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Playdom, Inc., an online game company owned by Disney, and Playdom’s CEO, Howard Marks, agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges brought by the FTC that they violated COPPA by collecting, using and disclosing the personal information of children under the age of 13 without their parents’ prior, verifiable consent. The $3 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever for a COPPA violation.
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Facebook’s new policy includes a bullet point summary of key points at the beginning of the policy followed by section headings that allow users to jump to particular areas of the policy. Complex legal terms have been replaced throughout the policy by more basic language, with hyperlinks to pages containing more detail on key terms or issues.
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Website Operator Can Be Held Liable for State Intellectual Property Violations

A federal district court in New Hampshire recently ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“CDA”) does not prevent a state law right of publicity claim against a Website operator. In Doe v. Friendfinder Network, Inc., No. 07-286, 2008 WL 803947 (D.N.H. March 27, 2008), a profile of the plaintiff, including a nude photo and biographical information, was posted by an unknown third party on AdultFriendFinder.com, an online swingers community, without the plaintiff’s knowledge or consent. The plaintiff asserted eight claims against the Website for, among other things, invasion of privacy (including violation of her right of publicity), defamation and false designation in violation of the Lanham Act. On the site’s motion to dismiss, the district court found that all of plaintiff’s claims were barred by the CDA, except her false designation and right of publicity claims. In so holding, the district court challenged and criticized a recent Ninth Circuit decision regarding the CDA’s immunity.

Imagine a website that allows people to post comments or content anonymously, to protect their privacy. Pretty common. Now imagine that the website assists the poster through an interactive online questionnaire seeking specific categories of information. Under a new ruling of the Ninth Circuit, the anonymous poster who provides the information may escape detection and liability, while the website operator may be held responsible. This is a big change in the law of website operator immunity.
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