CLIP-ings: April 22, 2016

Internet Governance

Reaching Out-Of-District: A federal judge suppressed evidence federal investigators collected using a “network investigative technique” on the Tor browser in a child pornography case on the basis that the warrant authorizing the collection was invalid.

Droney Delivery: The Senate passed drone safety and security rules which could help realize more widespread commercial drone use; critics of the bill are concerned that it would prohibit states from enacting their own laws on drone usage and safety.

Privacy

Handing Over The Keys: Blackberry confirmed that it cooperates with reasonable law enforcement requests after allegations arose that it provided the Canadian federal police with a “global cryptographic key” that enabled monitoring of suspected Montreal gang members’ PIN-to-PIN communications.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

What’s Privilege Got To Do With It? Plaintiffs in a fraud suit against Ashley Madison seek to use information released in the hack, including communications between the company and its lawyers, to make their case; this leaves the judge to consider an “unresolved area of the law: whether litigants can use hacked data released to the public to fight their battles.

Intellectual Property

The Final Chapter: The Supreme Court denied certiorari to a decade-long case on whether Google’s digitization of books qualifies as fair use, thus leaving intact the Second Circuit’s decision that Google Books excerpts are transformative.

Free Expression And Censorship

Too Soon, Dude: Venmo refused to disburse or refund a payment titled “ISIS   beer funds!!!” after determining that it did not comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s regulations regarding economic and trade sanctions. 

Practice Note

Facebook Stalking Gone Too Far: The New Jersey Supreme Court allowed a misconduct case to go forward after the state’s Office of Attorney Ethics filed a complaint against defense attorneys who spied on a plaintiff’s Facebook page after the page went private by having a paralegal friend the plaintiff without disclosing the motive for the friend request.

On The Lighter Side

Mind [Whistle]blowing Music: Snowden, an EDM story.


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

Carey McConnell and Idalys Núñez
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP