The Ninth Circuit recently revisited the issue of the applicability of the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) in the case Ventura Content, Ltd., v. Motherless, Inc., et al. (decided March 14, 2018). The issue before the Court was whether the defendants had presented undisputed evidence that they fell within the… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Privacy
Subscribe to Privacy RSS FeedAre Pins, Posts, Tweets and Likes Appropriate for Use in Selecting Jurors?
Posted in PrivacyWhen you hear the name of someone you can’t place or don’t know much about, what do you do? Chances are, you “Google” them. Well that is what attorneys are doing to learn more about prospective jurors too! But they are not stopping there. They are looking at a number of social media sites, such… Continue Reading
Apple Argues It Should Not Be Compelled to Write Software for the F.B.I.
Posted in PrivacyOn February 16, 2016, Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued an order compelling Apple, Inc. to provide technical assistance to the F.B.I. so it can access an iPhone 5C that belonged to a shooter in the recent San Bernardino, California attack. The order, which… Continue Reading
Move Over Vanna White, Here Comes Marion Barry’s Kidney
Posted in PrivacyIn 2008, former Mayor of Washington, D.C., and then council member Marion Barry became ill with a kidney disease. To survive the illness, Mr. Barry required a kidney transplant, and one of his friends, Ms. Kim Dickens, came to his aid and donated one of her kidneys. Although the transplant helped Mr. Barry survive for… Continue Reading
Tweet, Tweet, Sue, Sue: Corporate Twitter Feeds and The Lanham Act
Posted in PrivacyA case filed on April 9, 2014 in New York Federal District Court highlights the tension between celebrity endorsements and ordinary First Amendment communications in the digital age. The actress Katherine Heigl, who starred in various middlingly-successful motion pictures, has sued the drugstore chain Duane Reade Inc. for $6 million in damages for tweeting a… Continue Reading
Red Rothko: Confidentiality Agreements in the World of Big Art
Posted in Copyright Law, Patent Law, Privacy, Trademark LawBy: David R. Gabor I. The Art World Is No Longer A Quiet Place Decades ago, a former counsel for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City commented that transactions in the art world are generally very "hush-hush" and have always been that way. See Gabor, Deaccessioning Fine Art Works, 36 UCLA L…. Continue Reading
California Passes New Privacy Law That May Require Revisions to Most Online Privacy Policies.
Posted in Privacy, Web/TechBy: Scott Hervey Once again, California leads the nation in passing online privacy consumer protection legislation. On September 30, 2013 Governor Jerry Brown signed into law A.B 370 which adds new provisions to California’s existing Online Privacy Protection Act (Business and Professions Code Section 22575). These new provisions require the operators of websites, online services and mobile… Continue Reading
THE NINTH CIRCUIT THROWS A PENALTY FLAG AGAINST ELECTRONIC ARTS
Posted in Privacy, Trademark LawBy Dale C. Campbell On July 31, 2012, the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling protecting the right of privacy held by collegiate athletes against the use of their likeness in connection with video games. (Keller v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (2013) 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 10-15387. This decision joins the Third Circuit’s decision in Ryan Hart… Continue Reading
Don’t Blog on Me
Posted in Cyberspace Law, PrivacyBy: Nathan Geronimo A few months ago I wrote about the dangers of posting information online that contradicted your own contentions when involved in litigation. I cited to cases where posts on social networking sites were used as evidence against plaintiffs in civil cases. A recent case involving blogs and social networking sites illustrates yet another… Continue Reading
Involved in Litigation? Be Careful What You Post Online
Posted in Cyberspace Law, Privacy, Web/TechBy Nathan Geronimo People are better connected with friends and family than ever before. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be an excellent way to stay in touch with loved ones, and to get daily updates of people’s lives. Similarly, through sites such as YouTube, people are able to share videos and… Continue Reading
Social Networking Websites – Just How Private Are they?
Posted in PrivacyBy: Audrey Millemann and Etan Zaitsu The federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) of 1986 was established in an attempt to give Fourth Amendment-type privacy protections to people for their Internet communications. In other words, Congress sought to protect people’s Internet privacy from warrantless intrusion.
Anonymous Online Video and Blog Posters Beware
Posted in PrivacyBy: Jeffrey Pietsch and Etan Zaitsu, second year law student at McGeorge School of Law Thinking of running a smear campaign against a business competitor? Thinking of posting disparaging content about someone anonymously online? Think again. According to a decision made by the Ninth Circuit on July 12, 2010, anonymous online postings may not qualify… Continue Reading
The First Circuit Takes a Novel View of the Attorney Work Product Privilege
Posted in Privacyby Dale C. Campbell, David Muradyan* and Sara Davidson* Is the work product of an attorney always protected? No, according to the First Circuit in a decision which may draw the attention of the U. S. Supreme Court. The First Circuit, sitting en banc (the “Court”) ruled that the attorney work product doctrine did not protect tax… Continue Reading
Ninth Circuit Ruling on Texting Provides Guidelines For The Marketing Industry
Posted in Entertainment Law, Privacyby Scott Hervey A ruling earlier this month by the Ninth Circuit provided three guidelines all marketing experts and their counsel should take note of. These guidelines address the extent to which the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) (and most likely other Federal regulations on telemarketing) impacts texting as part of a marketing campaign. In… Continue Reading
California Supreme Court Affirms Broad Immunity for Defamatory Republication on the Internet
Posted in Cyberspace Law, PrivacyBy Dale Campbell When can you knowingly republish defamatory statements without risk of liability? When you do so on the Internet. The California Supreme Court, in Barrett v. Rosenthal (November 2006) 40 Cal.App.4th 33, followed the line of federal cases interpreting the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) to find broad immunity for both Internet service providers… Continue Reading
Employers: You May Be Eligible for Immunity Under the Communications Decency Act
Posted in Cyberspace Law, Privacy, Web/TechBy James Kachmar A California appellate court affirmed last month that an employer is entitled to immunity from tort liability for threatening emails sent on or through the employer’s internet/email system by one of its employees. On December 14, 2006, the Sixth Appellate District in the case Delfino v. Agilent Technologies, Inc., 2006 WL3635399, affirmed… Continue Reading
Your Cell Phone Is A Homing Beacon -Should The Government Be Allowed To Use It Without Showing Probable Cause?
Posted in PrivacyBy Scott Cameron Here’s the next step Big Brother is taking toward an Orwellian 1984: Your cellular telephone can pinpoint your location any time it’s turned on. That’s right. Any time your cell phone is turned on and within range of a cellular tower, it is communicating with that tower to broadcast your location. It… Continue Reading
The Attorney General’s Google Search Comes Up Empty – So Far…Is Your Online Privacy At Stake?
Posted in PrivacyBy Scott Cameron It was just a simple discovery tool, used by the Department of Justice in defense of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. It hasn’t gotten much attention. In fact, for several months, it got no attention at all. But it’s starting to. So, what is “it?” On August 25,… Continue Reading
Business Data Management Practices – Fertile Ground For Liability
Posted in PrivacyBy Scott Hervey Businesses own and acquire vast amounts of valuable consumer data; they stockpile this information on networked servers and exchange it with affiliates or third parties subscribers.#160 Recently, national and state regulators have focused on how businesses manage this data.#160 In the wake of the large scale identity thefts from ChoicePoint, Inc. and… Continue Reading