4 ms·

What actionable results would someone who doesn't pay for the service be able to gain by this litigation? Can a free user actually receive financial compensati

by ljd 14y ago

What actionable results would someone who doesn't pay for the service be able to gain by this litigation? Can a free user actually receive financial compensation from a lawsuit like this? How would a company's liability even be measured in dollars for this service? Bandwidth expenses incurred by the user?

kapnobatairza 14y ago
I don't think there will be much in the form of compensation/restorative damages, but there is a likelihood that they can be held for punitive damages if there is some breach of privacy as a result of the potential breach of contract. It will be a very difficult case to make, since first they have to prove Instagram breached contract (they didn't), and then they have to prove that the breach of contract amounted to a violation of law (privacy, property, or otherwise).... Even then, they won't be looking at much: Facebook's "Beacon"-related class action lawsuit only amounted to the single-digit millions, not exactly a windfall for anyone involved and little more than a slap on the wrist to the company.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  The one thing I can see in all this is that instagram specifically states that they are '[It’s] a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.' Their terms of service are in direct contradiction of that, but it will still take a lot of effort with likely nothing left for the members of the class to put the lie to that. After all, if their homepage says 'friends and family' and in their terms-of-service they state that they'll share your data with a whole pile of others, including advertisers then they're clearly not billing themselves right. But to translate that into a damage amount is going to be a tough and very uphill battle. After all, we all read the terms of service to all the services that we use, right?

4 ms·

What actionable results would someone who doesn't pay for the service be able to gain by this litigation? Can a free user actually receive financial compensati

by ljd 14y ago

kapnobatairza 14y ago
I don't think there will be much in the form of compensation/restorative damages, but there is a likelihood that they can be held for punitive damages if there is some breach of privacy as a result of the potential breach of contract. It will be a very difficult case to make, since first they have to prove Instagram breached contract (they didn't), and then they have to prove that the breach of contract amounted to a violation of law (privacy, property, or otherwise).... Even then, they won't be looking at much: Facebook's "Beacon"-related class action lawsuit only amounted to the single-digit millions, not exactly a windfall for anyone involved and little more than a slap on the wrist to the company.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  The one thing I can see in all this is that instagram specifically states that they are '[It’s] a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.' Their terms of service are in direct contradiction of that, but it will still take a lot of effort with likely nothing left for the members of the class to put the lie to that. After all, if their homepage says 'friends and family' and in their terms-of-service they state that they'll share your data with a whole pile of others, including advertisers then they're clearly not billing themselves right. But to translate that into a damage amount is going to be a tough and very uphill battle. After all, we all read the terms of service to all the services that we use, right?