Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce
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August 24, 2021
9th Circuit Upholds Denial Of Fees, Relief In Copyright Row
SAN FRANCISCO — A per curiam panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a federal judge in California on Aug. 20 that a copyright owner is not entitled to a permanent injunction or reimbursement of its attorney fees despite prevailing on claims of willful infringement against the operator of website.
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August 24, 2021
Judge Dismisses Claims Against Facebook For Discriminatory Targeted Housing Ads
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 20 dismissed with prejudice a third amended complaint alleging that Facebook violated California and New York laws and federal housing law through the posting of allegedly discriminatory targeted housing ads, writing that the plaintiffs failed to allege facts plausibly establishing that they were harmed by the ads.
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August 24, 2021
ASU’s Trademark Claims Over ‘Hoax-19’ Instagram Account Dismissed
PHOENIX — One year after Arizona State University (ASU) filed suit against a John Doe defendant who created an Instagram account that was critical of the university’s policies and practices related to COVID-19, an Arizona federal judge on Aug. 17 denied the university’s motion for default judgment and dismissed its trademark-related claims, finding that no reasonable consumer would have mistaken the account as being affiliated with the university.
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August 23, 2021
FTC Files Amended Complaint Alleging Social Network Monopolization By Facebook
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Almost two months after a District of Columbia federal judge dismissed its antitrust complaint against Facebook Inc. for not sufficiently explaining the social network’s purported monopoly power, the Federal Trade Commission on Aug. 19 filed an amended complaint providing additional facts and figures to support its assertions.
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August 19, 2021
$25M Tinder Age-Bias Class Settlement Reversed For Further Inquiry
PASADENA, Calif. — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 17 reversed a trial court’s 2019 approval of a class settlement valued at approximately $25 million in a lawsuit accusing a smartphone-based dating application of discriminatory age-based pricing in violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and remanded for a “more probing inquiry” that’s required in a pre-certification settlement, finding the value of the settlement “substantially overstated” and the strength and value of the claims “discounted.”
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August 19, 2021
Sanctions Granted In Class Suit Accusing Dominion, Others Of Conspiracy
DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado on Aug. 3 declared that a putative class complaint by voters who accused Dominion Voting Systems Inc., Facebook and others of conspiring to interfere in the 2020 presidential election “was filed in bad faith” and that sanctions are both “merited” and “required to deter the filing of frivolous, politically motivated lawsuits such as this in the future and to compensate the Defendants” for the “frivolous lawsuit.”
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August 18, 2021
Suit Over Revoked Trump CDA Executive Order Dismissed By D.C. Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a one-page per curiam order on Aug. 9, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a civil rights organization’s motion to dismiss as moot its appeal of the disposal of its claims that former President Donald J. Trump violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by enacting an executive order seeking rule-making on revising the safe harbor provision of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
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August 18, 2021
After High Court Ruling, 11th Circuit Reverses, Remands Computer Fraud Conviction
ATLANTA — Two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is based on authorized access rather than improper motives, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 4 issued a per curiam opinion reversing an ex-police officer’s computer fraud conviction, in accord with the high court’s ruling, and further remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
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August 17, 2021
Panel: Suit Seeking To Hold Insurer Vicariously Liable For Robocalls Can Proceed
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 10 reversed a lower federal court’s dismissal of claims brought against an insurer under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Illinois Automatic Telephone Dialing Act, finding that the plaintiff’s “allegations include enough detail to render his actual authority theory of agency liability plausible."
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August 17, 2021
Publisher Appeals Fees Denial In Copyright Suit Over Instagram Photo Post
NEW YORK — A publisher that prevailed in a photographer’s copyright infringement suit against it but was denied a motion for attorney fees, argues in an Aug. 16 brief to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court judge improperly focused on the novel aspect of the photo at issue being an embedded Instagram post, rather than on the fact that the publisher’s posting of the picture was deemed fair use.
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August 17, 2021
Trump’s 9th Circuit Appeal Of WeChat Ban Ruling Voluntarily Dismissed
SAN FRANCISCO — In the wake of the revocation of a Trump era ban of certain uses of the WeChat social media app in the United States, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 9 granted a motion by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to voluntarily dismiss the government’s appeal of a ruling that had preliminarily enjoined enactment of the now-defunct executive order establishing the ban.
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August 16, 2021
Magistrate Recommends ADA Accessibility Suit Over Jord’s Website Be Dismissed
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A blind man’s claim against Jord Inc. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) merits dismissal, a New York federal magistrate judge recommended Aug. 11, finding that the plaintiff did not cite any authority to support jurisdiction over the out-of-state retailer in claims that its website is not equally accessible to the visually impaired.
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August 16, 2021
Law Firm Obtains Default Judgment, Domain Transfer In Cybersquatting Suit
PHOENIX — A law firm prevailed in its efforts to regain control of an internet domain for which it had allowed the registration to lapse, when an Arizona federal judge granted its motion for a default judgment on Aug. 12, finding that the firm had sufficiently stated its claim under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and that the unidentified defendant had failed to defend against the claim or to respond to the suit at all.
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August 13, 2021
Biotech Firm Opposes Stay In High Court Appeal Of Defamation Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly vacated an excessive judgment against it over a defamatory online post, a biotechnology firm tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an Aug. 11 brief in which it opposes an emergency stay of the judgment reversal sought by the party that was initially awarded $22.3 million in damages for the posting.
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August 12, 2021
Investor Sues Cryptocurrency Exchange Over Alleged IPO Misstatements
SAN FRANCISCO — A cryptocurrency exchange violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that its online platform suffered from material weakness and that the exchange had significant cash flow issues in offering documents for its initial public offering (IPO), an investor alleges in an Aug. 10 class action complaint filed in California federal court.
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August 10, 2021
ISP’s DMCA Compliance Documents Ruled Ordinary Business, Not Privileged
DENVER — Because a Colorado federal magistrate judge found documents related to an internet service provider’s (ISP’s) efforts to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to have been created in the ordinary course of business, he ruled Aug. 6 that the defendant in a music-downloading copyright infringement case could not withhold them from discovery under the attorney-client privilege.
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August 05, 2021
Missouri Federal Judge Trims Claims In Class Suit Over Workers’ Stolen Information
ST. LOUIS — A former employee of an electronics company that suffered a data breach when its computer servers were infiltrated by hackers can proceed with negligence and breach of implied contract claims against the company and seek injunctive relief, though her other claims over the theft of her personally identifiable information (PII) are off the table, a Missouri federal judge ruled Aug. 3 in partly granting the company’s motion to dismiss the worker’s class complaint.
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August 04, 2021
Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Patent Case, Agrees Venue Was Improper
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Aug. 3 ruling, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said a Texas federal judge correctly dismissed allegations that Victoria’s Secret Stores LLC (Stores) and related entities infringed a patent relating to the display of thumbnails on a webpage.
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August 02, 2021
American Airlines’ Website Is Inaccessible To The Blind, New Complaint Alleges
SAN FRANCISCO — In a July 21 complaint, a visually impaired man asks a California federal court to require American Airlines Inc. (AA) to amend its website to make it accessible to blind patrons, alleging that the site’s lack of equal access for the blind violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
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July 29, 2021
News Firm Tells 2nd Circuit Reposting Of Photograph Was Noninfringing Fair Use
NEW YORK — An online news organization defends its republication of a copyrighted photograph as fair use, asking the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a June 16 appellee brief to affirm a trial court’s ruling that dismissed a photographer’s copyright infringement claim against it.