I don't often re-post articles in full glory, but I couldn't resist
with this one. This is a great article from the OMMA (a
magazine of online media, marketing & advertising).
There are some great quotes from quite a few movers and
shakers in the Indiana technology area. As a technology legal
counsel located in Indianapolis, it warms my heart to see this kind
of great press for the area. Personally, I think all
technology firms should move or open offices here.
Big hat-tip to Jay Baer for...
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There is a new Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals opinion that is likely to have a significant impact on SaaS
providers. In Digitech Computers,
Inc. v. Trans-Care, Inc. (link
here), the 7th Circuit focuses on a SaaS agreement
for Digitech to provide certain management software licensing
components for Trans-Care (an ambulance and medical transportation
service). The Court ultimately upheld a
breach of contract claim in favor of Digitech, significantly
reduced Digitech’s damages award, and...
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Very
interesting article from CNet regarding the proposal to be made by
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill). The article can be found
here. Basic point of the article is
that Senator Durbin wants to add sales taxes to on-line sellers
like Amazon and iTunes (although I would note that I think
iTunes already has a tax component) for all purchases. The
idea being that brick and mortar stores in a given state shouldn't
have to foot the bill for these new-fangled on-line
superstores. They should have to...
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The end is finally nigh for the ongoing litigation roller coaster
that is the Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg v. Cameron and Tyler
Winklevoss saga. This has always been an interesting piece of
software litigation based upon (a) the personalities involved and
(b) the scale. It is safe to say that when you are one of the
fastest growing companies in the country, you are going to face
litigation. In fact, that's why you call me. And it is
equally logical that when you are creating a website or working...
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I know there will be an "official" congratulatory press release in
the near future, but I thought I'd take a moment to congratulate
the Alerding Castor Hewitt partners on being included in the 2011
Indiana Super Lawyers.
Brian Hewitt received the nod as one of the Top 50 Super
Lawyers in the state. This is, of course, a recurring honor
for Brian, who has been a Super Lawyer for the past several
years. Brian's practice focus is on business and probate
litigation and mediation.
The voters...
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The first caveat is that I'm sorry I haven't posted anything
recently. Work here at Alerding Castor Hewitt has been going
like gangbusters and yours truly has been up to his distinguished
eyeballs in work. Trust me, however, I'm now dutifully
committing myself to continue providing insight and humor as your
Indiana Internet Litigation guru.
Second caveat is that this post actually has nothing to do with
privacy litigation, software litigation or really any other
technology law issues. ...
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I hope that you all had a thankful and fulfilling turkey day.
Your friendly neighborhood technology legal counsel stuffed
himself horrendously. But, I digress. I know that I owe
you all part 2 of my discussion of the legal landscape of corporate
blogging, and I promise that I will get that posted in the near
future, but two recent opinions in some non-Indiana Internet
litigation piqued my interest and I had to talk about them.
Both rulings involve application of the liability...
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I can read your mind. You are thinking, "oh, great and
insightful technology legal counsel, what do you mean by a 'legal
landscape' and what does that have to do with blogging?" My
initial response is that, (a) you've asked two questions and (b) if
you plan to use blogging as a component of your business model, you
need to know what potential pitfalls exist. That is the legal
landscape of blogging. It is made up of the hills and valleys
that must be overcome or avoided to reach blogging...
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Thanks to the wonderful folks over at Compendium Blogware, I
presented a fun webinar last week on the Legal Landscape of
Corporate Blogging. Don't fret, dear reader; I intend
to put together several posts over the weekend that hit the
highlights of my presentation. Overall, I discussed topics
like privacy litigation, copyright, defamation, Section 230
protections, etc. The fun stuff of blogging.
One area that I discussed and have had several questions about is
Creative Commons. For those of...
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Last Wednesday, I had the great opportunity to attend the 2010
Techpoint Summit. For those of you that don't know, Techpoint
is organization with the mission of "accelerating Indiana's
emerging and vibrant tech sector" (source:
www.techpoint.org). This great organization fosters and
nurtures the technology sector that is developing in Indiana.
It brings the innovators together and gives them a voice.
And, their yearly summit is an excellent example of the work they
are doing. In the same...
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I know that you are expecting witty and poignant analysis
of some new and exciting aspect of technology and / or privacy
litigation, but that's not really the point of this
post. Rather, the impetus of this concoction of literary
excellence is a realization that I had regarding social
media. In the last two weeks I have experienced the following
(all on a large social media site that shall remain nameless but
that has a movie): (1) received birthday announcements and
pictures of my niece in...
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Ok, I'll admit it. I was in a rut. Although I found
numerous interesting tidbits through-out cyberspace, I could not
find anything that piqued my interest enough to put aside the
billable hours of a technology legal counsel for a few moments to
blog about it. But, lo and behold, a college student with a
sense of panache, an aspiration for humor, decent journaling
skills, and access to PowerPoint and the Internet has become my
muse.
For those of you that don't know, 2010 Duke graduate...
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Here is one of those convergence points where business law and
privacy law intersect and effectuate additional administrative
duties on the business holder. In a rather interesting
bulletin, the Connecticut Department of Insurance issued a
directive on August 18, 2010, requiring "that all licensees and
registrants of the Department notify the Department of any
information security incident which affects any Connecticut
residents as soon as the incident is identified, but no later than
five (5)...
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Your friendly neighborhood technology legal counsel here: I
recently saw an article over at PC World that security firm AVG
recently did a study of the safest countries in which to surf the
Internet. Seven of the top ten are in Africa, with Sierra
Leone rated the safest. The study is based on incidence of
attack by a compiled list of virus and malware attacks. The
study found that Sierra Leone's average incident rate was one
attack in every 692 surfers. Niger also fared well with 1 in
442...
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Another
post that doesn't quite fit neatly into Indiana Internet litigation
or privacy law, but that intrigues me. BusinessWeek, passing
along a Tim Greene article from NetworkWorld (found here:
www.networkworld.com/nwlookup.jsp),
is reporting that the U.S. military has issued an essay in which it
urges its expertise in defense be put to use in protecting civilian
networked infrastructure, such as power grids, financial
institutions, etc. The essay from Foreign Affairs sets out
the concept...
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I don't often blanket repost other blogs that I see, however, in
this instance, I think it is appropriate. Venkat, writing for
Professor Goldman's blog, writes an excellent analysis of the
recent ruling in the
In re: Easysaver Rewards Litigation(S.D. Cal. August 13, 2010). This is a very interesting case
in that it covers several different, more traditional causes of
action and analysis. I'm interested to see what ramification
this case is going to have on SaaS law and privacy
litigation....
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Back in October, 2009, I posted about the new endorsement /
testimonial rules set out by the Federal Trad Commission (
blog.alerdingcastor.com/blog/alerding-castor/0/0/ftc-makes-changes-to-blog-law).
There has been some development since that time, but mostly
everyone is still watching and waiting. The FTC did
threaten to pursue Ann Taylor back in April, but otherwise, it has
been relatively silent.
That is, however, until now. On August 26, 2010, the FTC
reached a settlement with Reverb...
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Below is a nice little article by Tom Spalding at the Indianapolis
Star detailing the ExactTarget acquisition of Australian-based
mPath Global. We are always happy to see our clients grow and
expand. I know that Scott Kreider recently blogged about the
importance of our "Partners in Success" mantra. It is never
truer than when our clients seize an opportunity to take their
business to the next level. Congrats again to all of the
folks over at ExactTarget.
"ExactTarget, the fast-growing...
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The ACH litigation team had its first ever (as far as I'm aware)
litigation retreat this weekend, and as I reminisce on our time, I
am struck by the realization that to be a successful business, you
have to allow your team to envision and strive for excellence with
you. This weekend we had some great discussion and
"vision-casting" on the areas of privacy litigation, Indiana
probate litigation, business law, Internet litigation, banking law,
SaaS litigation, and several other areas where we are...
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Gather 'round kids, this one is interesting. The decision
actually came out in May, 2010, and I regret that I haven't had a
chance to blog on it until now, but it is still a very interesting
order that should have implications to privacy litigation, and
litigation in general. In EEOC v. Simply Storage Management,
LLC, Docket No. 09-CV-01223, the Southern District of Indiana was
faced with the issue of discovery of social networking profiles of
two individuals that claimed sexual harrassment by...
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