Balough
December 22, 2013
A Colorado federal judge ordered that a person suing her former employer must provide all of her cell phone messages, social media passwords, and passwords to access any of her email accounts or blogs for the judge’s in camera review. The former employee, along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sued The Original Honeybaked Ham Company of […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
Facial recognition applications now link faces with other databases, allowing companies to identify anonymous individuals and obtain their personal information without the consumer ever knowing, thus raising privacy concerns. In an effort to give companies guidance and protect consumer privacy, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a pamphlet with Best Practices for Common Uses of Facial […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
No more buts about it. The faceoff between North Face and South Butt is over—again. The North Face Apparel Corp. had sued The South Butt, LLC, and several individuals for trademark infringement for offering products with the names South Butt and Butt Face. The original case was settled via a consent decree. The lawsuit was revived […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
A manufacturer of high-speed turbo blowers used by waste water treatment plants not only defamed its competitor but also violated the Lanham Act, the Seventh Circuit found. The appellate court found that the PowerPoint presentation by KTurbo, Inc. contained false accusations, the company was warned repeatedly that its accusations were false, the company ignored the […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
Federal law enforcement monitoring of electronic communications in the United States has increased dramatically according to the most recent data obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU’s finding is based on documents produced by the Justice Department, which show the requests for both “pen register” and “trap and trace” surveillance requests. Pen registers capture […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
The Center for International Media Law and Policy Studies has named Richard C. Balough to serve on the Center’s Advisory Board. The newly created Center focuses on studying legal protection for media rights in the United States and the world. It is part of the School of Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington. The Center’s mission includes engaging […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
Richard C. Balough has co-authored an article that explores how courts address privacy considerations for geolocational technologies, including how courts are beginning to place additional limits on the use of location-tracking technology. The article, Business Law Today_ Privacy Considerations Limit Geolocation Technologies appears in the April 2012 issue of the online Business Law Today, published by the American […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in data given off by a pay-as-you-go cell phone, the Sixth Circuit found. At issue in the case was geolocational information obtained by Drug Enforcement Administration officers who continuously “pinged” the pay-as-you-go cell phone of a suspect and his son who were driving from Arizona to Texas. Once […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
An online social bookmarking service that allows users to provide links to copyrighted materials behind a pay wall is not a contributory infringer, the Seventh Circuit found. myVidster.com’s users bookmark videos on the Internet that are displayed as thumbnails on the website. When a user clicks on the thumbnail, the video is played but the […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
The collection and use of an app user’s personal information, including the user’s location, without his or her consent does not violate the user’s right to privacy under the California Constitution, the Stored Communications Act, the Federal Wiretap Act, or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. However, the use may violate California’s unfair competition law, […]
