No ROFL Matter: Discovery and the Risks of Social Networking

A United States court has recently considered whether private communications sent through a social networking (such as Facebook or MySpace) or web hosting (such as Media Temple, Inc) sites are afforded protection from disclosure under the Stored Communications Act ^[1]

The District Court of California decision in Buckley H. Crispin v Christian Audigier, Inc ^[2] found that social networking sites and web hosting providers fall within the Stored Communications Act's protection from disclosure.  As such, the Court ruled that civil parties seeking to discover private electronic communications from such sites will likely be prevented from doing so.

Background

Buckley Crispin (Crispin) is an artist who granted the defendant, Christian Audigier (Audigier), a designer, an oral licence to use his artwork for certain clothing.  Crispin alleged that Audigier breached the scope of the original oral licence and engaged in sublicensing arrangements without consent.