Copyright Law | Expert Legal Commentary
July 20, 2009
Facebook v. Power Ventures: Facebook Terms of Use Against Scraping
Facebook v. Power Ventures Inc.
By
Ryan Smith and Thomas F. Zuber of Zuber & Taillieu
A federal court looked to Facebook’s Terms of Use to determine that a third party’s access to Facebook’s user data, though authorized by the users themselves, still constituted unauthorized access. Moreover, because Facebook alleged that in accessing the data, the third party “scraped” more than just the non-proprietary user data -- instead scraping entire Facebook pages, including proprietary content -- the Court found that Facebook’s allegations of copyright infringement, among other claims, were sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. The court’s order on the motion to dismiss, found at Facebook v. Power Ventures Inc., ____ F. Supp. ____, 2009 WL 1299698 (May 11, 2009, N.D. Cal.), may make it very hard for networks to access data from third parties without the express consent of those parties.
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About the Authors
Ryan Smith is a Partner of Zuber & Taillieu, focusing on entertainment law.
Thomas F. Zuber is a Partner of Zuber & Taillieu, focusing on intellectual property protection and exploitation.
Image Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/mattjeacock
