Needless to say that lawyers rely on Social Media to investigate potential or sitting jurors, but a new ethics opinion warns against direct communications. The New York City Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 2012-2 entitled “Jury Research and Social Media” which posed the following question:
What ethical restrictions, if…
Continue Reading Legal Ethics – Jury Research is Okay, But Watch Out!
When employees use their personal cell, tablet, laptop, or PC it’s not so simple to determine who owns the content of their email and intellectual property. Notwithstanding the 2010 US Supreme Court 9-0 ruling (in the City of Ontario v Quon) that an employee who uses a company issued…
Continue Reading BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) – Who Owns the eMail? Intellectual Property?
The NY Times reported that Spokeo was “compiling and selling people’s personal information for use by potential employers in screening job applicants.” For the first time ever, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged and assessed a fine for use of personal Internet data in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting…
Continue Reading Spokeo Fined $800,000 for Violation of FTC Privacy Laws
After losing a $13.78 jury verdict in April, 2012 the defendants persuaded the judge that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the defendants actually posted the anonymous libel. The plaintiffs, Mark and Rhonda Lesher, did get IP (Internet Protocol) addresses for the anonymous posters, but failed to convince District Judge…
Continue Reading Cybersmear $13.78 million Verdict Thrown Out
Please join me at 1pm CDT on June 14, 2012 for my online speech entitled “Privacy – Social Media, Internet & BYOD” which is FREE (including ethics credit!), all you have to do is register at Virtual LEGALTECH (please use "Privacy614" as your code when you register). Here’s the description…
For 1 week ending June 8th Facebook is asking its users to vote on a new proposed privacy policy which is the second time Facebook has asked users to vote. Just like April 2009 vote, Facebook stated that if 30% of users vote for the new privacy policy then…
After more than two months of trial, last December a Dallas, Texas jury convicted a group of defendants of a massive cybercrime conspiracy to defraud telecommunications companies, and related charges. The Dallas Morning News reported that in May 2012 that US District Judge Sidney Fitzwater sentenced:
…
Continue Reading Judge Sends Cybercriminals to Jail and Orders $39.1 Million in Restitution
Google is getting high marks for its May 2012 Transparency Report that when copyright owners complain about website infringement, that Google takes down those website urls (universal resource locators) 97% of the time. Google claims the other 3% are not taken down because of inaccurate or incomplete information.
In April…
Continue Reading Google Obliges Website Copyright Takedown Requests 97% of the Time
Law professor Eugene Volokh wrote a paper describing why he believes that search engines have a constitutional right to speak to their users without government intervention. Although the 27 page paper was commissioned by Google, Professor Volokh (UCLA Law School) made the following conclusions about the leading search engines:…
Continue Reading Are Search Engine Results Protected Speech Under the First Amendment?
Even if employers provide cell devices/tablets to employees, many employees now insist on using their own iPhones, Droids, Blackberries, and tablets. However many privacy and data ownership legal issues are unresolved. At InnoTech on May 17, 2012 I had the honor to serve on a panel entitled “BYOD –…
Continue Reading BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policies Affect Everyone
