October 20th 2009
The InformationWeek cover story had two elements. First was the illustration, which featured a compass with Windows 7 at true North, the headline “Winevitable,” and the question of how you will get there. That’s the kind of positioning money just can’t buy. Imagine producing software whose inevitability is proclaimed on the editorial cover of magazines. […]
October 11th 2009
When the government tells someone to shut up, we call it censorship and the First Amendment requires the government to defend its regulation. But what if the government just says, “Shhhh… could you please turn that down?” Rep. Anna Eshoo’s Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (HR 1084) would do just that: require the FCC to issue […]
October 8th 2009
Online Marketers Who Collect Visitor Data Are Potential Targets of Regulation in 2010. Law and health care practices are required to protect personally identifiable information (PII). However, in many cases they are encouraged to circulate so-called anonymous data. It turns out the distinction between the anonymous and the personally identifiable isn’t all that real. Latanya […]
August 27th 2009
What’s in the water in St. Charles County? You’ll recall that’s where Lori Drew was was indicted in a cyber bullying case related to the November 2006 suicide of teenager Megan Meier. The case, publicity and resulting legal responses have been a frequent topic here. Now, another grown-up is facing felony harassment charges for allegedly […]
August 24th 2009
Twitter’s laissez-faire approach to trademark enforcement may prove to be a liability after all. Numerous firms have set up services using the Twitter mark: Twitterific, Tiny Twitter, Twitterberry, MadTwitter, TwitterFone, Twitterholic, Twitter Karma, TwitterBuzz, Twitterdex, Twitterlocal, TwitterPoster, TwitterCounter. There’s no sign that Twitter has defended against such use. Even their API agreement fails to lay […]
August 20th 2009
Adam Thierer and Berin Szoka at the Tech Liberation Front have outlined a first draft defining what it is to be a cyber-libertarian: Cyber-libertarians believe true “Internet freedom” is freedom from state action; not freedom for the State to reorder our affairs to supposedly make certain people or groups better off or to improve some […]
August 15th 2009
Eric Goldman at the Technology & Marketing Law blog recounts a hysterically misguided ruling in Colorado, which holds a hospital liable for trademark and copyright infringement because they mention the ranking they received from a health quality website. You can’t copyright a number Imagine enjoining rock bands from saying Billboard ranked them #1, because that […]
August 14th 2009
We love and hate the Blackberries and iPhones that tether us to the world of work. I remember having just started my first lead-gen campaign, and receiving an auto-update of new business while riding a chair lift. Having grown up around farms, I’m comfortable with work and life having lots of overlap. That said, the […]
August 12th 2009
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis has issued a permanent injunction that “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.” View details. In May, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the […]
August 10th 2009
A 50-person law firm with a national practice in asbestos litigation found that the text of its Elder Law website was copied verbatim as the basis for a new site for a firm in another part of the state. The plaintiff firm, Brayton Purcell, filed suit claiming copyright infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and misappropriation. […]
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