E-Commerce Law

5,000 BitTorrent Users May Not Proceed Anonymously Nor Quash Subpoenas Seeking Their Identities

Over 5,000 John Doe Defendants unsuccessfully sought to quash subpoenas issued to Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") by Plaintiff West Coast Productions to learn the identity of the Defendants known in the Complaint only by their internet protocol ("IP") addresses.  West Coast Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-5829, Civ. Action No. 11-57 (CKK), 2011 WL 2292239 (D.D.C. June 10, 2011).  The District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Defendants failed to show that their privacy interests outweighed the Plaintiff's need to obtain their identifying information to pursue its copyright claims.

Identity of Anonymous Wikipedia Editors Not Protected by First Amendment

In Faconnable USA Corporation v. John Does 1-10, 2011 WL 2015515 (D. Colo. May 24, 2011), the United States District Court for the District of Colorado rejected a ISP's motion to quash a subpoena issued to discover the identity of anonymous editors of Wikipedia.  Plaintiff alleges that the anonymous editors violated the Lanham Act and comitted trade libel and commercial disparaging by falsely posting that plaintiff is a support of Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist militia and political party which has been designated as a terrorist organization.

Identity of Anonymous Online Speakers Shielded by First Amendment

On May 9, 2011, the United States District for the District of Utah granted Defendants' Motion to Quash Subpoenas, Issue Protective Order, and Dismiss Complaint in a case that stemmed from Defendants' anonymous online speech.  Koch Industries, Inc. v. Does, 2011 WL 1775765 (D.Utah).  Koch Industries is a large corporation that is involved in a wide variety of industries, including the energy business.  Koch maintains a website describing its business and its policy on various political issues, such as editorials rejecting the science of climate change.  Defendants were individuals who later identified themselves as anonymous members of Youth for Climate Truth.  The case arose after Defendants created a fake press release purporting to announce a decision by Koch to cease funding organizations that deny climate change.  The press release included a link to a website created by Defendants, www.koch-inc.com, designed to look like Koch's actual website.

Putting the Internet Privacy Genie Back in the Bottle

Last Tuesday, Senators McCain and Kerry announced the introduction of their Internet privacy "Bill of Rights."  Three days before the announcement, I appeared on the Blueprint for Wealth radio show to discuss the need for an omnibus federal Internet privacy statute.  Obviously, I didn't discuss the Kerry-McCain bill, since it hadn't yet been announced, but I did discuss some of the very problems which that bill seeks to address.  Among other things, I pointed out that:

• Our existing Internet privacy protections are insufficient.  The FTC is not empowered or able to shoulder the entire burden of protecting our Internet privacy.  Recent anecdotal evidence certainly suggests that the present system isn't working. 

• Congress should follow the lead of other nations in establishing an omnibus Internet privacy law that balances the needs of Internet users against those of the Internet businesses that drive the e-commerce economy.  In formulating a federal Internet privacy statute, Congress should be guided by the FTC's adoption of the core principles of fair information practices:  notice, choice, access, security, and enforcement.  In a free market economy, a website user who is fully and accurately notified of what personally identifying information a website collects, stores, and discloses; how, and for what purpose, such information is used; how such information is stored and protected; and to whom such information is going to be disclosed can make an educated choice about what, if any, information to reveal to the website.  Our federal statute should incorporate aspects found in state Internet privacy statutes enacted by California and Connecticut.

In a couple of months, the William Mitchell Law Review is publishing an article I wrote with Charity Price and Leigh Murray entitled, "Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle:  Leveraging Private Enforcement to Improve Internet Privacy."  The article discusses, in much more detail than would be possible in a blog post or 15-minute radio interview, the efforts by the FTC and private parties to enforce Internet privacy rights, the protections afforded by federal and state law, the protections afforded to UK and EU citizens, and the form an omnibus federal statute should take.

Federal Court Authorizes Adult Video Producer to Subpoena ISPs to Identify 17 Alleged Infringers

A Montreal-based producer and distributor of adult entertainment content petitioned a District Court for leave to issue early discovery in order to obtain identifying information on 17 "Doe defendants" whom it alleges violated copyright laws by reproducing and distributing a portion of its adult video through peer-to-peer file sharing.  VPR Internationale v. Does 1-17, No. C 11-01494 LB, 2011 WL 1465836 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 15, 2011).  The District Court for the Northern District of California held that Plaintiff, VPR, had established "good cause" to conduct preliminary discovery on the ISPs that assigned an IP address to the Doe defendants.

Internet Privacy Discussion on Blueprint for Wealth Radio

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, I'll be appearing on Blueprint for Wealth on Federal News Radio (1500AM and 820AM in the D.C. Metro Area and streaming live at www.federalnewsradio.com) to discuss Internet privacy issues.  If you get a chance to listen, make sure to leave a comment here letting us know what you thought about the interview.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 14, 2011

A federal judge has decided that the Government is entitled to obtain the Twitter account data of certain Wikileaks associates.

The woman mistaken for Spitzer prostitute in Girls Gone Wild video was awarded $3 million.

Professor Goldman believes that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act improves marketplace efficiency.

In an opinion issued last week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois refused to dismiss a lawsuit by a director of marketing at an interior design firm who said she was impersonated by her boss on Twitter.

Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of February 14, 2011

A 21-year old driver has been sued for striking and killing a pedestrian while updating her Facebook profile. The daughter of the 70-year old victim filed suit last Monday alelging that the driver operated her vehicle without keeping a proper and sufficient focus, drove while using an electronic communication device, and failed to slow down to avoid an accident. The driver claimed she was blinded by the sun when she struck the victim, who had gotten out of his vehicle after a minor traffic accident, and was ticketed for striking a pedestrian in the roadway.  Facebook shows that the driver posted her status update at 7:54 a.m., the exact time that authorities were called about the victim's initial traffic accident.  (As we've explained before, this sort of electronic evidence is becoming more and more important in adjudicating disputes.) 

Amazon is leaving Texas over taxes.

The federal government is investigating Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and others suspected of disclosing thousands of classified documents on the anti-secrecy website and is attempting to obtain personal information from the Twitter accounts of three people linked to the site.  Last Tuesday, defense attorneys asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to overturn her December ruling ordering Twitter to disclose its clients' data.  

eBay's forum selection clause is still enforceable.

Facebook is worth $67.5 billion.

Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

Spammers Must Pay Facebook More Than $360 Million in Statutory Damages

After granting its Motion for Default Judgment, the District Court for the Northern District of California awarded Facebook statutory damages in the amount of $360,500,000 against a group of Defendants who illegally obtained login information from Facebook users and sent more than 7.2 million spam messages to those users in violation of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities ("SRR").  Facebook, Inc. v. Fisher, 2011 WL 250395 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 26, 2011).   The Court also permanently enjoined the Defendants from accessing or using the social networking site.

Most Popular E-Commerce Law Posts of 2010

Happy New Year!  In no particular order, these were the most popular E-Commerce Law posts in 2010:

Student’s Off-Campus Cyber-Bullying Protected by the First Amendment

Plaintiff Granted Expedited Discovery to Subpoena Social Networking Sites for Identity of Defendants

Court Holds "No Legitimate Reasonable Expectation of Privacy" in "Private" Facebook or MySpace Postings

Operating Website with Name Similar to Plaintiff's Registered Trademark is Insufficient to Subject Defendant to Jurisdiction Under Calder Effects Test

Roger Clemens, Defamation, and Personal Jurisdiction for Interviews Given in Foreign Jurisdictions

Law Firm that "Cut and Paste" Section from Competing Firm's Website Properly Sued in Plaintiff's Home Forum

For Jurisdiction Purposes, A Website May Not Be Doing Business Where It Claims

Legal Issues Involved in Blogging

My This Week In Law (Episode No. 78) Companion