unfair competition law (UCL), OpenAI tells a federal judge in California in a motion to dismiss an amended complaint.
June 30, 2023
Supreme Court Rules Web Designer Not Required To Serve Same-Sex Couples

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Reversing a ruling by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 30 found that Colorado cannot require a website designer to create pages for same-sex couples under a state anti-discrimination act, holding that doing so would violate the principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and would run counter to the nation’s long-standing goal of tolerance.
June 30, 2023
Authors Say AI Chatbot Companies Use Copyrighted Work Without Credit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two authors filed a putative class action accusing the companies that created ChatGPT and other AI chatbots of copyright infringement, unjust enrichment and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using their copyrighted works of fiction in the training datasets for their software without permission or compensation.
June 30, 2023
2 Lawsuits Over Montana’s TikTok Ban Consolidated In Montana Federal Court

MISSOULA, Mont. — Two lawsuits over a recently enacted Montana law banning operation of the TikTok social network within the state were consolidated by a Montana federal judge, who found that “common issues of fact and law” compelled such consolidation of the cases, which were filed in May, “for all further proceedings.”
June 29, 2023
YouTube: No DMCA Requirement To Take Down Unaccused Videos Of Purported Infringer

NEW YORK — A trial court properly dismissed copyright infringement claims against it based on the alleged posting of infringing content by a third-party user of its platform, YouTube LLC tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellee brief, asserting that any infringement liability rests solely upon the user that posted the videos, further arguing that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not mandate the removal of other videos posted by the so-called repeat infringer.
June 28, 2023
Bankruptcy Judge Consults ChatGPT, Abandons Efforts After Finding Fake Citations

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal bankruptcy judge said that in crafting an opinion, he consulted ChatGPT for an essay on the impact of social media on product marketing, only to abandon the endeavor when his own research showed that the artificial intelligence program fabricated citations.
June 27, 2023
Supreme Court Vacates Cyberstalking Conviction On 1st Amendment Grounds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 vacated a Colorado man’s cyberstalking conviction, saying the state’s evidence that the defendant was aware of how his statements could be understood is a violation of the First Amendment.
June 26, 2023
Consumer Says AI-Powered ‘Robot Lawyer’ Can’t Compel Arbitration Of UCL Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer on June 23 filed a brief in California federal court opposing a motion to compel arbitration of his putative class claims including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) against a company that operates an AI-based “robot lawyer,” writing that the company failed to provide evidence that it notified him of its arbitration agreement.
June 26, 2023
In Dispute Over Terms Of Service, Copyright Preemption, Supreme Court Denies Cert

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its June 26 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to weigh in on a case that asked whether federal copyright law supersedes a contractual provision in a website’s terms of service (TOS), which bars copying.
June 26, 2023
Crypto Wallet Firm Hit With Negligence Suit After $100 Million Hack

DENVER — Three weeks after an Estonian cryptocurrency wallet firm lost $100 million of its customers’ funds due to a hacking incident, two of those clients filed a putative class action in Colorado state court, alleging “negligent and unlawful conduct” in the company’s failure “to take necessary security measures or precautions to protect user data and funds.”
June 26, 2023
Federal Judge Dismisses Dunkin’ App Pricing Class Suit On Alternative Grounds

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts granted a motion to dismiss filed by a coffee franchisor in a putative class complaint by a Massachusetts man over pricing in the company’s mobile application but based the ruling on a lack of subject matter jurisdiction rather than the arbitration requirements asserted by the defendant.
June 23, 2023
Supreme Court: Arbitrability Appeal Mandates Stay Of Proceedings By Trial Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A mandatory stay of trial court proceedings while a ruling on a case’s arbitrability is appealed “reflects common sense,” a U.S. Supreme Court majority held June 23, reversing the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to not grant stays to a cryptocurrency firm in two lawsuits in which it asserted that a contractual arbitration clause preempted claims against it.
June 21, 2023
FTC Sues Amazon For Tricking Customers Into Enrolling In Amazon Prime

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. “has knowingly duped millions of customers into enrolling in its Amazon Prime service” through “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs,” the Federal Trade Commission asserts in a complaint filed June 21 in Washington federal court.
June 21, 2023
Class Accuses Software Company, Others Of Using AI To Inflate Rental Housing Prices

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Renters filed an amended putative class complaint in a federal court in Tennessee accusing a software company and managers of large-scale apartments buildings of using machine learning and artificial intelligence to generate rental prices that they then adhere to “collectively raise market prices and avoid price competition.”
June 20, 2023
School District Claims Social Networks Use AI To Create Addictive Environment

SAN FRANCISCO — A Maryland school district became the latest in a long string of school districts nationwide to bring suit against the most popular social media companies for mental health issues that it says spring from minors’ addiction to social media that the defendants stoke with algorithms fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), which is used to make appealing content suggestions for kids.
June 16, 2023
Amici Tell Supreme Court ‘Testers’ Must Show Injuries In ADA Website Suits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Seven amicus curiae briefs were filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Acheson Hotels LLC, with the amici largely arguing that a self-proclaimed “tester,” who sued the hotel chain for having a website that did not comply with Americans with Disability Act (ADA) standards, should have been required to demonstrate an injury that is particularized and concrete.
June 16, 2023
Website Owner: Flawed Pleadings Defeat Direct Infringement Cert Question

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The operator of a concert footage streaming website says that a group of music publishers’ petition for certiorari does not merit the U.S. Supreme Court’s attention because their question about the direct copyright liability standard overlooks the fact that they pleaded and argued the wrong standard, making the case a poor vehicle to examine the volitional conduct requirement.
June 16, 2023
SEC, Crypto Asset Businesses Seek Agreement In Case Alleging Unlawful Sales

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission and businesses it has accused of engaging in multiple unregistered offers and sales of crypto asset securities and other investment schemes filed a joint status report in a federal court in the District of Columbia on June 15 stating that they are “working towards an agreement relating to a proposed Consent Order.”
June 15, 2023
TikTok Doesn’t Oppose Appointment Of Class Counsel In Moderators’ Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — TikTok Inc. and its parent company in a June 14 brief took no position on two former TikTok moderators’ motion to appoint their lawyer as interim lead counsel in a putative class action accusing the social media app’s owners of exposing them to disturbing content, shortly after a judge ruled that the suit may proceed except for their claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
June 15, 2023
Consumer Says ‘Sweepstakes’ App Is Illegal Gambling In Putative Class Suit

LOS ANGELES — A consumer filed a putative class action in California federal court claiming that he lost up to $8,000 using an app that describes itself as a “social sportsbook and sweepstakes” but that he contends is actually an illegal sports gambling game that he says is being operated in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
June 14, 2023
9th Circuit Won’t Reconsider Dismissal Of Sex-Trafficking Claims Against Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO — One month after affirming a trial court’s finding that the Communications Decency Act (CDA) protects Twitter Inc. from liability for the posting of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its social network, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a petition for rehearing by two John Does who had CSAM featuring them posted on Twitter by sex traffickers.
June 14, 2023
Trump Seeks 9th Circuit Notice Of Documents Proving Twitter Acted With Government

PASADENA, Calif. — In a reply brief supporting his motion to take judicial notice of the “Twitter Files,” Donald J. Trump acknowledges that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “normally does not consider matters not presented to the district court” but asserts that it is appropriate related to his allegations that Twitter Inc.’s suspension of the former president’s account violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution “to avoid a miscarriage of justice.”