February 13th 2008
When Oscar Morales, an engineer from Barranquilla, Colombia, and five friends launched a Facebook group called No More FARC, they didn’t expect to create a movement. But within thirty days, their Facebook group’s 250,000 members mobilized millions of protesters. Last week, more than 4 million Colombians marched simultaneously in 27 cities throughout the country and 104 […]
February 11th 2008
Yahoo’s board concluded on Friday that Microsoft’s unsolicited offer “massively undervalues” the company. The Wall St. Journal noted Yahoo’s position in the online display advertising market, where it leads both Google and Microsoft. Additionally, it suggested the board would cite that Microsoft underestimated the risk of regulatory approval, and its effect on Yahoo’s business. The […]
February 11th 2008
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent a letter to Senators Leahy and Specter regarding a portion of the Draft Judiciary Committee Report of the Patent Reform Act of 2007, which has the potential to kill EFF’s Patent Busting Project. The draft inserts language which would prohibit third parties from requesting ex-parte reexamination of issued patents. […]
February 7th 2008
This week, ALM, publisher of 33 professional magazines including The American Lawyer, and Courtroom View Network (CVN), a legal-news video service, announced CourtroomLive.com. The service will allow legal professionals to watch current trials as they happen, and distribute the feeds securely to clients or colleagues. Imagine how firms could create shadow juries to watch actual […]
February 5th 2008
Virtual worlds are emerging as a popular new legal topic. They create a host of interesting opportunities as tools for legal practice, and at the same time are a medium that needs to be reconciled to laws from the physical world. The apparatus of the law is increasingly present in Second Life : You Can […]
February 4th 2008
Effective February 11th, Google will stop monetizing all domains if they are less than five days old. This single move will force a dramatic reduction in the Internet scheme known as domain kiting. Industry experts attribute over 90% of all current domain registrations to kiting performed by a group of rogue registrants, so this is […]
February 2nd 2008
For good or bad, the United States has become zealous about IP rights. A new cabinet position is being considered to support IP law enforcement – the WHIPER. The federal government attached funding requirements to force colleges to allow rights holders to monitor students‘ Internet use. AT&T wants to watch their own customers to root […]
February 1st 2008
Today, Microsoft confirmed what years of speculation predicted, they will attempt to buy Yahoo. While this is an obvious move from a business sense, there are formidable regulatory hurdles ahead. Yet, sources as objective as Yahoo News and MSNBC minimize the risk of regulatory review. To be fair, so does most of the US media which echos them. […]
January 31st 2008
Do hard cases make bad laws? The law continues to grapple with the tragedy of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old girl who committed suicide after allegedly being harassed on MySpace by the parent of a friend posing as a teenage boy. Some localities have passed constitutionally questionable ordinances to make online conduct by an adult that […]
January 29th 2008
There’s a lot to be happy about in recent moves by the recording industry to experimentally make music available on an ad-supported “free” basis. Here are three examples of emerging models meeting with dramatically different levels of success.