Tech Law

Hey - Doc Searls posted the first response to this article!… David Berlind of ZDNet writes:
Is your anti-virus or anti-spyware technology warning you about the Digital Rights Management software on your computer? If not, it should be. It’s a Trojan horse of the worst kind.
Earlier today, after describing to a close friend [...]

I’m not condoning theft of music, but It’s about time someone is able to respond to the tactics that the RIAA has been using:
ATLANTIC V. ANDERSEN
This is the case peer-to-peer file sharers have been waiting for. Tanya Andersen, a 41-year-old disabled single mother living in Oregon, has countersued the RIAA for Oregon RICO violations, fraud, [...]

Michael S. Mimoso of Information Security Magazine writes:
“Ciscogate,” the summer’s high-profile security event between former ISS researcher Mike Lynn and Cisco Systems Inc. over the disclosure of a flaw in the IOS router operating system, stirred heavy emotions around responsible vulnerability disclosure and whether there is security in obscurity. Lynn’s attorney, Jennifer Granick, is [...]

Anne Broache of CNET News.com writes:
A California senator has suggested that because file-sharing networks continue to house illegal files, they should be shut down.
Intellectual property protection “can’t function in a country where the high-tech services become such that you can’t protect copyright,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said Wednesday at a U.S. Senate Judiciary [...]

Ed Foster writes on his Gripelog, “If your business is considering a laser printer purchase anytime soon, I’d like to make sure you’re aware of one fact. After a protracted legal struggle, Lexmark has succeeded in getting federal district court sanction to sue its customers if they violate the company’s “boxwrap” license agreement. And, while [...]

“Buried in Microsoft’s lawsuit against its former executive Kai-Fu Lee and Google is a legal doctrine that could make tech professionals shiver.
The high-profile dispute largely hinges on a noncompete agreement Lee signed with Microsoft. But in court filings, the software giant has also mentioned the theory of “inevitable disclosure,” which holds that in some circumstances [...]

Let’s be honest. Twenty years ago the only way we would see the words with 17 year old kid and $1.5million dollars in a news article would be if it involved a court settlement or maybe an inheritance. Not in today’s economy though! Now we have kids running denial of service attacks as a business. [...]

So, it looks like there may finally be some peace between GEICO and Google regarding this crazy Adwords fiasco. While this whole thing apparently involves some confusion about use of Trademarks with the Adwords program, I guess we can always leave it to the courts to settle this once and for all.

Man, I really hope this proves to be a whole lot more than a ‘perhaps’. I believe that people are wanting more choices in their DSL providers and less of the reseller-mambo.

Well, in this case, it might be a load of fun to watch in, say, a reality TV show setting. It involves Novell and SCO (you remember them, right?). In any case, Novell was one of the targets of the misguided barrage of lawsuits fired off by SCO in its bid to escape ultimate obscurity.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see how owning a Pringles can could ever be illegal. (She says shaking head in total disbelief.) But here’s a bit about a Sacramento California crime task force that thinks differently:
“A Sacramento area teenager got busted last month for hacking into his school’s computer system and changing his [...]

In a classic legal maneuver called “He said/She said”, Google has counter-sued Microsoft over the hiring of Kai-Fu Lee. Sometimes I think that this stuff really belongs on the Comedy Network, but real reality is, I fear, too boring for some.

Unless there are proven safety concerns here, I just cannot see why the FAA won’t simply bow out of this one?

This has just got suck for Microsoft! Apparently one court has decided that MS has indeed infringed on a patent owned by AT&T speech-coding technology.

Man, is this year of the lawsuit or are they simply receiving more press this time around? “And in this corner we have Qualcomm and in the other, we have Broadcom!”

A Federal court in San Francisco has handed down a ruling in the court case of the EFF vs. Sanofi-Aventis Group, a huge French drug company. At first look, it might be a not-that-interesting side note in the war to define the rules of the Internet, but it’s actually a far-reaching and important decision.

Anne Saita of SearchSecurity.com writes, “To no one’s surprise, 19-year-old Sven Jaschan today admitted in a German court that he created the Sasser worm, which infected millions of computers worldwide by scanning randomly selected IP addresses for vulnerable systems. Despite his confession, his trial continues this week under German law, which does not allow defendants to [...]

U.S. Justice Department officials sparred with critics of the Patriot Act on Thursday in a debate over whether the expiring portions of the law should be renewed at the end of the year.
When Congress rushed to enact the legislation in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, certain sections were set to expire. Now politicians [...]

Proving that even the bad guys can get ahead if they play by the rules. Now, if only the law allowed the courts to shut down adware makers, we could all breathe a sigh of relief. Such relief, I’m afraid, is not going to happen while ‘the current administration’ is in place.

I have no problem with one country working to tighten the reigns on cybercrime just so long as it does not interfere with the day to day well being of those such a law affects.