Balough
December 23, 2013
A federal judge has referred a band of copyright troll attorneys to their respective state and federal bars for their “moral turpitude unbecoming of an officer of the court.” The judge also referred the attorneys to the U.S. Attorney’s office in California and the Internal Revenue Service for their scheme that “outmaneuvered the legal system” […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
A 92-question and answer guide is available from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help businesses and parents understand the new rule for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which go into effect July 1, 2013. The rule, adopted in December 2012, expands the types of information about children under 13 that require parental […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
A scam that induces businesses to pay for listing in a useless online marketing directory has been temporarily enjoined and the company’s United States assets frozen in a court action brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Since at least 2000, Construct Data Publishers, which is also known as Fair Guide, induced businesses and nonprofit organizations […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
A personal injury law firm can buy search terms using the names of a competing law firm’s partners without violating Wisconsin’s privacy laws because the use of the names is “non-visible,” an appellate court found. The state’s privacy statute includes as an “invasion of privacy” the “use, for advertising purpose or for purposes of trade, […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
Mobile devices made by HTC America, Inc. contain serious security flaws, which allow the phones to send their own text messages, send personally identifiable information to third parties, and even activate the microphone to listen to conversations, according to a proposed HTC America consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC’s complaint against HTC America noted that […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
The law of geolocational privacy continued to evolve in 2012 even though the Supreme Court sidestepped the issue in a potential landmark case. Despite the lack of clarity from the Supreme Court, there will be more attention to geolocational privacy in 2013 both in courts and through legislation, according to a legal survey article appearing […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
Today’s cars are computers on wheels, open to hackers who can infect cars with malware and take control of a car’s speed, braking, and other vital systems. Whether today’s laws are applicable to these cyber-threats was the focus of a presentation to the American Bar Association’s Cyberspace Law Institute by Richard C. and Cheryl Dancey […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
Mobile apps should disclose in easy-to-understand language what data they collect and how the data is used, and they should consider a do-not-track mechanism, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommended in a staff report adopted by the FTC. The report, “Mobile Privacy Disclosures Building Trust Through Transparency,” noted that “mobile technology presents unique privacy challenges. First, more […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
An Indiana statute prohibiting most registered sex offenders from using social networking websites is unconstitutional because it is an overly broad infringement of First Amendment rights. The Indiana law prohibited certain sex offenders from using a “social networking web site” or “an instant messaging or chat room program” that “the offender knows allows a person […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
A third party may not use images posted on Twitter’s TwitPic for commercial purposes without the poster’s permission, a federal district court ruled. On January 12, 2010, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Agence France Presse (AFP) sought pictures from Haiti by searching TwitPic. Several of the images AFP found and forwarded to its clients, […]
