Judge Stanton

Subscribe to Judge Stanton via RSS

In an opinion Friday, Judge Stanton dismissed, on jurisdictional grounds, a case accusing the promoters of an initial coin offering of fraud, because the plaintiffs’ transactions did not occur domestically, as required by Morrison v. National Australia Bank, Ltd., 561 U.S. 247 (2010).

The plaintiffs offered declarations from two putative class members who did not live in the U.S. One was from from the United Arab Emirates and the other from the United Kingdom. According to the plaintiffs, there was nonetheless a basis for personal jurisdiction because the servers that hosted the website through which the coin sales were made were physically located in Kansas, and because, in all likelihood, the relevant blockchain “nodes” that would record the transactions publicly were likely located in the United States, as well.

Judge Stanton rejected this reasoning, and found the relevant question to be where the “change in the legal relationship” between the parties occurred:
Continue Reading Judge Stanton: Offering Virtual Currencies Via a Website Hosted on U.S. Servers Is Not Enough for Jurisdiction

In an opinion last week, Judge Stanton granted video game manufacturer Take-Two’s request for an injunction against the creator of two software programs that allowed users to cheat at Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto V” video game.  Among other functions, the computer programs allow users to use an unlimited amount of in-game currency that otherwise had to be purchased from Take-Two.  Take-Two alleged that the cheat software violated Take-Two’s copyright in “Grand Theft Auto V” and also violated the terms of the user agreement.

In granting the preliminary injunction, Judge Stanton focused on the harm to both the public as well as Take-Two:
Continue Reading Judge Stanton Grants Preliminary Injunction Against Creator of “Grand Theft Auto V” Cheat Software

In an opinion today, Judge Stanton appeared inclined to dismiss a suit by billionaire Ron Burkle challenging his being voted off the board of Morgans Hotel Group.  Burkle contends that the a press release issued by OTK Associates before the vote falsely suggested that two leading proxy advisory firms supported replacing the entire board, including him.  Judge Stanton agreed the press release was incorrect, but observed that news reports corrected the error:
Continue Reading Judge Stanton Casts Doubt On Ron Burkle Proxy Soliciation Suit Because News Reports Corrected The Misstatements At Issue

In an opinion Thursday, Judge Stanton granted YouTube summary judgment in a high-stakes copyright infringement case in which the plaintiff, Viacom, claims YouTube unlawfully allows Viacom’s copyrighted videos to be posted online. Judge Stanton’s had earlier granted summary judgment to YouTube because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbor” provision, which protects websites from infringement claims based on certain user-posted material, so long as the sites lack actual knowledge and have mechanisms to promptly remove the material after being notified by the copyright holder.  The Second Circuit reversed and remanded for Judge Stanton to consider (among other things) whether YouTube had actual knowledge of the videos at issue.  In Thursday’s opinion, Judge Stanton again ruled for YouTube.  He rejected Viacom’s argument that YouTube should be bear the burden of proving it lacked actual knowledge of each of the over 63,000 videos in dispute:
Continue Reading On Remand, Judge Stanton Again Rejects Copyright Claims Against YouTube