Tech Law

An internal struggle has broken out at the FCC over Chairman Julius Genachowski's surprise announcement minutes before midnight Wednesday that he intends to pursue a full Commission vote on Net neutrality rules four days before Christmas. "I strongly oppose this ill-advised maneuver," said FCC Commi...

Level 3 Communications on Monday complained when Comcast demanded the content delivery network pay a recurring fee for transmitting online moves and games to Comcast customers. Level 3 said the move violates the principles of Net neutrality. Comcast notified Level 3 on November 19 that it would begi...

Shares of HP moved up Tuesday -- while most tech stocks were down -- after the company posted strong results. The message boards were upbeat on CEO Leo Apotheker's first earnings call. The drama of Larry Ellison's attempt to subpoena Apotheker for the Oracle vs. SAP trial seems to have left little d...

The New Zealand High Court recently ruled that a former cricketer accused of match-fixing over Twitter can pursue his Twitter libel case. Lalit Modi, a cricketing administrator, took to Twitter to accuse Chris Cairns, a former cricketer, of match-fixing on Twitter. Cairns in turn filed a lawsuit, cl...

Memo to Larry Ellison: The Roman Coliseum halted gladiator combats around 435 A.D. SAP has thrown in the towel and has no interest in continuing a court battle. HP executives are refusing to accept service on your subpoenas, and HP's newly named chief executive Leo Apotheker is lying low, presumably...

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in AT&T v. Concepcion -- a case that could decide whether the arbitration clauses companies routinely insert in sales contracts can ban class actions. The case stems from a suit brought by Vincent and Liza Concepcion, who signed up for cellphone service ...

Internet privacy seems to be constantly in the headlines globally, and social media communications are clearly driving most of these privacy concerns. Since law is the glue that hold societies together, all people on Earth rely on various laws, whether they drive their cars in traffic, pay taxes, es...

The Colorado Department of Revenue has relaxed a first-in-the-nation information reporting requirement for sales by Internet vendors to customers in Colorado. The new legislation, adopted earlier this year, requires etailers that have more than $100,000 in sales to Colorado customers to notify all c...

In her third trial, Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas-Rasset -- whose fame has extended well beyond the proverbial 15 minutes -- was once again slapped with a fine for sharing 24 songs. On Wednesday, the jury awarded $1.5 million in damages to Capitol Records. That's $62,500 for each of the 24 songs ...

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association -- a case stemming from a 2005 law passed in California that forbids the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Lower courts subsequently struck down the law, pointing to precedent ...

If you use Gmail, you received an unusual email late last night from Google. The company sent a notice to its millions of U.S.-based Gmail users announcing the settlement of its privacy class-action lawsuit over Buzz. Google launched the social networking service last February. Soon after, a privacy...

Google has filed a federal suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging that the agency inappropriately favored Microsoft as it crafted the requirements for a messaging platform it wanted to procure. The suit, which seeks to have DoI conduct a competitive procurement process for the co...

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison insisted on Wednesday that recently appointed HP CEO Leo Apotheker knew of the theft of Oracle's software while he was CEO of SAP. Ellison also dismissed HP chairman Ray Lane's statement that Apotheker didn't know anything about the theft as an "absurd lie." Oracle filed sui...

A vestige of the music wars at the turn of the century was shut down Wednesday by a federal district court judge in Manhattan. File-sharing service LimeWire was ordered by Judge Kimba M. Wood to stop distributing its peer-to-peer software because its overwhelming use was to encourage its users to ma...

Over the last couple of years, in presentations around the U.S. about social media, I've asked audience members whether they take the time to read website terms of service, privacy policies or click wrap agreements. Very few have raised their hands. Recently, one CIO summed up the reasons: "Why both...