Category Archives: Legal

Ticketmaster Customers: Check Your Spam Folder

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

From the “you may have missed this in real time” department:

If you are an online Ticketmaster customer, you may be eligible for a $1.50 per purchase discount on tickets purchased from 2012-2016. No joy, it seems, for those who buy tickets from November 2011 until the settlement is finalized and discounts distributed by email (not before May 2012).

The announcement subject line is “Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action;” the sending email, ticketfeelitigation@tgcginc.com. You not only need to check your spam folder; you need to think about old email addresses. How many people have kept the same email address on their Ticketmaster account for 12 years? I haven’t.

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Federal Judge Refuses To Return Domain Names, Claims Loss Not “Substantial Hardship”

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Seized ServersAccording to New York Federal District Court Judge Paul A. Crotty, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not have to return two domain names that the government seized earlier this year. The primary reason given? The Spanish company has registered alternate domain names.

The domain names were seized in February due to claims (probably by FOX) of copyright infringement. However, Puerto 80 has prevailed in Spanish courts — twice — when challenged that content on Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org violated copyright. The site is an index (portal) to online sports events but also hosts discussion forums. It contains no advertising, and it hosts no content. Coincidentally (not!), the seizure happened just before the 2011 Superbowl, which was broadcast by FOX.

From the ruling (pdf) (emphasis added):

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TwitPic Terms of Service : Are They Depriving You Of Your Copyright?

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Over on @Storify, I’ve responded to a tweet about TwitPic’s Terms of Service:

IA Were you aware that, as of May 4th, by using TwitPic you give them the rights to sell your photos? http://twitpic.com/terms.do I’m out.

It’s clear that TwitPic is asserting a licensing arrangement as part of its Terms of Service. What’s not clear is how egregious it is (I am not a lawyer) or how it compares to other free image hosting services. This post compares TOS across three services: TwitPic, yfrog and Plixi (Lockerz).
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More Than 100 Companies Affected By Epsilon Data Breach

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Two weeks ago Epsilon, a company that sends out 40+ billion emails a year, said it had suffered a data breach but refused to provide details, saying that it “[could not] release the names of its clients.”

Today it seems clear than more than 100 companies were part of this data breach. Most of those affected seem to be financial accounts, that is store- or service-branded credit cards.

Because of the financial nature of the breach, be aware of what is called “spear-phishing” – bogus emails that appear genuine because you can be targeted. Analytical firm Javelin says that people who have been subject to a data breach are four more times likely to be the victim of identity fraud.

What follows is an alphabetical list of companies that have been named informally.

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