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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

September 26, 2024
Developers Of Video Game Cheat Again Appeal Copyright Case To 9th Circuit

SEATTLE — Only a month after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Washington federal judge did not err in affirming a nearly $4.4 million arbitration award in a copyright infringement case involving video game cheating software, the case is headed back to the Ninth Circuit as the companies who created the software on Sept. 25 notified the district court that they were appealing the court’s decision to deny their motion for a new trial.
September 25, 2024
DOJ Says Visa Violated Sherman Act In Online And General Purpose Network Services

NEW YORK — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sept. 24 sued Visa Inc., a company operating “the largest debit network in the United States,” alleging violations of the Sherman Act regarding Visa’s purported monopoly power “in the general purpose debit network services” and online “general purpose card-not-present debit network services markets in the United States with market shares of at least 60% and 65%, respectively, by payment volume.”
September 20, 2024
Settlement Reported In Assault Suit Against Snapchat, Which Claimed CDA Immunity

WATERBURY, Conn. — A Connecticut state court judge stated in an order that a settlement was reported but the case was not withdrawn in a suit filed against Snap Inc., which operates the social media platform Snapchat, by the parents of a minor who was sexually assaulted by two men that she met through the platform, with the social media company claiming immunity from liability for the rapists’ actions under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
September 19, 2024
Magistrate, Judge Issue Discovery, Management Orders In Social Media Addiction MDL

OAKLAND, Calif. — One day after a California federal magistrate judge issued a discovery management order in a product liability multidistrict ligation over the purported addictive qualities for adolescents regarding several of the largest social media platforms, a California federal judge on Sept. 18 issued a case management order outlining and expanding on deadlines set at a previous case management conference, including deadlines for the close of fact discovery and completion of document discovery.
September 19, 2024
Split 9th Circuit Panel Rules That Uber Had Duty Of Care Toward Its Murdered Driver

SAN FRANCISCO — A split panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a grant of summary judgment by a Washington federal court in favor of a rideshare company in a lawsuit by the estate and survivors of one its drivers stemming from the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.
September 19, 2024
Va. Federal Judge: Lost Profits Expert Can Testify In Suit Alleging Defamation

RICHMOND, Va. — An expert retained to opine on an insurance claim adjustment company’s economic loss after allegedly defaming statements were made to its customers by an online payment company can testify, a Virginia federal judge ruled.
September 19, 2024
Failure To Allege NFL Prerecorded Videos Were Viewed Deemed ‘Fatal’ To VPPA Claim

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed a putative class complaint accusing the National Football League of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing personal data about users of the NFL’s website, mobile application and video service with a third party, opining that the lead plaintiff’s failure to allege that prerecorded videos were viewed was “fatal” to the complaint.
September 18, 2024
Judge Denies Meta’s Dismissal Bid In Class Suit Over Facial Recognition Software

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.— An Illinois federal judge on Sept. 17 denied a dismissal motion filed by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) in a putative class action suit alleging violations of a state privacy law regarding Meta’s collecting biometric information using facial recognition software through its Facebook messenger and messenger kids applications, finding that Meta did not “overcome the presumption against preemption” by federal law and did not show that the complaint failed to allege that Meta collected and possessed biometric data.
September 17, 2024
Petitioners To High Court: 5th Circuit Erred In Review Of Texas Porn Age Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Adult entertainment industry petitioners and their nonprofit trade association on Sept. 16 filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of their argument that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in applying a “rational-basis review rather than strict scrutiny” to a Texas law that requires the operators of pornographic websites to verify that their visitors are adults, which the petitioners argue “imposes a content-based burden on adults’ access to constitutionally protected speech.”
September 17, 2024
Yelp Agrees To Magistrate Oversight In Stolen Info Antitrust Suit Against Google

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet search platform Yelp Inc. consented to jurisdiction by a federal magistrate judge over further proceedings in its California federal court suit against multinational search engine tech company Google LLC asserting antitrust violations pursuant to the Sherman Act regarding Google’s alleged “numerous anti-competitive practices, including stealing information from Yelp’s website and passing it off as Google’s own.”
September 17, 2024
23andMe Asks MDL Judge To Approve $30M Data Breach Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — Genetic data company 23andMe Inc. filed a brief urging the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to grant preliminary approval to a $30 million settlement to resolve claims in a multidistrict litigation brought by plaintiffs whose genetic data on 23andMe’s website was hacked and offered for sale online and asking the court to enjoin separate litigation and arbitrations brought against it for the breach that it says could “jeopardize . . . the Settlement.”
September 16, 2024
Judge: Trump Liable For Infringing Use Of ‘Electric Avenue’ In Campaign Video

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Sept. 13 granted singer Eddy Grant’s partial motion for partial summary judgment against former President Donald J. Trump and his re-election campaign, holding that the singer adequately showed that Trump’s use of Grant’s song “Electric Avenue” in a video on Twitter does not constitute fair use; the judge also denied a motion for partial summary judgment from the Trump team.
September 16, 2024
Panel Says Suit Against Crypto Exchange For False Security Claims Not Arbitrable

SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate panel affirmed a trial court’s denial of a cryptocurrency exchange’s petition to compel arbitration of claims that it misrepresented the security of its platform in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims are inarbitrable because they seek public injunctive relief, thereby affirming the opposite conclusion of that reached by a federal judge hearing similar claims brought by some of the same plaintiffs.
September 13, 2024
Judge Dismisses Patent Infringement Claims Against Hulu Over Ad Stream Technology

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed a suit filed by a media company against streaming service Hulu, alleging patent infringement regarding patents relating to integrating advertising into digital media streams, finding that “[t]he claims are patent ineligible” because they “do not contain an inventive concept.”
September 13, 2024
Magistrate Judge Won’t Dismiss UCL Suit Over ‘Sunset’ Of Payroll Software

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge on Sept. 12 denied a software provider’s motion to dismiss a suit against it for breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), brought by a payroll company that alleges that it unlawfully lost access to payroll software and searchable client data contained therein after paying licensing fees for more than 20 years.
September 13, 2024
Judge Grants Injunction In 1st Amendment Row Over Utah Social Media Moderation Law

SALT LAKE CITY — In a decision addressing two cases challenging Utah state legislation to moderate social media content for minors, a Utah federal judge in the first case granted a preliminary injunction to an internet trade association company seeking to prevent enforcement of the legislation, finding that the trade association is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the law violates the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
September 13, 2024
Utah Judge Rules For Insurer In Coverage Dispute Over Ill. BIPA Violation Claims

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah judge entered judgment in favor of a general liability insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying action alleging its insured violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that various policy exclusions bar coverage.
September 11, 2024
BIPA Violation Suit Did Not Trigger Coverage, Illinois Majority Rules In Reversal

CHICAGO — A majority of an Illinois appeals court panel on Sept. 10 held that an underlying lawsuit alleging that an insured violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act did not trigger coverage under its “Cyber, Data Risk, and Media Insurance” policies, reversing the lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the insured and remanding for the court to enter summary judgment in favor of the insurer on the issue of its duty to defend.
September 11, 2024
Massachusetts High Court Affirms Snapchat Surveillance Case Dismissal

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed dismissal of a case that the commonwealth brought against a man accused of unlawful firearm possession and related crimes after the man tried for three years to get the commonwealth to produce discovery related to the Boston Police Department’s undercover monitoring of Snapchat social media accounts, finding that “discovery was relevant and material” and that the judge’s dismissal was not an abuse of discretion because the department and commonwealth did not “make any attempt to comply” with the judge’s discovery order.
September 11, 2024
High Court Extends Time To Respond To Stay Request, Cert Petition In Broadband Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a docket-only order, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a request filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James for an extension of time to respond to the New York State Telecommunications Association and other broadband providers’ petition for a writ of certiorari and application to stay the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling reversing a district court’s judgment that granted a permanent injunction barring the enforcement of New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) and found that the Federal Communications Act of 1934 preempts state regulation of broadband services.
September 10, 2024
Hunter Biden Wins Attorney Fees From Laptop Files Poster

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 9 granted Hunter Biden’s motion for attorney fees against a conservative activist and his organization, whom Biden accuses of violating computer fraud laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by posting data from his private laptop online, finding that Biden is entitled to fees incurred defending against a frivolous motion to strike pursuant to California’s anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) law.
September 09, 2024
2nd Circuit: Internet Archive’s Book Lending Infringed On Copyrights

NEW YORK — The Internet Archive (IA) did not have the right to engage in a process it called “controlled digital lending” in which it digitized books and loaned them to individuals online, a panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a New York federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of several publishers.
September 09, 2024
TikTok Not Immune From Its Own First-Party Expression In Curating, Promoting Videos

PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed in part and vacated in part the judgment of a Pennsylvania trial court dismissing a lawsuit by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who accidentally asphyxiated herself after watching a video encouraging similar behavior curated by an online video service and featured on the girl’s “For You Page,” ruling that the curation and promotion of videos is first-party expressive conduct, not third-party conduct for which the service was immune from liability under the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
September 09, 2024
Care Gig Platform, FTC Reach $8.5M Agreement In Case Over Wages, Cancellations

AUSTIN, Texas — Care.com, a child and older adult care gig platform, will pay $8.5 million to end claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it has systematically deceived caregivers about wages available for potential jobs and at the same time failed to give families looking for care an easy way to cancel their paid memberships.
September 06, 2024
Judge ‘Cautions’ WhatsApp, Denies Reconsideration To Spyware Firm In Fraud Dispute

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge on Sept. 5 denied a spyware firm’s motion for reconsideration of the judge’s order denying as moot the firm’s request to compel WhatsApp Inc.’s production of a privilege log in WhatsApp’s suit against the firm related to its alleged computer fraud because WhatsApp has now produced the log but “caution[ed]” WhatsApp that what it calls ‘“oversights’ may be grounds for a different type of sanction.”