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...Read More »
This one is a fun little piece of pseudo-software litigation.
The basic facts are that Facebook and its majority stockholder Mark
Zuckerberg have been sued by Paul D. Ceglia, who claims 84%
ownership in the website juggernaut. The part of this story
that has been clogging the Net is that a state court judge in
New York actually issued a temporary restraining order ("TRO")
prohibiting Zuckerberg and Facebook, Inc. from disposing or
selling any of its assets. This has produced the...Read More »
This is one of those great posts that gets to combine cloud
computing law with privacy law with political intrigue.
Before I get too far in, I want to set out my own caveat. In
my opinion, there is a data war brewing between the United
States, EU, and China and everyone if vying for the top dog
spot. The basis of this is the fact that each faction views
the protection of data very differently and they each want to be
the best. To just give you a surface level scratch of the
differences I'll...Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: A couple
of recent state court decisions are going to start personal injury
attorneys frothing at the mouth, and might render some sleepless
nights for defense attorneys. Both Ohio and Florida recently
issued opinions in which they applied their state's respective
long-arm statutes to garner personal jurisdiction over an
out-of-state resident for tortious conduct that transpired over the
Internet.
First, you need to know what a long-arm...Read More »
First, you need to know what a long-arm...Read More »
Be
prepared: I'm going to get on a bit of a soapbox. I
read a recent article at WSJ.com entitled "Using Social Networking
as Legal Tool" (Linked Below). There is
nothing wrong with this article. It very succinctly and
pleasantly explains how certain law firms are using social
networking and the Web to find clients for high-value plaintiff
cases. And I don't disagree with that approach. As an
attorney posting on a blog, I too hope to use social networking to
get business, and would be...Read More »I'm going to cheat a little on this. I read a great blog post
by Jeff Ready over at the McStartup blog (www.mcstartup.com).
The blog post is all about the importance of radical
innovation. I have a place in my heart for radical innovation
because I believe that in the legal community, we are the radical
innovators. ACH strives after its goal to be an information
technology law firm, a venture capital law firm and a business law
firm, but we go about it in a way that is radical to many...Read More »
Every once in awhile, I have the inkling to make a blog post
that is not about developments in privacy litigation or technology
litigation or cloud computing law or foreclosures or any of the
other endless stream of ideas and legal thoughts that pass across
my desk. This is one of those times. Because, while I
think it is important for our readers to know that Mexico passed a
new data privacy law or that litigation related to CAN SPAM is
likely a rising field, I think it is equally important...Read More »
China has enacted the "Interim Administrative Measures on
Internet-based Transactions of Goods and Related Services" that
will take effect on July 1, 2010. This regulations should
have a significant impact on e-commerce in China. One can
only assume that it will also impact Software Service Level
Agreements, SaaS law, and cloud computing law. The
regulations appear to be focused on Business - to-Consumer issues
and consumer-to-consumer activities, but the actual language of the
regulation is...Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: So,
Mexico recently passed a new data protection law. On April
27, 2010, Mexico passed the Federal Law for the Protection of
Personal data, which is likely to be signed into law by the
President in the near future. This law not only allows for a
mind-boggling $1.5 million penalty for violation, but it also
applies to the private sector. Private and public entities will
need to protect themselves from privacy litigation.
This law is much akin...Read More »
This law is much akin...Read More »
Your
friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: As you likely
know, my goal is to become THE Indiana technology lawyer;
however, technology is not my only area of interest. Like
many of the folks at Alerding Castor Hewitt, technology law
is a passion, but we all strive to be a full service law firm for
all businesses. Thus, in addition to tech stuff, I also
litigate matters for several banking and business clients.
And, as any good lawyer does, when I see changes in the law
that may...Read More »I must take a moment to open with a caveat. The study of
privacy and hence privacy law or privacy litigation is an analysis
that spans centuries. In fact, while it seems like privacy
issues have only recently come to the forefront with the advent of
technology, they have, in fact, been prevalent in ever major level
of recorded history. I put this point out there to help you
recognize that there are books and books addressing the issues of
privacy and my little foray into the issue is but a...Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology lawyer here: Clients
and colleagues often ask me to explain what I mean when I say
"technology litigation". And, to be frank, that term is
really composed of several different subsets of the law. One
such subset is privacy law. Over the next several blog posts,
I will provide a general overview of privacy law and privacy
litigation to arm you, my humble reader, with the knowledge to
assist your company (as well impress your friends at
parties).
The... Read More »
The... Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: The
Indiana Supreme Court recently discussed the ability of a lay
witness to provide "expert" opinions in Sibbing v.
Cave, 922 N.E.2d 594 (Ind. 2010). In that
case, counsel asked the plaintiff what she believed caused her
pain. She responded something to the effect of "the bulging
disc in my lower back", and the opposing party objected based on a
lack of expert foundation. The basic argument to the trial
court was that this lay person...Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology lawyer here: As
you know, I'm a bit of a technophile and I've been watching the
iPad craze with interest. There are other similar products
that will be inundating the market in the near future (HP Slate and
the one that I'm watching with anticipation, Notion Ink's
Adam). As I watch, I've come to the conclusion that
tablet computers are the future of litigation, whether you're
talking privacy litigation, SaaS litigation, personal injury
litigation, or...Read More »
Exciting and new things are happening here at Alerding Castor
Hewitt. I'm happy to introduce the cyber-world to our newest
member of the litigation team -Scott Kreider. Scott joined us
about a month ago and has been a valuable addition from the get
go.
He is an outstanding trial and appellate attorney with years of experience, as well as a former federal clerk and adjunct professor for legal writing. He will also be an instructor at Franklin College during the fall semester. I've had the good...Read More »
He is an outstanding trial and appellate attorney with years of experience, as well as a former federal clerk and adjunct professor for legal writing. He will also be an instructor at Franklin College during the fall semester. I've had the good...Read More »
Your friendly
neighborhood technology legal counsel here for Part 2 of my
riveting analysis of the dreaded "venue-selection clause" In
Part 1, I scared you with the reality that when you absently click,
"I agree" you are very likely binding yourself to litigate any
dispute in a location that is likely not conducive to your case or
your pocketbook. And I'm sure that the point you've been
wondering about since last we interacted is, "what can I do about
it". Unfortunately, the answer is not...Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood
technology legal counsel here to discuss with you the hidden
dangers lurking in your unassuming (and unread) terms of service
agreements. Janet Croswell, one of our fabulous tech lawyers,
posted back on February 10, 2010 about the pitfalls that businesses
face related to the clickwrap agreement (here's a link for those
playing along at home blog.alerdingcastor.com/blog/alerding-castor).
Now for those of you scratching your head and wondering what a
"clickwrap...Read More »Your friendly neighborhood technology legal counsel here: One
of the greatest aspects of our firm is the fact that we, as
attorneys, get to partner with our clients to assist in the
development of their dreams. Additionally, while we focus on
being the general counsel for all business types and sizes, one of
my personal areas of passion is seeing new technology based clients
develop and partnering with them to see their success.
One such emerging company that I'm happy to say we are...Read More »
One such emerging company that I'm happy to say we are...Read More »
The United States
Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has granted certiori on a case in the
privacy litigation arena that focuses on the question of whether a
governmental employee has Fourth Amendment rights in the contents
of an employer issued pager. The case is City of Ontario
v. Quon (www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2008/06/18/0755282.pdf).
In Quon, the Ninth Circuit made several decisions.
It first decided that a third party company that provided
texting services to the City of Ontario was...Read More »I know that as your friendly neighborhood Indiana technology
counsel, I usually post wonderful things about privacy
litigation (look to see my blog on the Supreme Court taking up
a case of privacy expectation in texting) and other fun cyberspace
law, but today I'm going to digress for just a bit. Indiana
Senate Bill 192 has recently been introduced by State Senator Sue
Errington (D-Delaware County) and would govern how a hospital
applies visitation rights in a domestic partnership situation
(www...
Read More »
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