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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

October 17, 2023
2nd Circuit Won’t Rehear Appeal Of New York Times Auto Renewal Settlement

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a class settlement objector’s petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc after the appellate judges determined that a trial court employed the wrong legal standard when it approved a settlement between The New York Times and subscribers in a case over auto renewals and erred in finding that the access codes provided as part of the settlement were not coupons under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) but reiterated the holding in Melito v. Experian Marketing Solutions, Inc. and ruled “that incentive awards are not per se unlawful.”
October 17, 2023
2nd Circuit: No Infringement By YouTube In User’s Posts Of Copyrighted Videos

NEW YORK — In an Oct. 17 summary order, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a documentary maker did not establish any volitional conduct by YouTube LLC in the posting of purportedly infringing content by a channel owner, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement claims against the video-sharing platform operator.
October 17, 2023
Radio Host Parries ChatGPT Defamation Suit Challenges

ATLANTA — Recent Georgia Supreme Court precedent warrants finding that OpenAI LLC’s decision to register to do business in the state subjects it to jurisdiction, and the court should ignore the company’s references to material outside the complaint and deny a motion to dismiss, a man who claims that the company’s artificial intelligence defamed him says in an Oct. 16 opposition.
October 17, 2023
Pro Se Contributory Copyright Claim Against Kiwi Farms Reinstated

DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 16 said an author and songwriter’s allegations that the Kiwi Farms website contributed to infringement of his copyrighted works are adequate enough to withstand a motion to dismiss.
October 17, 2023
Amici To 5th Circuit: ISP Not Contributorily Liable For Customers’ File Sharing

NEW ORLEANS — Two trade organizations for internet service providers (ISPs) filed an amicus curiae brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting an ISP that was hit with a $46.8 million contributory infringement judgment, in which they argue that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Twitter Inc. v. Taamneh, 598 U.S. 471 (2023), establishes that “a ‘communication provider’ [cannot] be held liable ‘merely for knowing that wrongdoers were using its services and failing to stop them.’”
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 16, 2023
Draft Legislation Would Ban AI-Created Digital Replicas

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Draft legislation circulating in Congress would give individuals property rights over their likenesses and voices and ban unauthorized uses created by artificial intelligence.
October 13, 2023
Man Appeals Ruling That Copyright Can’t Protect AI Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man found to have “put the cart before the horse” has appealed a holding by a District of Columbia federal judge that copyright law at its core historically requires a human creator and cannot protect art created by artificial intelligence (AI).
October 13, 2023
FTX Investor Says Competitor’s Tweets Caused ‘Collapse’ In Value

OAKLAND, Calif. — An investor in FTX Trading Ltd. filed a putative class action in California federal court accusing Binance Holdings Ltd., a competing cryptocurrency exchange, its affiliates and its CEO of violating securities laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by selling off FTX tokens and tweeting negative statements about FTX that allegedly contributed to FTX’s “collapse.”
October 13, 2023
ChatGPT Makers Claim Writers’ Copyright Claims Inapplicable To AI Tech

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. and affiliated companies that developed the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) program filed a reply in California federal court in support of their motion to dismiss two putative class actions for copyright infringement and other claims brought by copyright holders, urging the court to reject the plaintiffs’ “erroneous” theory “that every single output of ChatGPT is a prima facie copyright infringement.”
October 12, 2023
Federal Judge Dismisses Investor’s Complaint Over Alleged Online Misstatements

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California dismissed with prejudice the second amended complaint filed by a late investor’s daughter who continued to argue that a real estate company misled investors while seeking crowdfunding through social media statements after the investor’s death, finding that the daughter had failed to adequately plead falsity and that amending the complaint would be futile.
October 12, 2023
Judge Certifies Class Suing Company For Faking Reviews To Sell Shoddy Electronics

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge granted a motion to certify a class accusing a California company ultimately owned by a Chinese manufacturer of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by paying for fake reviews on Amazon.com to deceive consumers into buying its low-quality electronics.
October 12, 2023
N.Y. Federal Magistrate Judge: Copyright Owner Conceded Futility Of Case

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge in New York said the voluntary dismissal with prejudice of allegations of copyright infringement by a copyright owner established knowledge that the claims were futile.
October 10, 2023
Judge Denies TRO Blocking Alleged Gambling App From Revising Terms To Moot Suit

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied a putative class plaintiff’s application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop an app company, which the plaintiff accuses of operating an illegal sports gambling game in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), from revising its terms of use in a way that the plaintiff says would “retroactively” subject users to an arbitration agreement barring them from class membership.
October 10, 2023
Appellee Says Fake Cites, Wrong Court Rule Suggest Artificial Intelligence Use

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A case stands ready for California appellate review after a party told the court that incorrect case cites and references to a court rule that does not exist suggest that appellants challenging a receiver’s final report drafted a brief with artificial intelligence.
October 06, 2023
After Rehearing, 5th Circuit Panel Applies Social Media Coercion Injunction To CISA

NEW ORLEANS — One month after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel mostly upheld, and modified, a preliminary injunction barring certain federal government officials and entities from influencing social media platforms’ content moderation decisions, the same panel granted rehearing and issued a revised ruling in which it included the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as one of the enjoined entities.
October 06, 2023
Judge Grants Final Approval To $10M Settlement In Roblox Digital Goods Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Oct. 5 granted final approval to a $10 million settlement to resolve putative class claims that will return more than half of “Robux” that 8 million users of the Roblox online video game lost when the game deleted in-game digital items the users had purchased, allegedly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
October 06, 2023
Federal Judge Rejects SEC Bid For Interlocutory Appeal In Crypto Suit

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge denied a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission for interlocutory appeal in a case brought by the commission against a crypto asset firm it accused of selling cryptocurrencies without registering them as a security, finding that the SEC did not show that there was a substantial ground for difference of opinion
October 06, 2023
SEC Says Court Should Reject Coinbase’s Motion For Judgment On Crypto Case

NEW YORK — The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Coinbase Inc.’s motion for a judgment on the pleadings should be denied, arguing in a memorandum of law that Coinbase is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to rule that sales of cryptocurrency on its platform can never involve an investment contract because the SEC says this runs afoul of established tests to determine whether a product is a security.
October 05, 2023
Apple Appeals ‘Breathtakingly Broad’ Injunction In Epic App Store Antitrust Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for certiorari filed one day after Epic Games Inc. filed its own petition in the same suit, Apple Inc. asks the U.S. Supreme Court to provide guidance on whether it is appropriate to issue a universal injunction that provides relief to all affected nonparties when there has been no class certification.
October 05, 2023
5th Circuit Grants Stay, Carries Stay Motion In Worker’s Protected Speech Case

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a pair of two-page orders issued in three consolidated appeals concerning a former employee’s claims of protected speech granted an unopposed motion for a temporary administrative stay and carried with the cases an opposed motion to stay the contempt order, filed together by Southwest Airlines Co.
October 05, 2023
Justices Debate Mootness In ADA Website Tester Suit That Is ‘Dead, Dead, Dead’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Oct. 4 oral arguments in an Americans with Disabilities (ADA) lawsuit over a hotel’s website, U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned why the case, which Justice Elena Kagan described as “dead, dead, dead in all the ways that something can be dead,” should not be declared moot in light of the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal of discrimination claims.
October 04, 2023
Twitter User Denied Certiorari In Suit Over State Action Censorship For COVID Posts

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari by a doctor who sought guidance on the proper pleadings standards to allege state-sponsored censorship related to Twitter Inc.’s suspension of her social media account, letting stand the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that the petitioner did not sufficiently allege conspiracy between the White House and Twitter in a purported effort to silence her views on COVID-19 and vaccines, which conflicted with those of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration.
October 03, 2023
Judge Compels Arbitration Of Misleading ‘Self-Driving’ Claims Against Tesla

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Tesla Inc.’s motion to compel arbitration against four of five putative class action plaintiffs who accused it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misrepresenting the capabilities of its vehicles’ “self-driving” technology, found the fifth plaintiff’s claims time-barred and denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification.
October 03, 2023
Judge: Statements That AI Lending Platform Is ‘Magical’ Were Optimistic, Puffery

CINCINNATI — Claims that a lending platform’s artificial intelligence’s “magical” abilities would “shine” during periods of risk are nothing more than optimistic statements and puffery, while claims that its model could approve more loans at lower rates than traditional systems during such times are verifiable and actionable, a federal judge in Ohio said in partly granting motions to dismiss a securities class action.