A study of 500 patent lawsuits found that those brought by patent trolls, which the study’s authors call “monetizers,” account for nearly 40 percent of the cases brought in 2011. Of course, their study doesn’t account for the untold thousands that never make it to court. Read more »
Tea Party favorite Senator Rand Paul took to the podium at a Heritage Foundation event last week to talk about tech policy. However, individual rights and less government regulation certainly are important to the future of the internet, there are necessary limits to that freedom. Read more »
A group of researchers has developed a machine learning model that can detect tweets relating to bullying, and even identify bullies, victims and witnesses. Next, it wants to add sentiment analysis to determine individuals’ emotional states. But if they see trouble, how do they intervene? Read more »
Internet censorship is once again in the news after a federal judge posited a proposed Washington law aiming to prevent child prostitution is likely unconstitutional under the Communications Decency Act. A bigger question is why free speech still reigns online except when copyright is involved. Read more »
My gut instinct is to call Senator Al Franken a well-meaning fool when it comes to his latest outcry — this time against the advent of facial-recognition software — but he actually has a point. Facial-recognition software opens up a whole new class of privacy concerns. Read more »
The press might be preparing for a trial or big-dollar settlement in Ellen Pao’s sexual harassment case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, but her lawyers probably aren’t sleeping easy just yet. There are still two issues that could move the case to arbitration. Read more »
Law enforcement and other government bodies, it seems, aren’t shy about asking for or demanding data about users from wireless carriers. All told, wireless providers received more than 1.3 million requests for user data last year, and requests are increasing every year. Here are more details. Read more »
Twitter released its first-ever transparency report on Monday, which provides statistics on the number of times governments and individuals requested data on Twitter users or made takedown requests under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act during the first half of 2012. Read more »
Having learned a lesson from the backlash its peers in Congress endured recently, the White House is trying, presumably, to develop an anti-piracy strategy that’s actually sane. On Monday, it announced an open call for comments on a new IP strategy. Read more »
Google has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft and Nokia and is also tattling on the companies with U.S. regulators, accusing them patent-troll-like behavior. The good thing about filing a complaint with the EC is Google doesn’t have to do the legwork. Read more »
The legal profession has undergone a lot of change over the past few years, but don’t dismiss it as an anachronism just yet. As the web changes the way citizens consume and digest information, including on important legal issues, lawyers should remain as important as ever. Read more »
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is a lot like your old college buddy who used to get way too drunk and then puke in your lap: it claims to mean well, but its actions suggest otherwise. Here’s how to improve it. Read more »
The National Labor Relations Board has bad news for employers that want to restrict their employees’ speech rights on social media. Employers can either update their policies to allow for the same types of speech the NLRA allows elsewhere, or they can find themselves in court. Read more »
The EFF and Anonymous might have overblown the ramifications of the proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 — calling it SOPA 2.0 — but that doesn’t mean the bill is well-written. However, strong support means it might be hard to stop. Read more »
Google has been on the receiving end of some particularly egregious privacy complaints lately, stemming from its revised privacy policy. However, most of these efforts to call out Google seem like little more than attempts to make a quick payday in the court or with voters. Read more »
A court is about to decide whether a juror who posted Facebook status updates about the trial can be forced to turn over his activity data during the trial. But the case is just a microcosm of the greater concern over online privacy. Read more »
Legal scholars are always searching for ways to improve the patent system, sometimes via sweeping changes, but big data — especially techniques such as machine learning and natural-language processing — could help provide a technological fix to a big part of the problem. Read more »
For the most part, cloud-related laws on the books or in the works right now are almost entirely about data, and data has “gravity.” The more important it is, the more likely services and applications are going to move to the data, rather than vice versa. Read more »
Samsung suffered another reversal in its patent battle with Apple on Friday morning, as the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany dismissed the Korean company’s second patent complaint related to 3G/UMTS technology. Last week, the same court rejected another similar Samsung complaint about 3G tech. Read more »
In the fight to determine who dictates web privacy, web users are like a a chew toy at risk of being torn asunder by two competing dogs — played this week by Google and the European Union. But the best option is empower consumers themselves. Read more »
On Monday, the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional in most cases to use GPS to track suspects without a warrant — calling the attachment of a GPS device to a suspect’s property a trespass — but the Court declined to address some major privacy issues also at play. Read more »
SOPA and PIPA supporters still have faith in their shelved bills, citing the jobs they’ll save as making the bills worthy of salvage. However, the Internet economy is a potential job creator the likes of which Hollywood — already its own worst enemy — could ever be. Read more »
The impending SOPA and PIPA bills have the Internet in a tizzy, but Congress has a lot more to think about than just intellectual property. The issues at play in the SOPA debate have broad effects that span everything from the digital divide to international commerce. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4S won’t be blocked for sale in Italy, at least not in the near-term. A Milan court rejected Samsung’s request for a preliminary injunction against the device on Thursday. It’s the third time Samsung’s attempts to hobble Apple in Europe have been blocked. Read more »
Social media sites like Facebook have been criticized as catering to users’ own deluded senses of self-importance, but a current lawsuit against Facebook might prove social media users are important. Within circles of friends, in fact, users might be considered celebrities–which has big legal implications. Read more »
Remember the early days of VoIP when Sprint went after Vonage with a patent lawsuit relating to how Vonage handled voice calls on a data network? Sprint is pulling those patents out again, aiming its quest for license fees at the cable companies. Read more »
Last week, a European court struck down a rule forcing a Belgian ISP to monitor traffic for copyright infringement. Experts believe the decision could help rein in the spread of SOPA-like laws throughout Europe. So why is the U.S. rushing headling into deeply flawed legislation? Read more »
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, garners a lot of hatred from commentators and the Internet industry as whole, but it’s only the next logical step after the problematic Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the safe harbor of which is more like a plea bargain. Read more »
According to one expert, hacktivism gets a bad rap when it comes to web security, but those sites generate a lot of attack data to feed security systems. However, the proposed SOPA antipiracy legislation could end up playing right into hackers’ hands. Read more »
The Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a case that could decide how connected the concept of big data is to constitutional expectations of privacy. How much data is too much before allowable surveillance crosses the line into an invasion of privacy? Read more »
Google, IBM, Citi and a handful of other large U.S. technology and banking companies are pushing the U.S. government to take the lead on establishing global treaties that would assure the free flow of information across international borders. If the government is smart, it will listen. Read more »
Software development is always evolving and advancing, and business models and cultural norms evolve along with it. New capabilities spring up regularly, and business models can change overnight, meaning laws written to address specific concerns can fast become obsolete or, perhaps worse, hindrances to innovation. Read more »
Patent acquisitions and litigation dominated the wireless industry in 2011, and it looks like we should expect more of the same going forward. If anything, experts seem to think it’s only going to get worse for anyone wanting to be taken seriously as a mobile player. Read more »
As social media sites become more prevalent and individuals share more and more details of their personal lives online, we need to rethink the bounds of our right to privacy. Not to regulate technology, industries or the authorities, but to protect us from each other. Read more »
When Congress returns from its summer recess in early September, it will vote on patent reform legislation that should represent a major overhaul of the United States patent system. It won’t do away with patent trolls or software patents, but it could level the playing field. Read more »
Those hoping for iPad lightning to strike twice this year might be disappointed by a new report out Friday. The A6 processor, cited as the central component for a new, more powerful iPad won’t hit the public until next year, sources say. Read more »
When the federal government finally does undertake the task of legislating cloud computing, it seems very likely that security measures and data privacy will dominate. The TechAmerica Foundation’s CLOUD2 commission announced Tuesday a data- and security-heavy set of recommendations that mirror proposed legislation targeting the cloud. Read more »
When you work online, it’s easy to feel relaxed about legal issues, but there are many laws that can potentially impact you. Benjamin Wright is an attorney specializing in the issues surrounding working online. He points to six questions that web-based workers must keep in mind: Read more »
Apple may rely less on Samsung as an iOS hardware partner, as TSMC is reportedly testing new chips it’s building for future Apple mobile products. This could be due to the current lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, but even if not, it simply makes sense. Read more »
Can web work cause legal complications? It’s not the sexiest question to ponder concerning a location-independent work style (who wouldn’t prefer daydreaming about opening the laptop at the local park or attending that conference call in your slippers?), but it’s an important one for managers nonetheless. Read more »
