Cases of Note

An artificial intelligence safety bill named  SB 1047  was overwhelmingly approved by California Congress on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate for final consideration. If enacted, the "fiercely debated" bill would require tech companies to safety-test AI programs prior to release, and empower the attorney general to sue AI companies for any major harm caused by their technologies. The bill earned cautious support from the likes of Elon Musk and Anthropic, while its opponents include OpenAI and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This bill seeks to establish guardrails for the development of the most powerful AI models to avoid the more catastrophic possibilities about which experts have raised alarms. It places a series of obligations on developers of “covered models” and providers of the cloud compute for training such models. This bill also seeks to establish a framework for developing a public cloud-computing cluster that facilitates equitable participation in th

Bill Summary Existing law generally regulates a social media platform, including by requiring a social media platform to clearly and conspicuously state whether it has a mechanism for reporting violent posts that is available to users and nonusers of the social media platform and to include a link to that reporting mechanism, as prescribed. Senate Bill 918 would require a social media platform to, at all times, make available by telephone to a law enforcement agency a law enforcement liaison for the purpose of receiving, and responding to, requests for information. The bill would would, except as prescribed, also require a social media platform to immediately comply with a search warrant provided to the social media platform by a law enforcement agency if the subject of the search warrant is an account on the social media platform owned by a user of the social media platform. Permits a person to seek an order requiring a social media platform to remove content that includes an offer t

Case Summary In a civil suit filed on December 21st in Los Angeles Superior Court stemming from a 2010 incident in which Vin Diesel’s former assistant, Asta Jonasson alleges that Diesel forcibly groped, restrained and kissed her in a hotel suite in Atlanta and masturbated in front of her. The complaint states Diesel ignored Jonasson’s “clear statements of non-consent,” and after she “screamed and ran towards the nearby bathroom,” he “pinned her against the wall with his body." Jonasson claims that Samantha Vincent, the president of Diesel’s company One Race at the time, called her “mere hours” after the alleged assault and “terminated Ms. Jonasson’s employment.” “No one is too famous or powerful to evade justice,” Claire-Lise Kutlay of Greenberg Gross LLP, attorney for Jonasson, wrote in a statement. “We hope her courageous decision to come forward helps create lasting change and empowers other survivors.” “Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety,” Bryan Freedma

  Update On April 19th, the complaint and petition was dismissed without leave to amend. The judge decided, that the county was not in violation of the Sherman Act stating "in creating the state-action immunity doctrine, the Supreme Court made clear the Sherman Act was not intended to reach the activities of state governments," citing Llewellyn v. Crothers, 765 F.2d 769, 774 (9th Cir. 1985). The judge in regards to dismissal without leave to amend wrote, "A claim is futile, and the court may dismiss without leave to amend,“if it determines that ‘allegation of other facts consistent with the challenged pleading could not possibly cure the deficiency,’ or if the [party] had several opportunities to amend its [pleading] and repeatedly failed to cure deficiencies.” Telesaurus VPC, LLC v. Power , 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010). Case Summary American Medical Response is suing the board in federal court. This is three months after the San Bernardino County Board of Supervi

Assembly Bill  2390  Social Media Harm Reduction Pilot Program Summary This bill establishes the Social Media Harm Reduction Pilot Program and would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to designate a nonprofit organization to undertake the responsibilities of the program. The responsibilities include recommending statewide standards for the use of online social networks by kindergarten and grades 1 to 12 pupils, inclusive, and would require the program to coordinate with existing laws regulating social media platforms to ensure consistency and avoid duplication of effort until December 31, 2029. The  Social Media Harm Reduction Pilot Program  enacts the following: 1) Establishes the Social Media Harm Reduction Pilot Program (program). Requires the California  Health and Human Services Agency to designate a nonprofit organization to undertake the responsibilities of the program. 2) Requires the program to: a) Develop model educational materials and methods to leverag

Actress Paula Patton at the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater L.A. Live on June 26, 2022 — Photo by Image Press Agency Case Summary Plaintiff Gina Conte stated that she visited Paula Patton’s home in Calabasas on August 2, 2020. She said while at the home Patton’s German shepherd mix dog named “Bear” attacked and bit her. In court documents filed on July 27, 2022, Conte accused Patton of negligence in the dog bite incident. Conte's suit prays actual damages, special damages (costs associated with medical expenses, lost wages etc.), punitive damages, legal fees with interest and other relief deemed by the court. Court documents state that Conte “was hurt and injured in her health, strength, and activity, sustaining serious and significant injury to her body and shock to her nervous system and person, all of which injuries have caused, and will continue to cause mental, physical, and nervous pain and suffering.” Patton's answer filed on September 15, 2022 claims many, many leg

Google recently resolved its fourth case in four months, agreeing to delete billions of data records it compiled about millions of Chrome browser users, according to a legal filing. The suit, Chasom Brown, et al. v. Google, said the company had misled users by tracking their online activity in Chrome’s Incognito mode, which they believed would be private. Relevant here, individual plaintiffs brought this suit on behalf of two classes: Class 1, for Incognito users, and Class 2, for users of other private browsing modes. The grounds being invasion of privacy, unauthorized interception under the Wiretap Act; violation of CIPA; violation of CDAFA and intrusion upon seclusion. Since December, Google has spent well over $1 billion to settle lawsuits as it prepares to fight the Justice Department, which has targeted Google’s search engine and its advertising business in a pair of lawsuits. In December, Google resolved a suit with dozens of attorneys general claiming it strong-armed app maker

Feb. 6, 2024 -- For many legitimate reasons, social media is often high on a parent's list of digital concerns. From online predators to privacy, there's genuinely a lot of questionable; stuff for children and teens to navigate. Enjoying social media wisely can also give kids a sense of connection, fun, and creativity. If a caregiver is involved in a kid's digital life, it prepares them for how to handle negative online situations. Talks about protecting privacy and being kind can go a long way toward a more positive social media experience. And if kids can avoid endless scrolling and comparing themselves to others, and instead focus on friendship and creativity, it may actually give them a boost instead of being a downer. Recently, U.S. lawmakers have accused Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and four other big tech bosses of having "blood on (their) hands"; allegations have surfaced that up to 100,000 children a day using Facebook and Instagram in 2022 were exposed to