Month: January 2016

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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