Opinion ID: 172353
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Abika.com

Text: Although the parties characterize the Abika.com website differently, they do not dispute the essential aspects of its operation. Any person interested in Abika.com's services could access the website through a search engine or by typing its address into an Internet browser. A visitor to the website would first see its homepage, which displayed various categories of information that could be searched. The record contains one printout of the website from December 20, 2006, and one from November 27, 2007. The printouts show that some searches advertised on the homepage targeted information generally contained in government records, such as court dockets, sex offender records, and Tax ... Liens. Aplts. App., Vol. 4 at 1313; id. Vol. 5 at 1429. Other search categories related to intimate personal information, such as Romantic Preferences, Personality traits, and Rumors. Id. Vol. 4 at 1313; id. Vol. 5 at 1429. Accusearch stresses on appeal that the search services offered on Abika.com were primarily services provided by third-party researchers, who were required by Accusearch to provide assurances that they would perform their work in accordance with applicable law. The researchers had no direct contact with Abika.com's customers. As Accusearch explains, all information passed between [customer] and researcher went through Abika.com, as an intermediary. Aplts. Reply Br. at 3. In placing a search order, a customer paid Accusearch an administrative search fee, Aplts. App., Vol. 4 at 1246, and selected the type of search desired, not a specific researcher or a search identified with a specific researcher. Accusearch would forward the search request to a researcher who could fulfill it. After completing a search, the researcher would send the results to Accusearch and bill Accusearch directly. Accusearch would then email the results to the customer and post them on the customer's Abika.com account. A customer could know that a third-party researcher was involved in a transaction only by reading boilerplate contained on the website and in Accusearch's email correspondence. And even then, the customer was not provided contact information for any researcher.