Articles by Javad Heydary

One of the fastest growing online businesses is online gambling. The scope of this business is so enormous that some have even claimed it is the single most important factor in the growth of e-commerce. Despite this, there is much controversy and uncertainty surrounding the legality of online gaming in both the U.S. and Canada The U.S. Justice Depa...

In a recent decision that might have wide ranging implications for the growing number of people who work by telecommuting from home, the New York Appeals Court ruled that a Nashville man who works remotely via a PC for a New York-based union -- but 25 percent of the time performs his employment within New York borders -- must pay New York income tax for his entire salary...

When a company or even a not-for-profit organization collects, uses and/or deals with personal information, it might be legally required to immediately notify individuals whose information it is handling if there is a security breach relating to that information Apart from specific local laws that might require such notification, in both the U.S. a...

Illegal file-sharing through peer-to-peer networks continues to be a problem for copyright owners despite efforts by various industry groups and court rulings. However, recent developments might provide hope for copyright owners as zealous prosecution of users by the entertainment industry across the globe might be providing the proper deterrence T...

State regulation of e-commerce is currently seeking new territory in the online dating industry. Online dating services are a lucrative and rapidly growing industry that continues to draw concerns about the manner in which its members conduct themselves An increasing number of U.S. states have responded to these concerns by proposing laws to regula...

In recent months, the pharmaceutical industry has stepped up its fight against online pharmacies on three fronts: First, it is strongly lobbying governments on all sides including those of the U.S. and Canada; second, it is teaming up with companies in other industries to mount indirect campaigns against online pharmacies; and third, it is exploring technology to counter the movement of pharmaceutical products across borders that forms the backbone of the online pharmaceutical industry...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will use RFID chips on a trial basis to track the arrival and return of visitors from abroad. The testing phase, which will begin this spring and is expected to last one year, will occur at selected points of entry across the U.S., and it will complement the current U.S.-VISIT scheme The U.S.-VISIT sch...

For a technology company, intellectual capital is one of the most important, if not the most important asset. Intellectual capital is more than intellectual property as it is commonly understood in that it also includes a company's trade secrets, know-how, problem-solving methods, customer information, and other confidential information. Intellectual capital has generally been held by courts to be a proprietary interest entitled to legal protection...

Business folks reach agreements, lawyers write the contracts. This being the case, often times a business person need not concern him or herself with the details of the final contract or what is commonly referred to as the "legalese" aspects of an agreement However, there are exceptions in that there are a small number of legal issues that a smart ...

Governments at both the state and federal level in the U.S. are getting serious about addressing the void in the legal framework for fighting "spyware." To begin with, we need to define the term "spyware," due to the fact that this term has been used to describe everything from keystroke loggers, to advertising applications that track a user's web ...

On November 15, Google filed a lawsuit against Texas-based Auctions Expert International (AEI) for engaging in "click fraud" and attempting to force Google's advertisers to pay for fraudulently generated clicks Google claims, among other things, that AEI constructed its Web site with the sole purpose of generating false clicks and collecting advert...

In a highly anticipated ruling, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared on Tuesday that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. The five-member panel unanimously decided that VoIP services are interstate in nature and therefore out of the regulatory reach of individual state telecommunication regulatory bodies...

Online and offline, consumers are at a disadvantage when entering into a contract for services or the purchase of goods because, in most cases, a customer is not in a position to negotiate the terms of the item being purchased or the service being provided. Moreover, in the event of a dispute, the user might be held to these non-negotiated terms that almost always favor the vendor or service provider...

Governments at both the state and federal level in the U.S. are getting serious about addressing the void in the legal framework for fighting "spyware." To begin with, we need to define the term "spyware," due to the fact that this term has been used to describe everything from keystroke loggers, to advertising applications that track a user's web ...

Nowadays, e-mail and intranet are the most common methods of internal group communication for most companies. Specifically, many companies use mass e-mails and/or posting to their intranet to inform employees of a host of things, including changes to their employee benefit plans An example would be a company sending out a mass e-mail informing empl...

The U.S. government decided recently to negotiate with, rather than litigate against, the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda (both referred to as Antigua) over the issue of online gaming. This decision came about after the U.S. lost an arbitration proceeding under the trade dispute resolution process of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in March...

Last Sunday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed a bill that strengthens California's antispam laws. Senate Bill 1457 amends the current laws by making it an offense to send advertising in a spam e-mail either from California or to a California e-mail address in the following circumstances: Where the advertisement contains or is accompan...

Does the operation of a Web site mean that your company can be dragged into court in any jurisdiction? This is a question that has been the subject of numerous lawsuits in both the U.S. and other countries. Here are summaries of a few recent U.S. decisions that provide some guidance on this issue In the first decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of...

One of the areas that is increasingly becoming of concern to online retailers is a state's power to regulate e-commerce through enforcing that particular state's regulation of certain offline business activities. A recent case in point is Powers v. Harris, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the constitutionality of an Oklahoma statute regulating casket sales...

Is there copyright protection in compiled data published online? As with most things of a legal nature related to the Internet, it all depends on the factual context A number of recent U.S. court decisions have shed some light on this issue. In Assessment Technologies of WI LLC v. WIREdata Inc., Judge Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sev...