Case
The plaintiffs brought suit against Netscape Communications Corporation, alleging the defendant's SmartDownload plug-in invaded the plaintiffs' privacy in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Netscape moved to compel arbitration and to stay court proceedings, arguing that the plaintiffs agreed to arbitration in the End User License Agreement. This means that any disputes, such as an invasion of privacy, would be settled out of court by an arbitrator. The plaintiffs allegedly accepted this EULA when they downloaded the plug-in.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Netscape's motion. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard the appeal, and affirmed the district court's decision, finding that "plaintiffs neither received reasonable notice of the existence of the license terms nor manifested unambiguous assent to those terms before acting on the web page’s invitation to download the plug-in program."
Read more about this topic: Specht V. Netscape Communications Corp.
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