2019

By Caitlin White. On September 9, 2019, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the Northern District Court of California’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction forbidding LinkedIn from denying plaintiff hiQ access to publicly available LinkedIn member profiles. As a result of HiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., hiQ may continue scraping data from public LinkedIn profiles to provide data analytics to its clients under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). LinkedIn has over 660 million members on its professional networking website. LinkedIn members own the content they post to LinkedIn but grant LinkedIn a non-exclusive license to “use, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and process” their personal information. hiQ is a data analytics company that uses automated bots to “scrape” information from public LinkedIn profiles. This information yields analytics identifying employees…

By Delilah Cassidy. Taylor Swift is one of the best-selling singer-songwriters of all time. At fifteen, she signed her first record deal with Big Machine Label Group (“Big Machine”) and created six albums with the label. Upon expiration, Swift signed with Universal Music Group (“UMG”). Under the UMG agreement, she owns all original sound recordings of new songs (original sound recordings are “masters”). However, about eight months after her switch, talent manager Scooter Braun purchased Big Machine, including the masters to Swift’s first six albums. Swift publicized her frustration with the deal because she was not offered the chance to buy her masters. Swift said in an August interview that she will begin re-recording her Big Machine-era songs in November 2020, the first opportunity her contract with Big Machine allows…

By KC Hooker. In May 2019, the Supreme Court decided Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, which overturned Nevada v. Hall and held that citizens cannot sue a state in another state’s courts. The decision was not surprising given the Court’s expansion of sovereign immunity—or the idea that governments are immune from suits by private parties—since the mid 1990s. As the Court expanded sovereign immunity during that decade, it departed from the literal text of the Eleventh Amendment, which limits federal court jurisdiction to entertain suits against states, and began to rely on a principle called the “dignity rationale.” The dignity rationale is the idea that States are immune from suit because it is an affront to their dignity, as sovereign entities, to be dragged into court at the…

By Christian Fernandez. What is Arizona’s compulsory arbitration program? Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution where an independent third party hears the case and determines the result. Arizona courts have adopted a compulsory arbitration program for all civil lawsuits that meet the requirements listed in Rules 72–77 of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure. All civil disputes valued under a specific amount are resolved through this arbitration program instead of litigating in court. This program applies to plaintiffs that are only seeking money damages. In addition, this program does not apply to criminal lawsuits. How does the compulsory arbitration program work? A person that brings a lawsuit in Arizona is required to fill out a form stating the type and estimated value of damages they seek. The compulsory…