Author: Tom Norton

Internet Governance

Questionable Tactics: In an attempt to catch online pedophiles, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ran a child pornography site for two weeks without ensuring that the illegal content on the website could not be further disseminated.

Unlocking The Box: The Federal Communications Commission announced a proposal that would compel cable and satellite providers to allow third-party “top box” device manufacturers access to their programming, thus encouraging innovation and competition in the industry

Privacy

Let Us In: Two dozen civil liberties, human rights, and government transparency advocacy organizations asked the House Judiciary Committee to allow them into next week’s “members only” hearing, which will discuss Section 702 of the FISA Amendment, the law the NSA claims authorizes its PRISM surveillance program.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Baby Beware: New York City Department of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed several manufacturers of Wi-Fi enabled baby video monitors to investigate reports of serious security vulnerabilities, such as hackers’ ability to access the live video feed.

Intellectual Property

Wedded To Attorneys’ Fees? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the award of attorneys’ fees against a patent troll for aggressively attempting to protect its matchmaking patent through threats and intimidation.

Free Expression And Censorship

Shaq Attack: An emotional distress lawsuit against Shaquille O’Neal for allegedly mocking the plaintiff’s rare skin disease by reposting his Instagram photo with the caption “SMILE PEOPLE” has survived O’Neal’s motion to dismiss.

Practice Note

Poke, You’ve Been Served: An Eastern District of New York magistrate judge allowed a plaintiff unable to locate his ex-wife, who he accuses of “absconding with” their daughter, to serve her with the summons and petition through associated Facebook and email accounts.

On The Lighter Side

Top Secret? Locations around the world are pixilated by Google Earth for various reasons, and the reasons for some are unclear.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Victoria Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Carey McConnell and Idalys Núñez
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Pro-Encryption: The French government declined to add a backdoor requirement as part of an upcoming digital rights bill, asserting that such a “vulnerability by design” condition is an inappropriate solution to national security concerns.

Password Protection: Even after supplying Apple with her husband’s death certificate and will, a Canadian woman was told by the tech company to get a court order if she wanted his Apple ID password.

Privacy

United States: State legislators and citizens formed a coalition to introduce privacy legislation in 16 states and the District of Columbia; the bills address issues such as student privacy, stingray technology, and government surveillance of electronic communications.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Craps: A casino operator filed suit against Trustwave, alleging that the information security firm performed “a woefully inadequate” investigation into a data breach and did not fully remove malware from the casino’s systems.

Intellectual Property

SCOTUS Review: The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee, which addresses whether, in cases challenging patent validity, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) may use a different claims construction standard than a federal district court and whether the PTAB’s decision to commence such a proceeding is judicially unreviewable.

Free Expression And Censorship

We’re Back(ish): The Government of Pakistan unblocked YouTube under the condition that it may filter and block content it finds offensive.

Practice Note

No Harm? Two federal district courts dismissed separate data breach lawsuits on the grounds that insufficient harm was alleged.

On The Lighter Side

Heavy Lifter: Norwegian drone the “Megakopter” set a Guinness World Record for lifting about 134.5 pounds – the “heaviest payload” by a remote-controlled multicopter.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Victoria Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Still Buffering: The Federal Communications Commission circulated a draft of its 2015 Broadband Progress Report, which found that over 30 million Americans still do not have access to wired broadband service.

Privacy

Scanner Darkly: A federal court denied Shutterfly’s motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging that the online image publishing service violated an Illinois state biometric privacy law by using facial recognition technology on user photographs.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Disabled: Users promptly received malware from advertisements on Forbes’ website after the news company required them to turn off their adblocking technology in order to view its content.

NY Encryption Bill: A New York state legislature referred to committee a bill that would require manufacturers to design smartphones with a back door so law enforcement can decrypt a phone’s contents.

Intellectual Property

Yogurt Wars: After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Dannon, Greek yogurt manufacturer Chobani is seeking a court ruling that its advertisement campaign, which spells out the different ingredients in its yogurt and those of Dannon and Yoplait, does not violate the Lanham Act.

Free Expression And Censorship

Stingray Suit Still Swimming: A state court denied a Chicago Police Department (CPD) motion to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to compel the CPD to respond to a public records act request for documents regarding its use of stingrays, declining to treat the surveillance technology the same as a pen register device.

Terrorist Censorship? Members of the Obama administration are meeting with Silicon Valley executives to discuss how their companies can combat terrorism, including by censoring online speech.

On The Lighter Side

Sound And Vision: The iconic David Bowie, who passed away this week, had a few ideas for the future of intellectual property in the Internet age.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Victoria Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Basically Free? Protestors for Facebook’s new Free Basics program in India, which provides users free access to Facebook and other online resources, say that it is a thinly veiled attempt to collect valuable user data and establish market dominance in one of the world’s fastest growing Internet markets.

Penalty, Illegal Procedure: The New York Attorney General amended its illegal gambling lawsuit against daily fantasy football sites DraftKings and FanDuel, asking them to return money to users and to pay a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation.

Privacy

YahOops: A federal judge ordered that Yahoo face a class action lawsuit alleging that the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending Sprint cellphone users unsolicited text messages.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Hardwired Piracy: Intel and Warner Bros. filed a DMCA lawsuit again LegendSky, accusing the Chinese tech company of manufacturing a device with the primary purpose of circumventing anti-piracy technology.

Ukraine Blackout: Researchers say that Ukraine’s massive blackout last month is the first of its kind where the cause can be traced back to malicious hackers.

Intellectual Property

Get Your Paws Off Our Copyright: The heirs of the author of the poem “Soft Kitty” filed a lawsuit claiming that CBS willfully infringed their copyright by featuring the poem repeatedly on the hit show The Big Bang Theory and asserting that the television network sought licensing rights from the wrong entity.

Practice Note

Claim Construction In Patent Law: The third report in a seven-part series from the Advanced Patent Law Institute discusses how to draft a patent claim in the wake of the Supreme Court’s rulings in Teva Pharmaceuticals v. Sandoz and Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC.

On The Lighter Side

Cheerio! This Lego machine facilitates the hardest part of the day when it dispenses your cereal and milk.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Victoria Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

CISA Revival: The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which sought to compel tech companies to send the government cybersecurity threat information, was renamed and inserted into the omnibus budget bill, making it likely that the controversial bill will become law.

Taxing Work: The House of Representatives passed a bill that seeks to renew the ban on municipal and state taxes on Internet access and sales.

Privacy

EU Data Privacy Reform: The European Union agreed to reforms in its data privacy rules that are expected to strengthen data protection laws for EU citizens, harmonize legislation between member states, and strengthen law enforcement cooperation.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Lights Out: Hacktivist group Anonymous claimed responsibility for temporarily shutting down the New York City Trump Tower website, citing disapproval over presidential candidate Donald Trump’s stance on Muslim immigration into the United States.

Intellectual Property

Merry Swiftmas: All pop star Taylor Swift wants for Christmas this year is a myriad of trademark protections for words and phrases such as “Swiftmas,” “1989,” and “Blank Space.”

Free Expression And Censorship

Censoring Hate Speech: After talks with the German government, which has been attempting to crack down on hate speech against recent refugees, tech giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter agreed to delete German hate speech appearing on their platforms within 24 hours of being published.

Practice Note

No Waze That’s Copyright Infringement: A district court held that defendant traffic app Waze’s use of the same “points of interest database” – comprised of data including “the location of traffic conditions [and] road hazards” – as a rival app does not amount to copyright infringement of a compilation if other factual points are added to the app’s algorithm.

On The Lighter Side

Patent DIY: How the patent filing process goes, according to The Onion.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Mystery Solved? Police raided an Australian businessman’s home after reports published evidence linking him to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator.

Privacy

Goodbye Barbie: A mother sued Mattel over its controversial interactive Hello Barbie doll that records and stores to the cloud its owner’s voice, alleging that the doll violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act because Mattel does not receive permission to record from the parents of any underage third parties that may also interact with the doll.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Wyndham’s FTC Settlement: In its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission concerning the data breaches affecting hundreds of thousands of its customers, Wyndham Worldwide agreed to take certain steps to strengthen its data security, including implementing a “comprehensive information security system” and conducting annual security audits.

Notification, Pronto: European Union officials agreed on the first EU-wide cybersecurity rules which would require member states to adopt measures imposing sanctions on “critical national infrastructure” operators who do not implement adequate data security systems nor timely report discovered data breaches.

Intellectual Property

Cookie Wars: Pepperidge Farm filed a trademark suit against Trader Joe’s, alleging that the supermarket chain sells a cookie that looks too similar to its famous Milano cookie.

Free Expression And Censorship

Thoughtcrimes: A federal circuit court held that a man repeatedly publishing fantasies online about “kidnapping, sexually abusing, and eating women” is not unlawful because such fantasies are “beyond the reach of the government.”

Practice Note

Hacks On, Hacks Off: A district court ruled that car manufacturers cannot be held liable for installing deficient computer systems which leave the car vulnerable to hacking attacks until an actual incident occurs.

On The Lighter Side

Toasty Turkey: A Connecticut teen modified his drone into a fire-breathing turkey roaster.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Safe Bay For ISPs: A Swedish court ruled that internet service providers cannot be compelled to block access to Pirate Bay, nor held liable for copyright infringement by the file sharing site’s users, because merely hosting the site does not sufficiently constitute participation as required by Swedish law.

Privacy

Broken Pledge: The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an FTC complaint against Google, alleging that the company broke the Student Privacy Pledge it signed last year by collecting and mining student data through its Chromebook and Google Apps for Education technologies.

Dear John: A Los Angeles city councilwoman proposed a measure that would use license plate reader technology to keep track of vehicles driving in areas known for prostitution and send letters to the registered owners’ addresses.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

This Is Not A Toy: Hong Kong-based toymaker VTech suffered one of the largest security breaches in recent history, revealing personal information such as photos, names, and personal addresses of nearly 5 million adults and over 200,000 children, in part due to inadequate security measures.

Intellectual Property

Meta Domain: A German museum sued the Wikimedia Foundation for hosting photographs of public domain works of art arguing that, although the works themselves are in the public domain, the photographs of the works are still protected by copyright.

Free Expression And Censorship

Mission eFOIA: The FBI streamlined the FOIA request process by implementing a beta version of an electronic request system; previously individuals could only make FOIA requests by mail, email, or fax.

Practice Note

Third Amendment, Reinterpreted? A California assemblyman argues that the little-used Third Amendment – which prevents soldiers from using citizens’ homes as their own without consent during peacetime – could be interpreted to favor halting mass government surveillance.

On The Lighter Side

Spoiler Alert: This Google Chrome browser extension warns users when a webpage contains plot spoilers for the upcoming blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

État D’urgence: The French National Assembly passed Amendment 50, permitting the Minister of the Interior to “take any measure to ensure the interruption” of media channels, such as the press, radio, movies, and publications, when the country is under a state of emergency.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Securagram: Days after a third-party app was found stealing usernames and passwords, the photo sharing service updated its API policy to eliminate third-party access to a user’s full feed.

Keys To The Back Door: The Manhattan District Attorney asked Congress to enact legislation that would allow government access to encrypted data, citing numerous cases where encrypted mobile phone data allegedly hindered prosecution.

Intellectual Property

Million Dollar Protection: YouTube announced a new initiative that will offer legal protection to select users whose videos are subject to DMCA copyright takedown requests and which the site strongly believes to be fair use.

Litigatin’ Around This Tree: The makers of the tree-shaped car fresheners sued a rival car-scent company for trademark infringement of their signature tree shape.

Free Expression And Censorship

Facebook House Rules: A California district court ruled that Facebook could block a Sikh activist group’s social media page without providing an explanation because religious discrimination is precluded under the Communications Decency Act.

Practice Note

Securing Authority: The FCC recently settled its first data security breach enforcement action involving a cable operator revealing the agency’s growing claim of authority in data security matters.

On The Lighter Side

Stuffing Ahead! Google Maps gives you a healthy helping of Thanksgiving Day traffic navigation tips.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Noelle Park & Inés Spinnato
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Don’t Bet On It: The New York State Attorney General’s Office demanded that the two largest online fantasy sports companies cease and desist their betting practices, claiming their operations are a form of gambling prohibited under state law.

Privacy

Cookie Cutting: A Belgian court threatened to fine Facebook up to 250,000 euros per day if it continues to use a special cookie that tracks and registers non-members’ online activity without their express consent.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

This Call Is Being Recorded: An anonymous hacker leaked a cache of supposedly secure inmate phone recordings from a jail telephone service provider, including thousands of attorney-client communications which may have been impermissibly recorded.

Intellectual Property

Get Out-N-Out: Expressing concerns over food delivery start-up DoorDash’s handling of food, burger chain In-N-Out sued the service for trademark infringement, alleging that its use of the chain’s famous logo implies the same standards and quality of food to consumers.

Free Expression And Censorship

Please Unlike: German prosecutors are investigating the head of Facebook’s European department for allegedly neglecting to remove hate speech from the social media platform.

Practice Note

Un(ID)entifiable? A district court ruled that a user’s unique video streaming device ID and viewing history can be disclosed to third parties because the ID does not constitute “personally identifiable information” under the Video Privacy Protection Act.

On The Lighter Side

Driver Dream State: Architectural designers used 3-D scanning technology to visualize how driverless cars might perceive their surroundings.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Noelle Park & Inés Spinnato
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

What Does Spokeo Know About You? During oral arguments in a Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit against the people-search engine Spokeo, the Supreme Court considered whether inaccurate consumer information posted on the site constitutes an actual injury to the plaintiff and a potential class of plaintiffs.

Sly Fox: Mozilla announced an update to Firefox’s private browsing mode providing heightened privacy controls that block third-party tracking scripts used to identify an individual.

Privacy

SnapTrap: Snapchat’s latest terms of service grant the company a “world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free” license to, among other things, reproduce, modify, and broadcast user pictures uploaded to its “Live Story” feature.

Stingray Privacy Act: The House proposed the Cell-Site Simulator Act of 2015, which would require state and local agencies to obtain a search warrant before using stingray surveillance devices.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

Masked Hack: Websites using anti-adblocking service PageFair exposed their visitors to a malware attack disguised as an Adobe Flash update.

Intellectual Property

It’s A Legal World After All: In anticipation of Disney’s first theme park in China, Chinese officials will carry out a “special” year-long campaign to safeguard Disney’s trademarks by cracking down on counterfeits online.

Free Expression And Censorship

Offensive Defense: In a brief appealing a district court ruling, the Washington Redskins argued that revoking six of its trademarks violated the First Amendment because trademarks are not government speech and thus cannot be cancelled on the basis of offensiveness.

On The Lighter Side

First Issue: Super Jobs saves the day by tackling iTunes’ terms and conditions.

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Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director, CLIP

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Tory Geronimo
Dean’s Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Noelle Park & Inés Spinnato
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP