Browsewrap License Cases: Pollstar v. Gigmania, Ltd., 170 F. Supp. 2d 974 (E.D. CA 2000).

In Pollstar v. Gigmania, Ltd., 170 F. Supp. 2d 974 (E.D. CA 2000):

–Pollstar kept track of concert information on its website, which any user could download by accepting the terms of Pollstar’s license.

»License prohibited commercial use of information.

»License was not on Pollstar’s homepage, but on different page of its site.

»Visitor is alerted to existence of Pollstar’s license only by reason of a small grey print on grey background (with a link to terms, but other links on homepage were blue)

–Gigmania downloaded information from Pollstar’s site and used it on its own site for commercial purposes. Pollstar sued to enforce terms.

–The court refused to enforce the terms of the license agreement because it found that the link to the license was hard to read based on the way it was presented.

  • Notably, the court did not rule that the license agreement was unenforceable, only that the website did not give users adequate notice of it.