When artist Buckley Crispin launched a lawsuit against designer Christian Audigier, the most pressing matter at hand was a copyright infringement claim. However, the lawsuit’s birth in a verbal agreement led to some unforeseen consequences.
As Audigier’s side worked to determine the scope of the verbal deal, they issued discovery subpoenas to Facebook, MySpace and the web-hosting platform Media Temple. Their aim: to study communications between Crispin, Audigier and others in order to find out who had agreed to what – and when.
But Audigier’s team came up against an obstacle: the US Stored Communications Act. Could a piece of legislation from 1990 – several years prior to the dawn of the world wide web – hold the casting vote in a case relating to present-day social networks?
To find out how the issue was resolved – and what that resolution could mean for the legal services industry – read Matt Packer’s blog here.
Is the US Stored Communications Act fit for purpose? Matt Packer unpicks the Crispin v Audigier case to find out how the Act is influencing e-discovery from social networks
