Federal Court Upholds YouTube Terms of Use

On April 15, 2008, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed a lawsuit filed by a YouTube user in the wrong venue.  In Bowen v. YouTube, Inc., 2008 WL 1757578 (W.D. Wash. 2008), the Court enforced YouTube's Terms of Use which require that all suits arising from YouTube's website be brought in San Mateo County, California.  In support of the ruling, the Court noted that

[while] new commerce on the Internet has exposed courts to many new situations, it has not fundamentally changed the principles of contract . . . when a benefit is offered subject to stated conditions and the offeree makes a decision to take the benefit with knowledge of the terms of the offer, the taking constitutes an acceptance of the terms, which accordingly become binding on the offeree.

Id. at *2 (quoting Register.com, Inc. v. Verio, Inc., 356 F.3d 393, 403 (2d Cir. 2004).

This case further demonstrates the importance of including an enforceable choice of law provision in a website's terms of use.

Comments

[Jay Parkhill]

Hi Jonathan,

Is this decision publicly available? I'd like to read the whole thing myself but don't have a Lexis/Westlaw subscription.

Thanks.

[Jonathan Frieden]

Jay,

The full opinion is not yet available on any publicly-accessible website. It may be possible to download the full opinion from the District Court through PACER, however.

Jon