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September 7
2010
Filed under:  

HP
  Law Suits
  Mark Hurd
  Oracle
  PDF
  Quote
  Scribd
  Silicon Alley Insider
 
 

UPDATED: Ya Hurd? HP suing former CEO in wake of news that he's co-Pres at Oracle -- via @alleyinsider [Quote]

Comments [0]

Our guess is that HP thinks Hurd violated some sort of non-compete by taking a job at Oracle, where he is co-President.
via businessinsider.com

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that the Wall Street Journal will report (?) that HP is planning to sue former CEO Mark Hurd following his taking a new job as co-President of Oracle.

I'm not sure why someone would risk violating a severance agreement in excess of $40M, but maybe there are more shadowy business motives here. After all, even an unsibstantiated and eventually-droppped lawsuit can dent a stock price...I'm not saying you're cheeky, H-P, but...

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

UPDATE (2:50 p.m.): According to the Wall Street Journal story, Hurd "signed agreements designed to protect H-P's trade secrets and confidential information" and "H-P intends to enforce those agreements." The WSJ article also mentions some background I should have included, in that Hurd was forced to resign after some expense account irregularities and a since-dropped sexual harassment allegation involving a contractor of H-P's.

UPDATE 2 (3:25 p.m.): I've embedded the 51-page civil filing below.

Court Filing: HP Civil Complaint Against Mark Hurd

July 9
2010
Filed under:  

Copyright
  Court opinions
  File Sharing
  Intellectual Property
  P2P
  PDF
  RIAA
  Techdirt
 
 

Judge reduces "unconstitutional" $675k damages award to $67k in P2P case, RIAA is weally, weally mad! [P2P]

Comments [0]

(download)

Not much to say here: the law needs to be changed so such outrageous damages awards in P2P file sharing (read, typically: music stealing) aren't possible in the first place. I've written about crazy P2P cases before, and this just adds to the confusion. The message here and in other recent cases is that trial-level awards are out of control and don't represent the financial harm actually done. This is out of step with the legislative construct that makes such awards possible. Expect an appeal from the RIAA, but boy do I hope this ruling sticks.

Source: Techdirt

July 6
2010
Filed under:  

Advertising
  FTC
  Law
  Law School
  PDF
  Privacy
  Random Legal Geekery
  Temple Law
 
 

FTC Behavioral Advertising Guidelines, Revised February 2009 [Random Legal Geekery]

Comments [0]

(download)

We're going over this in Cyberprivacy Law and I wanted the report outlining the four principles somewhere easily accessible. So here it is, the Federal Trade Commission's February 2009 revision to its behavioral advertising guidelines. The guidelines were drafted to offer a framework within which the online advertising industry could self-regulate the collection of user data for use in targeted online advertising.

Such romantic reading.

Source: FTC

June 3
2010
Filed under:  

Ars Technica
  Copyright
  Dunlap Grubb & Weaver
  Far Cry
  ISP
  P2P
  PDF
  Piracy
  Privacy
  Quote
  Statutory Damages
  Time Warner Cable
  Updated
  US Copyright Group
  US Copyright Office
 
 

ISP refuses to frivolously ID its customers, dubiously-motivated law firm is really mad -- via @ArsTechnica [Quote]

Comments [2]

There's a minor update about my comments on the movie Far Cry, which appears directly below the paragraph where the movie is mentioned.

Let me preface this post, which admittedly got a little out of hand, by saying very clearly that I'm not a lawyer. I'm just an opinionated law student.
 

TWC highlights the fact that it is not a party to this case," he wrote, "but it appears that TWC is utilizing that fact to garner public support for its position and possibly in an attempt to gain more subscribers who would value TWC's efforts to protect the privacy of demonstrated copyright infringers. To the extent TWC’s tactics are just that—letting the public know that TWC is a good ISP for copyright infringers because TWC will fight any subpoenas related to infringers’ activities—TWC exposes itself to a claim for contributory copyright infringement.
Tom Dunlap of US Copyright Group, via arstechnica.com

Okay, let's back it up a bit. US Copyright Group was born out of a law firm called Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver. They are in the business of suing alleged copyright infringers. By the thousands. Also, they like to get their way.

Read the rest of this post »

May 21
2010
Filed under:  

New Media
  New York Times
  Nieman Journalism Lab
  PDF
  Quote
  Texas State University
 
 

Study of the New York Times' Interactive Newsroom Technologies Unit -- via @NiemanLab [PDF]

Comments [0]

A very interesting look at one of the most forward-looking news initiatives being undertaken by one of the biggest behemoths of Old Media.

Royal, a Texas State University assistant professor who focuses on digital media and culture, spent a week with the team in an effort to “gain a systematic understanding of the role of technology in the ever-changing newsroom, driven by the opportunities and challenges introduced by the Internet.” The resulting paper examined the group of eleven guys (they’ve since added one gal) widely recognized to be the vanguard of the hacker-journalist movement — and put fascinating anecdotal data behind team leaderAron Pilhofer’s insistence that the group’s mandate is editorial as much as technological.

via Nieman Journalism Lab 

(download)

 

May 20
2010
Filed under:  

Palm
  PDF
  Twitter
  webOS
  webOS Internals
 
 

"How @palm views @webosinternals and homebrew developers" -- via @webosinternals [PDF]

Comments [0]

@webosinternals:

"How @palm views @webosinternals and homebrew developers" 

It's a longish presentaion on the benefits of facilitating a semi-independent developer community. Fascinating.

(download)
Download it here: http://elinux.org/images/7/76/MPT-ELC-2010.pdf

Via http://twitter.com/webosinternals/status/14339719934

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

May 19
2010
Filed under:  

Electronic Frontier Foundation
  PDF
  Privacy
 
 

EFF reports on how your browser's uniqueness makes you easier to track -- via @EFF [PDF]

Comments [0]

The PDF below is a white paper released this month by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). It details a study they did that suggests individual browsers may be easier to distinguish from one another than once thought. It only goes on for 16 pages, and is an interesting look at what can, and is, being done to track us, even when we think we're flying private.

(download)

May 10
2010
Filed under:  

Image
  Mike Gallagher
  PDF
  The Walk 2010
 
 

Inquirer Wrote Up @TheWalk2010 in Sunday's Paper! [PDF]

Comments [0]

The story ran online on Saturday but appeared in Sunday's paper. PDF below.

(download)

Posted from Philadelphia, PA
May 5
2010
Filed under:  

Amicus Briefs
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  Facebook
  Law Suits
  PDF
  Power Ventures
  Press Release
  Privacy
  Quote
 
 

Facebook wants to criminalize alternative means of accessing your data -- via EFF [PDF]

Comments [0]

Power Ventures makes a web-based tool that users can set up to log into their multiple social networking accounts and aggregate messages, friend lists, and other data so they can see all the information in one place. In a lawsuit against Power Ventures, Facebook claims that Power's tool violates criminal law because Facebook's terms of service ban users from accessing their information through "automatic means." By using Power's tool, Facebook argues that its users are accessing Facebook "without permission" under the California penal code.

via Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF press release: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/05/03

Facebook Terms of Service: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

(download)

April 27
2010
Filed under:  

Computer and Communications Industry Association
  Copyright
  Fair use
  Intellectual Property
  Law
  PDF
  Threat Level
  US Copyright Office
  Wired
 
 

Report: Companies benefiting from copyright limitations generated over $4 trillion in revenue in 2007 [PDF]

Comments [0]

The Computer and Communications Industry Association released the below report recently, aiming to quantify the economic impact of copyright limitations like fair use. Fair use is an exception to copyright's standard prohibition against using the creative works of others in your own work.

The fair use doctrine is often used as a defense against allegations of intellectual property theft and piracy, sometimes legitimately and sometimes not. I haven't had a chance to read the report yet (exams this week and next...) but it's worth at least a skim.

More information:

Read "Fair Use in the U.S. Economy" below, via CCIA through Threat Level:

(download)