Second Circuit Vacates CDA Decision and Reissues a Narrower Opinion Reaching Same Conclusion, Providing Some Practical CDA Lessons for the Future

Less than one week after issuing an order vacating its own March 2021 opinion in an important Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) case and granting a petition for rehearing, the Second Circuit issued a new opinion reaffirming “protection” under Section 230 of the CDA for video-sharing site Vimeo, Inc. (“Vimeo”) (Domen v. Vimeo, Inc., No. 20-616 (2d Cir. July 21, 2021) (amended opinion)).

It’s not completely clear why the Second Circuit decided to grant a rehearing and amend its original opinion to only reach essentially the same holding. It is possible that given the attention surrounding the CDA, the court thought it best to narrow the language of its original holding so it could insulate its ruling from possible Supreme Court review (recall, Justice Thomas previously issued a statement following denial of certiorari in a prior CDA case, that “in an appropriate case,” the Court should consider whether the text of the CDA “aligns with the current state of immunity enjoyed by Internet platforms”). The Second Circuit’s second decision arguably watered down some of its stronger statements in its earlier opinion enunciating broad CDA immunity (e.g., even swapping out the word “immunity” for “protection” when discussing the CDA). The court even mused in dicta near the end of the opinion about the types of claims that might fall outside of CDA protection, as if to intimate that CDA Section 230 immunity is broad, but not as broad as its detractors suggest.

Yet, despite the narrowing of its original opinion, the court reached the same result under the same reasoning. As in the original (now vacated) opinion from March 2021, the Second Circuit’s amended decision relied on Section 230(c)(2), the Good Samaritan provision, which allows online providers to self-regulate the moderation of third party content in good faith without fear of liability. Unlike the original opinion, in the second go-round the appeals court also knocked out the plaintiff’s claims on the merits, finding allegations of discrimination based on the presence of similar videos uploaded by other users that were left up on the site as “vanishingly thin” (thereby further reducing the chance of Supreme Court review). Continue Reading

Tags: account termination, amended opinion, CDA Good Samaritan immunity, CDA immunity, content guidelines, filtering decisions, harassing content, objectionable material, terms of service

Supreme Court Vacates LinkedIn-HiQ Scraping Decision, Remands to Ninth Circuit for Another Look

By Jeffrey Neuburger on June 16, 2021 Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Internet, Screen Scraping, Social Media

On June 14, 2021, in a closely-watched dispute involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Supreme Court granted LinkedIn Corp.’s (“LinkedIn”) petition for certiorari filed in the hiQ web scraping case. It subsequently vacated the Ninth Circuit 2019 opinion and remanded the case to the Ninth Circuit for further consideration in light of the Supreme Court’s decision from earlier this month in Van Buren v. United States, 593 U. S. ___ (June 3, 2021). (LinkedIn Corp. v. hiQ Labs, Inc., No. 19-1116, 593 U.S. ___ (GVR Order June 14, 2021)).

In Van Buren, the Supreme Court reversed an Eleventh Circuit decision and adopted a narrow interpretation of “exceeds unauthorized access” under the CFAA, ruling that an individual “exceeds authorized access” when he or she accesses a computer with authorization but then obtains information located in particular areas of the computer – such as files, folders, or databases – that are off limits to him or her.

The LinkedIn-hiQ dispute involves a different part of the CFAA’s “unauthorized access” section than the Van Buren case. The question in the hiQ dispute concerns the scope of CFAA liability to unwanted web scraping of publicly available social media profile data and whether once data analytics firm hiQ received a cease-and-desist letter from LinkedIn demanding it stop scraping public profiles, any further scraping of such data was “without authorization” within the meaning of the CFAA. In 2017 the lower court issued a preliminary injunction, expressing “serious doubt” as to whether LinkedIn’s revocation of permission to access the public portions of its site rendered hiQ’s access “without authorization” within the meaning of the CFAA. On appeal, in 2019 the Ninth Circuit affirmed, notably ruling that: “It is likely that when a computer network generally permits public access to its data, a user’s accessing that publicly available data will not constitute access without authorization under the CFAA.” In 2020 LinkedIn filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit’s ruling. And now, in the wake of Van Buren, the Supreme Court has vacated the appeals court ruling and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit for further consideration.

So what’s next? Some thoughts: Continue Reading

Tags: CFAA, CFAA authorization, data scraping, Footnote 8, hiQ case, opposition brief, PUBLIC SOCIAL MEDIA DATA, publicly available website data, Supreme Court petition, unauthrorized access, Van Buren decision

Some Interesting CDA Section 230 Developments: A Novel FCRA Victory, a Negligent Design Exception and a Startling New State Law

By Jeffrey Neuburger on June 10, 2021 Posted in Mobile, Online Content, Social Media

In the past month, there have been some notable developments surrounding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA” or “Section 230”) beyond the ongoing debate in Congress over the potential for legislative reform. These include a novel application of CDA in a FCRA online privacy case (Henderson v. The Source for Public Data, No. 20-294 (E.D. Va. May 19, 2021)) and the denial of CDA immunity in another case involving an alleged design defect in a social media app (Lemmon v. Snap Inc., No. 20-55295 (9th Cir. May 4, 2021), as well as the uncertainties surrounding a new Florida law that attempts to regulate content moderation decisions and user policies of large online platforms. Continue Reading

Tags: CDA Section 230 exception, CDA Section 230 immunity, CDA workaround, moderation decisions, online platforms, publisher actions, social media functions

Supreme Court Ends Long-Running Circuit Split over CFAA “Exceeds Authorized Access” Issue, Adopting a Narrow Interpretation That Will Reverberate in Scraping Disputes and Litigation over Departing Employees

By Jeffrey Neuburger and Jonathan Mollod on June 6, 2021 Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Data Security, Screen Scraping

In a closely-watched appeal, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, reversed an Eleventh Circuit decision and adopted a narrow interpretation of “exceeds unauthorized access” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), ruling that an individual “exceeds authorized access” when he or she accesses a computer with authorization but then obtains information located in particular areas of the computer – such as files, folders, or databases – that are off limits to him or her. (Van Buren v. United States, No. 19-783, 593 U.S. ___ (June 3, 2021)). The majority equated “exceed[ing] authorized access” with the act of “entering a part of a system to which a computer user lacks access privileges,” rejecting the Government’s contention that a person who is authorized to access information from a protected computer for certain purposes violates CFAA Section 1030(a)(2) by accessing the computer with an improper purpose or motive. Put simply, the court’s view suggests a “gates-up-or-down” approach where the CFAA prohibits accessing data one is not authorized to access.

Although the case involved a criminal conviction under the CFAA, Van Buren gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to resolve a long-standing circuit split and heavily-litigated issue that arose in both criminal and civil cases under the CFAA’s “unauthorized access” provision. This provision of the CFAA is routinely pled in cases against former employees that have accessed proprietary data in their final days of employment for an improper purpose (e.g., for use in their new job or competing venture). It is also a common claim in disputes involving unwanted web scraping. On the latter point, the Court’s narrow interpretation of the “exceeds authorized access” provision would appear to be right in line with the narrow interpretations of the CFAA enunciated by the Ninth Circuit in its blockbuster hiQ opinion, which held that that when a computer network generally permits public access to its data, a user’s accessing that publicly available data will not constitute access “without authorization” under the CFAA and in its Power Ventures precedent, which held that, in the context of unwanted data scraping, a violation of the terms of use of a website, without more, cannot be the basis for civil liability under the CFAA. Continue Reading

Tags: CFAA criminal liability, CFAA liability, circuit split, exceeds authorized access, Majority opinion, narrow CFAA interpretation, screen scraping, Supreme Court review, unauthorized access

Plaid Federal Electronic Surveillance Claims Dropped, Privacy Claims Survive

By Jeffrey Neuburger on May 11, 2021 Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Mobile, Online Commerce, Privacy

On April 30, 2021 a California district court trimmed various federal privacy-related claims, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) claim, from a highly-visible, ongoing putative class action against fintech services company Plaid Inc. (“Plaid”), but allowed other state law privacy claims to go forward. The lawsuit involves Plaid’s alleged collection and use of consumers’ banking login credentials and later processing and selling of such financial transaction data to third parties without adequate notice or consent (Cottle v. Plaid Inc., No. 20-3056 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 30, 2021).

The court’s decision did not delve deeply in the merits of the CFAA claim, as it was dismissed on procedural grounds; similarly, resolution of the major issues of the case about invasion of privacy and the adequacy of consent to access consumers’ bank accounts and collect/aggregate data was not achieved at this early stage of the litigation. Thus, this case is just beginning and is certainly one to watch to see how the unsettled areas of mobile privacy and CFAA “unauthorized access” are further developed. Continue Reading

Tags: CFAA claim, data privacy, financial data privacy, financial transaction data, fintech apps, fintech privacy, mobile data collection, state privacy claims

Trove of Online LinkedIn User Data Fuels LinkedIn’s Anti-Scraping Position

By Jeffrey Neuburger on April 13, 2021 Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Data Security, Privacy, Screen Scraping, Social Media

Last week, the Italian data protection authority (the “GPDP”) opened an investigation after reports that a dataset allegedly containing data compiled from 500 million LinkedIn profiles and other websites was available for sale on a hacker forum. Apparently, this data represents more than two-thirds of LinkedIn’s estimated 740 million users. The hacker reportedly posted approximately two million records visibly online as evidence of the dataset, and offered to sell the rest for an undisclosed bitcoin payment.

According to a statement by LinkedIn, the company investigated the posting and determined that it is “an aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies,” including publicly viewable LinkedIn member profile data that apparently was scraped from LinkedIn’s site. LinkedIn stated that it was not a data breach because no private member profile data was included in the dataset it was able to review. LinkedIn stated that such scraping of data violated its terms.

The posting of this scraped data immediately reminds us of the ongoing scraping dispute between LinkedIn and data analytics start-up hiQ, Inc. (“hiQ”). The principal issue in the case concerns the scope of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) liability associated with web scraping of publicly available social media profile data. In a prior ruling, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s order granting a preliminary injunction barring LinkedIn from blocking hiQ from accessing and scraping publicly available LinkedIn member profiles. Continue Reading

Tags: hiQ litigation, PUBLIC SOCIAL MEDIA DATA, scraping attack, user privacy, web scraping

Landmark Fair Use Victory at the Supreme Court in Software Case

By Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks, Jonathan Mollod, David Munkittrick, Jeffrey Neuburger and Anisha Shenai-Khatkhate on April 9, 2021 Posted in Copyright, Mobile, Software

In a narrowly drawn, yet significant decision, the Supreme Court reversed the Federal Circuit and ruled that Google LLC’s (“Google”) copying of some of the Sun Java Application Programming Interface (API) declaring code was a fair use as a matter of law, ending Oracle America Inc.’s (“Oracle”) infringement claims over Google’s use of portions of the Java API code in the Android mobile platform. (Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., No. 18-956, 593 U.S. ___ (Apr. 5, 2021)). In reversing the 2018 Federal Circuit decision that found Google’s use of the Java API packages was not fair use, the Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision (Justice Barrett did not take part in the case) found where Google reimplemented the Java user interface, taking only what was needed to allow outside developers to work in a new and transformative mobile smartphone program, Google’s copying of the Sun Java API was a fair use as a matter of law. This decade-long dispute had been previously dubbed “The World Series of IP cases” by the trial court judge, and like many classic series, this one culminated in a winner-take-all Game 7 at the highest court.

Oracle is one of the most notable Supreme Court decisions affecting the software and technology industry in recent memory since, perhaps, the Court’s 2010 Bilski patent opinion, its 2012 Jones decision on GPS tracking, privacy and the Fourth Amendment and its 2005 Grokster decision on copyright inducement in the peer-to-peer network context, and certainly the most notable decision implicating fair use since its well-cited 1994 Campbell decision that expounded on the nature of “transformative” use. It was no surprise that this case attracted a stack of amicus briefs from various technology companies, organizations, and academia. In the months following oral argument, it was difficult to discern how the Court would decide the case – would it be on procedural grounds based on the Federal Circuit’s standard of review of the jury verdict on fair use, on the issue of the copyrightability of the Java API packages, directly on the fair use issue, or some combination. The majority decision is a huge victory for the idea that fair use in the software context is not only a legal defense but a beneficial method to foster innovation by developing something transformative in a new environment on top of the functional building blocks that came before. One has to think hard to recall an opinion involving software and technology that referenced and applied the big picture principles of copyright – “to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good,” as the Supreme Court once stated in a prior case – so indelibly into the fair use analysis.

The decision is also notable for the potential impact on copyright’s “transformative use test.” By considering Google’s intent for using the Java API code, the Court’s discussion of what constitutes a “transformative” use appears to diverge somewhat from recent Circuit Court holdings outside the software context. The decision may redirect the transformative use analysis going forward, or future decisions may cabin the holding to the software context. Continue Reading

Tags: Android platform, API copyrightability, APi declaring code, appeals, fair use, fair use factors, functional code, interface software, Java API packages, software, Supreme Court, transformative use

Noteworthy Trends in Privacy and Data Security

By Jeffrey Neuburger and Jonathan Mollod on March 22, 2021 Posted in Data Security, Privacy

Our Practical Law article, “Trends in Privacy and Data Security: 2020,” has recently been published. The article provides an overview of the past year’s privacy and data security legal developments and predictions to look out for in 2021.

Tags: CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY ACT (CCPA), COVID-19, CPRA, Cybersecurity, data security, EU-US PRIVACY SHIELD, FTC enforcement, PRIVACY LAW, PRIVACY LITIGATION, State Privacy Enforcement, State Privacy Legislation

Mobile App Platform Entitled to CDA Immunity over State Law Claims Related to In-App Purchases of Loot Boxes

By Jeffrey Neuburger and Frances P. Kelley on March 17, 2021 Posted in Mobile, Online Commerce, Social Media

Happy Silver Anniversary to Section 230 of Communications Decency Act (“CDA” or “Section 230”), which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in February 1996. At that time, Congress enacted CDA Section 230 in response to case law that raised the specter of liability for any online service provider that attempted to moderate its platform, thus discouraging the screening out and blocking of offensive material. As has been extensively reported on this blog, the world of social media and user-generated content is supported by protections afforded by Section 230. Now, 25 years later, the CDA is at a crossroads of sorts and its protections have stoked some controversy. Yet, as it stands, Section 230 continues to provide robust immunity for online providers.

In a recent case, Google LLC (“Google”) successfully argued for the application of Section 230, resulting in a California district court dismissing, with leave to amend, a putative class action alleging consumer protection law claims against the Google Play App Store. The claims concerned the offering for download of third party mobile video games that allow users to buy Loot Boxes, which are in-app purchases that contain a randomized assortment of items that can improve a player’s chances at advancing in a videogame. The plaintiffs claimed these offerings constituted illegal “slot machines or devices” under California law. (Coffee v. Google LLC, No. 20-03901 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 10, 2021)). Continue Reading

Tags: CDA immunity, CDA reform, CDA Section 230, emerging technology, gambling, loot boxes, mobile gaming, mobile platform

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