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

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

March 28, 2024
Ankle Monitor Is Potentially A Computer Triggering Professional Liability Coverage

CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals panel held March 27 that an ankle monitor, at the very least, is potentially computer hardware triggering professional services liability coverage, reversing a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying personal injury lawsuit.
March 21, 2024
COMMENTARY: AI Raises Stakes Across Cybersecurity And Disputes Landscape

By Lorenzo Grillo
March 27, 2024
Judge Allows UCL, Negligence Claims Against Roblox In Mothers’ ‘Gambling’ Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on March 26 granted in part and denied in part a motion by Roblox Corp. to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by two mothers who accuse it of being liable for their minor children’s engagement in illegal gambling games on the Roblox platform.
March 27, 2024
Spyware Suit Judge Partly Denies Issuing Letter Rogatory On Canadian Lab

OAKLAND, Calif. — An Israeli spyware firm that is fending off computer fraud and trespass allegations by WhatsApp Inc. saw its motion to issue a letter rogatory on a third-party Canadian watchdog lab partly denied March 26 by a California federal judge who deemed some of the information sought to be duplicative of discovery already received from the plaintiff.
March 26, 2024
Panel Says Sex Toy Maker’s ‘Inconspicuous’ Arbitration Agreement Not Binding

LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on March 25 affirmed a trial court’s denial of a sex toy maker’s motion to compel arbitration of a putative class action filed against it by a consumer who claimed that the company deceptively marketed one of its products in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), finding that the company’s “browsewrap” arbitration agreement could be viewed only by clicking a “tiny, inconspicuous link.”
March 25, 2024
FDA And Doctors Complaining That FDA’s Ivermectin Tweets Were Ultra Vires Settle

GALVESTON, Texas — In a lawsuit by a group of doctors claiming that the Food and Drug Administration exceeded its statutory authority when it created social media and government website posts recommending that people not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19, a Texas federal judge on March 22 dismissed the case with prejudice pursuant to the stipulation of dismissal filed by the parties.
March 25, 2024
Publishers Ask 2nd Circuit To Find Internet Archive’s EBook Lending Infringing

NEW YORK — The “wholly manufactured” practice of “controlled digital lending” in which Internet Archive (IA) digitizes books and lends them online “is radical and unlawful,” book publishers tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in their appellee brief, seeking affirmance of a trial court’s finding that the practice infringed their copyrights.
March 22, 2024
Meta, Spotify Back Epic’s Motion To Enforce Injunction In App Store Antitrust Row

OAKLAND, Calif. — Agreeing with plaintiff Epic Games Inc. that Apple Inc. has not complied with an injunction requiring it to permit app developers to inform users of methods of making in-app purchases (IAPs) outside of the App Store, Meta Platforms Inc., Spotify USA Inc. and others moved to file amicus curiae briefs in California federal court supporting Epic’s motion to enforce the injunction.
March 21, 2024
DOJ, States Sue Apple For Anticompetitive, Exclusionary Conduct, In Apps, Phones

NEWARK, N.J. — Apple Inc. was hit with allegations of monopolization under the Sherman Act on March 21, as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the attorneys general for 16 states, on behalf of the United States and the corresponding states, filed a complaint in New Jersey federal court accusing the tech giant of years of “respond[ing] to competitive threats . . . by making it harder or more expensive for its users and developers to leave than by making it more attractive for them to stay” while “wrap[ping] itself in a cloak of privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct.”
March 20, 2024
4th Circuit Stands By Contributory Copyright Liability Findings For ISP

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 19 denied dual petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel decision one month earlier that vacated a $1 billion award for vicarious copyright infringement by an internet service provider (ISP) while also upholding findings that the ISP is liable for contributory infringement.
March 19, 2024
Coronavirus Tracing App Creator Again Denied Writ Of Injunction By High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A month and a half after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied its application for a writ of injunction, a software company on March 18 saw its application to enjoin Apple Inc.’s purported “censorship of software” rejected a second time, this time by the entire court.
March 18, 2024
High Court Hears Arguments On State Action, Government Coercion Of Social Media

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In oral arguments on March 18 over claims that the federal government violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by purportedly coercing social media platforms into removing disfavored speech, the U.S. Supreme Court justices sought clarification on such issues as state action, traceability and redressability as they grapple with the respondents’ standing and the scope of an injunction against the government.
March 15, 2024
Judge OKs Arbitral Review Of Esports Players’ $120M Monopoly Claims

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed a putative class action brought by two professional players of the video game “Call of Duty” (CoD) and one affiliated business entity against developer Activision Blizzard Inc. after the parties filed a stipulation agreeing that an international arbitral tribunal will decide the arbitrability of claims that Activision monopolized CoD-related esports.
March 15, 2024
High Court: State Action On Social Media Requires Exercise Of Actual Authority

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vacating and remanding two lawsuits in which public officials were accused of violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by blocking naysayers on social media, the U.S. Supreme Court on March 15 established a two-step test for determining whether such activity by an official constitutes state action, making it susceptible to legal action under U.S. Code Title 42 Section 1983, or is merely their own private, protected speech.
March 15, 2024
Snap Waives Response To Assault Victim’s Certiorari Petition Over CDA Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Snap Inc., owner of the popular Snapchat social media app, declined to file a response to a petition for certiorari in which a minor sexual assault victim asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the scope of immunity from liability to which service providers are entitled under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), related to the minor having been groomed by an adult through Snapchat.
March 14, 2024
Epic Says New Apple App Store Policies Flout UCL Injunction In Antitrust Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — Epic Games Inc. filed a motion on March 13 asking a California federal court to enforce an injunction requiring Apple Inc. to permit app developers to inform users of methods of making in-app purchases (IAPs) outside of the App Store, stating that Apple’s newly instituted policies “introduce new restrictions and burdens that . . . effectively nullify” the injunction’s relief for anti-steering provisions that were deemed in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
March 14, 2024
Bitcoin Firm Maintains Its Pursuit Of Discovery Sanctions Against Miner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Responding to a Florida federal judge’s order to show cause, a cryptocurrency company filed notice that its disputes over post-trial discovery with a former business associate had not been resolved and that it will continue pursuing civil contempt sanctions against the defendant.
March 13, 2024
States Move To Lift Discovery Stay In Google Ad Monopolization Suit

SHERMAN, Texas — A group of states suing Google LLC for antitrust and deceptive practices related to digital advertising moved in Texas federal court to lift a discovery stay pertaining to a network bidding agreement (NBA) with Facebook Inc., contending that despite dismissal of one claim related to the NBA, information about the agreement is relevant to their remaining claims.
March 12, 2024
Crypto CEO Seeks Bar Of Evidence Related To Arrest In SEC Trial

NEW YORK — Days before a trial is set to begin in a New York federal court, the founder and CEO of Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. says in a March 11 opposition to motions in limine from the Securities and Exchange Commission that the jury should not hear “missing witness” instructions if he is unable to attend his trial due to being in the custody of Montenegro authorities.
March 12, 2024
9th Circuit Partly Reverses Ruling In $40M Commercial Crime Coverage Dispute

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 11 reversed a lower federal court’s dismissal of a financial services company insured’s claim for loss under its commercial crime insurance policy’s “Computer And Funds Transfer Fraud Insuring Agreement” and its claim for tortious breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, finding that the authorized submission of fraudulent electronic data into the insured’s computer system can arguably be described as “fraudulent entry” to trigger coverage.
March 12, 2024
Colorado Federal Judge: App Store Notices Not Enough For Jurisdiction

DENVER — A Colorado-based business on March 11 saw its infringement complaint dismissed without prejudice by a federal judge in Colorado, who said trademark notices sent by defendants to the Apple and Google app stores did not rise to the level of “express aiming” at the state.
March 12, 2024
ISP Asks 4th Circuit To Rehear ‘Exceptionally Important’ Secondary Liability Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — Filing an amicus curiae brief on March 11 in support of fellow internet service provider (ISP) Cox Communications Inc.’s quest for rehearing in an appeal where it was found liable for contributory infringement for its subscribers’ file-sharing activities, Frontier Communications Parent Inc. tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a panel’s holding on copyright liability for merely providing internet service that is misused by customers “drives a wrecking ball through the ordinary limits of secondary liability in direct conflict with [U.S.] Supreme Court precedent.”
March 11, 2024
Investor Says Social Media Platform Owner Misled About User Retention After COVID

OAKLAND, Calif. — An acquisitions company that merged with a local community-focused social media platform misled investors by suggesting the platform would be able to maintain spikes in usage it saw during the initial waves of COVID-19 lockdowns, an investor alleges in a putative class complaint filed in a California federal court.
March 11, 2024
Copyright Office Calls Human Authorship ‘Basic Prerequisite’ In AI Copyright Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artificial intelligence developer has not established any reason why the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should “upend . . . well-established principles” that “nonhuman authors are not entitled to copyright protection,” the U.S. Copyright Office argues in an appellee brief, asking the court to find that a trial court properly upheld the office’s refusal to issue a copyright for a work of art to an AI machine.
March 11, 2024
Colorado Jury Awards Woman $3.76 Million For SWAT Raid Based On IPhone App

DENVER — Two Denver Police Department (DPD) officers were found liable for violating an elderly woman’s civil rights in the search of her home by a SWAT team pursuant to a warrant that was based solely on location “pings” from Apple’s “Find My” smartphone app, with a Colorado jury awarding the plaintiff $3.76 million in punitive damages and economic and noneconomic losses or injuries.