CLIP-ings

Internet Governance

Atypical Ads: Following Facebook’s disclosures about Russian-purchased political advertisements, Senator Warner of the Senate Intelligence Committee wants Congress to enact laws to regulate political digital advertising consistent with the laws for political television ads.

Rocky Tweets: A California court has refused to find the existence of a contract for the development of a Rocky franchise spinoff movie based on a series of tweets that the complaining party sent to actors from the original films, with the court concluding that broad disclosure of an abstract idea does not imply a promise to pay for that idea.

Privacy

Evasive Exchanges: Kaspersky Lab opened a pop-up shop in London where customers purchased exclusive items by street artist Ben Eine by providing certain amounts of personal data; the stunt was a thought experiment designed to make people more concerned about the information they give away every day.

Agency Access: Despite increasing congressional and state legislative protections on access to personal medical records, federal law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) can override existing state law to access and act on patient and prescription information without a warrant.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Diseased Devices: Google, Apple, and Microsoft are taking Armis Labs’ warnings seriously by creating updates to protect their devices, as at least 5.3 billion of the 8.2 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices worldwide are vulnerable to an attack called BlueBorne that requires no user involvement to spread between devices.

Better Bureaus? After a breach of credit bureau Equifax exposed the personal information of more than 143 million U.S. citizens, a group of Senators has reintroduced legislation that would require credit reporting agencies to provide more transparent credit reporting and injunctive relief if they mishandle credit information.

Intellectual Property

Outlawing Oldies: Last week, the civil rights classic “We Shall Overcome” lost its copyright protection as a New York federal judge determined that the song’s lyrics are not sufficiently different from that of the 1948 version, which is already in the public domain.

Win for Skin? A New York federal judge is expected to decide whether tattoos drawn on human skin is an “expressive medium” that can receive copyright protection, after a group of tattoo artists sued a video game creator for portraying in-game characters with tattoos mimicking the artists’ copyrighted designs.

Free Expression and Censorship

Enraged Emailer: A federal judge dismissed a libel suit from the self-proclaimed inventor of email against a Techdirt writer who regarded the inventor as a fraud because “the claim is incapable of being proven true or false[,]” the inventor of email depends on the definition of email, and there are many individuals that could be credited with this invention.

Practice Note

Board or Bench? Parties interested in resolving disputes through the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) should consider the impact of recent decisions when bringing disputes before the Board, which now allow foreign trademark protection in the U.S., registration of disparaging marks, issue preclusion, and fee shifting for some TTAB decisions on appeal.

On The Lighter Side

Name Game: WiFi network names that often default to complicated alphanumeric chains are increasingly being personalized by users, with names like DropItLikeItsHotspot believed to add creativity and personality to homes and businesses.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Droning Differences: China’s adoption of stricter laws on flying drones resulted in many citizens flocking to aviation schools in pursuit of official licenses; meanwhile the FAA’s looser drone restrictions have provided telecommunications companies like AT&T and insurance companies like Allstate and Farmers Insurance the opportunity to utilize commercial drones in conducting their inspections for repairs and damages from Hurricane Harvey.

Wheels Up? Representatives from both sides of the aisle of the U.S. House voted to pass the SELF DRIVE Act, a move that will eventually allow companies to perform safety tests on up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles on regular roads if the legislation receives Senate approval.

Privacy

Win for Workers: The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of worker privacy rights forcing employers to inform their employees of the monitoring of their work email accounts, make employees aware of the consequences of utilizing work email for personal correspondence, and require legitimate justifications for monitoring their accounts such as IT risks or illegal activity.

Personnel Passcodes: The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has suggested that demanding a soldier provide a phone passcode is a violation of the Fifth Amendment, reasoning that providing or entering a passcode while in custody can be considered a self-incriminating act.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Unkind Uploads: A 20-year old college student informed the Federal Communications Commission of a potential vulnerability to their commenting system in which, when commenting, an individual can upload an accompanying file harboring malware.

Pay Phones: Consumers around the world are now quicker to adopt mobile payment systems that run on their smartphones, citing convenience and confidence in security features like biometric authentication and notification capabilities despite the fact that smartphones are easier to hack than credit and debit cards.

Intellectual Property

Ripped Off: A soon-to-be-finalized settlement between major record labels and the world’s largest audio-ripping website will end a copyright infringement suit brought by the labels last year to enjoin the site from illegally distributing and profiting from millions of copies of label-owned music.

Coffee Flop: Starbucks has settled a trademark suit brought by the parent company of a single coffee shop in Brooklyn for allegedly infringing on its “Unicorn Latte” and drowning out the small shop’s opportunity to obtain fame for creating the drink.

Free Expression and Censorship

Fond of the Filter: Recently-leaked documents from the Council of the European Union show that Estonia, the current holder of the EU Presidency, is pushing for indiscriminate internet surveillance and to censor the internet in a manner similar to China, including a proposal to filter all uploaded content.

Practice Note

Keeping Up with Copyright: Recent developments in copyright law have drawn attention to some of the key issues in the area, including an updated test for separability used in the Star Athletica case, new case law to clarify who counts as a “repeat infringer” of copyrighted materials, and the still-open question of when a copyrighted work meets the registration requirement so that the owner can sue for infringement.

On The Lighter Side

Move Over Amazon: The government of Tanzania and Zipline International Inc. await the start of their partnership resulting in the world’s largest drone delivery service, which will distribute up to 2,000 life-saving medical supplies daily to the country’s 5,640 public health facilities.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Interfered Innovation: Despite opposition from the Iranian people, Apple continues to aggressively remove apps developed for and by Iranians from its App Store in compliance with current U.S. sanctions against the country.

Privacy

Final Destination? Uber’s chief security officer has announced that users will once again be able to disable a feature that previously forced them to be tracked by the app for up to five minutes after completing a trip, in response to a series of controversies involving spying, stalking, and generally poor handling of private location data.

Fundamental Fears: Last week the Indian Supreme Court ruled that privacy is a fundamental right protected by their constitution; this move will hopefully alleviate the difficulties the Indian government faced in its push for the adoption of unique ID cards that store large amounts of sensitive information, from banking information to fingerprint data.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Please Drive Through: A group of security researchers have devised a way to remotely hack into internet-connected car washes by writing an “attack script” that can trap vehicles and can cause the machinery to damage the vehicle and even spray water on passengers inside.

Trust Issues: A WikiLeak revealed that the CIA utilizes its technical liaison service personnel to conduct software updates for its partner agencies; disguising a data siphoner as the software update, the CIA gains access to the agency’s biometric data to see if the agency is holding back information.

Intellectual Property

Cube Copy: Rubik’s Brand Ltd., maker of the iconic Rubik’s cube, sued another toy maker for manufacturing “twist puzzles” that allegedly copy the original trademark-protected design and create confusion among consumers in violation of the Lanham Act.

Crackin or Snackin: Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds LLC (Wonderful) is suing Utz Quality Foods LLC (Utz) for trademark infringement as alleging that Utz’s new slogan “Get Snacking” is too similar to and will likely cause mass customer confusion with Wonderful’s longstanding slogan “Get Crackin”.

Free Expression and Censorship

Away with Anonymity: To discourage “false rumors, filthy language and illegal messages,” China will require tech firms to track the real identity of any user who posts a comment in an online message board in what is being seen as the latest move by the Chinese government to silence political opposition.

Say Cheese? A group of voters interested in having the ability to take selfies with their marked ballots is asking a New York court to repeal a 127-year-old state law banning the practice of showing a completed ballot to others, claiming that the law violates their First Amendment rights despite concern that repealing the law would result in undue political pressure to show a ballot to others.

Practice Note

Acquisition Aspirations: As more startups now aim to be acquired by larger companies instead of to become long-term businesses, patent counsel should be mindful of the shift when advising startup clients on intellectual property matters and take into account not only the interest of the client to drive up its valuation but also the interest of the acquiring company to purchase a firm with substantial IP protection.

On The Lighter Side

Aww, Mom! An app designed by Toyota utilizing Google Map’s API to monitor teenage drivers, triggered by unlawful behavior such as texting and driving or surpassing the speed limit, results in the app playing an embarrassing Spotify playlist chosen by the teen’s parents until the teen resumes lawful motorist conduct.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Connected Court: China debuted a new division of its judicial system, the Hangzhou Internet Court, designed to handle internet-related disputes and equipped with video feeds to allow the judge to remotely handle cases with attorneys through video conferencing.

Streaming Cents: In response to the decline in sales tax previously generated from cable TV subscriptions and physical video rentals, state and local governments in at least three states have implemented a “Netflix tax” that can be tacked on to streaming subscription services as an alternative revenue source.

Privacy

Rest in Private: In an effort to protect users’ information once they pass away, Facebook allows users to designate a “legacy contact” while alive who can later oversee their “memorialized profile” by pinning posts and responding to friend requests, though Facebook does not allow the legacy contact to access private messages or delete old posts.

Generic Genetics: Stanford researchers revealed that they have developed a “genome cloaking” encryption technique that hides significant amounts of the genetic information, reducing the biases associated with genetic discrimination and alleviating genetic privacy concerns.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Eagle Eye: Last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. Cyber Command, which assists with conducting cyber warfare and protecting the government cyber networks, will be elevated to a Unified Combatant Command to strengthen cyberspace operations and the fight against new cyber threats.

Vulnerable Voters: A voting machine supplier, UpGuard, accidentally marked back-up voter data as open to the public, endangering the sensitive information of 1.8 million Americans who participated in Chicago’s recent election.

Intellectual Property

Trademark Takes a Tumble? The Supreme Court has been asked to determine the validity of Google’s namesake trademark since the name has become synonymous with the action of conducting an online search.

Cheerios Woes: The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has said that General Mills cannot register the color yellow as it appears on boxes of Cheerios as a trademark, reasoning that the yellow box is not unique to the Cheerios brand and background color is only one of several distinguishing factors of the Cheerios trade dress.

Free Expression and Censorship

Enraged EFF: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is disappointed in the removal of many online white supremacist groups and websites online by the U.S. tech companies as a response to the Charlottesville protest because the EFF deems these decisions as dangerous to free speech and an overreach of power.

Practice Note

Dark and Stormy: The Vice President of Intelligence Operations from a leading cybersecurity advisory firm gave a talk this week about how the “dark net” affects cybersecurity, defining the dark net as online content requiring specialized knowledge or software to access and explaining that companies seeking to understand or protect their assets are wise to contract a specialized firm to monitor the dark web.

On The Lighter Side

Eclipse Excuse: As the U.S. prepared for this week’s eclipse, brands seized on the opportunity to create controversy-free online content connecting their brands to the historic event.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

InstaKind: Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, who in the early days deleted unsavory user comments from the app by hand, has started a company-wide campaign to make the app “kinder” with the help of DeepText, a behind-the-scenes machine learning concept that can interpret, classify, and even remove posts in violation of the app’s standards.

Scraping Success: A U.S. federal judge has ruled that LinkedIn cannot prevent a startup from accessing and using data available in its public profiles, the latest development in an ongoing debate over whether public social media data can be “scraped” from the host platforms by third-party companies.

Privacy

Dreaming of a Data Disruption: DreamHost, the webhost for an anti-Trump website used to organize the protest of Trump’s inauguration, is in hot water with the Department of Justice (DOJ) as DreamHost is enduring a lengthy battle to resist the DOJ’s warrant for all files, including site visitor logs, emails, and user photos related to the site.

Privacy Check: In response to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegations that it failed to secure sensitive customer data and misrepresented how it monitors access to private information, Uber has agreed to an independent privacy audit every two years to ensure its privacy standards are in compliance with FTC guidelines.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Endangered Employers: A study conducted by Bitglass found that employers’ data is frequently at risk because employees often use unsecure Wi-Fi hotspots to access enterprise cloud applications.

Alternative Hacks: While hacking is commonly thought of as typing code into a computer, an alternative method known as “social engineering” exists in which hackers pose as distressed employees and use ID cards, voicemail passwords, and other information obtained from making fraudulent phone calls to break into restricted networks.

Intellectual Property

Comic Chaos: After Disney announced it’s pulling its content from Netflix to start its own streaming service, Netflix’s purchase of comic book publisher Millarworld highlights the growing fear in the literary community that Hollywood sees comic publishing merely as IP content farms.

Trade Troubles: President Trump has authorized an inquiry into China’s trade policies that force foreign companies to turn technology over to Chinese joint venture partners, harming U.S. businesses and jobs and resulting over the course of decades in theft of as much as $600 billion in IP.

Free Expression and Censorship

Issue-Oriented Inconsistencies? The ACLU, Milo Yiannopoulos, PETA and Carafem, a network of women’s health centers, sued Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for allegedly violating the First Amendment after it developed a policy of suspending controversial or alternative advertisements from its buses, trains and subway stations that it vaguely deemed “issue oriented.”

King Fear: A Thai activist was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for sharing a BBC article profiling the new Thai king, singling one activist out from thousands who also shared the article and signaling that strict sanctions are imposed even for relatively objective characterizations of the monarchy.

Practice Note

Lagging Law: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regards geolocation data as sensitive personal data that can cause cyber or physical harm if in the wrong hands and has already charged companies for unfair and deceptive practices on this basis; practitioners should seek guidance on FTC Act Section 5’s application in these scenarios.

On The Lighter Side

On-Screen Olympians? The Paris Olympic Bid Committee will meet with “eSport” representatives to get a better understanding of “what the process is and why it is such a success” before the committee decides whether or not to include competitive video gaming as a medal event in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Tweaking Telecoms: The Senate passed a series of laws last week centering on the FCC: one requires that phone systems allow individuals to directly dial 911, the next created a working group of various government agency personnel tasked with reporting on the security of internet of things devices, the last requires the FCC to frequently report on the state of competition within telecom’s video and service delivery markets.

Unhinged UK: The UK announced it will pass a more extensive Data Protection Act including provisions requiring social media companies to comply with a teenager’s request to delete information posted as a child via the “right to be forgotten,” outlawing pre-ticked “consent” boxes on sites, and expanding the definition of “personal data” to include internet cookies, DNA, and IP addresses.

Privacy

Warrant Woes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued that federal agents should obtain warrants before searching digital devices carried by international travelers, citing the immense amount of personal information stored on these devices and the recent increase in digital searches at the U.S. border; meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering whether law enforcement must get a warrant before tracking suspects using their cell phone location history.

Relaxed Rules? A report alleges that teenage-targeted social messaging app Kik enables child exploitation as the app’s moderators have failed to take down profiles of accused or convicted pedophiles; although the moderators of the app comply with law enforcement investigations, they admitted that they “will do a better job of removing profiles of convicted pedophiles.”

Chat Combat: A new chatbot developed by Microsoft pretends to be a live person offering sex online and then delivers a warning to users that the conversation could be reviewed by law enforcement as part an initiative among non-profit groups seeking to thwart online human sex trafficking.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Radio Waves: In the wake of cyberattacks and weather-based disruptions that illustrated the vulnerability of satellite-based GPS systems used by the majority of cargo ships for navigation purposes, several countries are developing back-up terrestrial systems using radio frequencies that are more difficult for hackers to jam but sometimes less accurate than GPS.

Intellectual Property

Salacious Sequel? A case under consideration by the Southern District of New York focuses on a play that is an alleged infringing sequel that takes place 43 years after the original Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas;” while Dr. Seuss Enterprises LP alleges IP infringement, the playwright asserts a fair use defense emphasizing that his dark adult comedy is a parody and/or is highly transformative of the original because its components from the plot to the tone are materially different.

Positive Piracy: The 80s rock band Def Leppard credits the “multiplier effect” of music piracy for the band’s continued relevance and success after observing that over the past 15 years its audience has increasingly consisted of younger fans.

Free Expression and Censorship

Fake News Fights & Findings: Facebook is fighting back against a technique called “cloaking” that allows spammers to create a consumer-facing landing page of fake news while fooling moderators with an innocent-looking site; meanwhile a study found that fake news spreads primarily through social bots, which are automated bots that control recently published fake news postings on social media accounts, targeting influential figures to induce the spread of false content.

All Eyes: A German-Israeli artist unhappy with how Twitter responded to more than 300 tweets he reported as abusive recorded a video in which he spray-painted 30 of those tweets outside of the social network’s German office.

Practice Note

Privacy International: While much attention has been given to data protection regulation in the EU and cybersecurity policy in China, legal experts have advised multinational companies to review developments in consumer privacy law elsewhere in the world, such as pending mandatory data breach reporting requirements in Canada, Singapore and Australia, and the establishment of a Personal Information Protection Commission in Japan.

On The Lighter Side

Falling for AI? To prepare his players for imminent battles with robots, the head coach of Baylor University’s football team raced and beat the robot dummy just before the dummy sought revenge and tackled the coach after his victory.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Blocker Ban: A federal court in Virginia has ruled that the chairwoman of a county board violated the First Amendment rights of a constituent she blocked on Facebook, concluding that the official suppressed “critical commentary regarding elected officials” and raising questions as to the constitutional limitations of social media accounts maintained by public officials.

Exchange Enforcement: A Bitcoin exchange called BTC-e was shut down by law enforcement after its operator was charged not only with stealing the equivalent of $400 million in Bitcoin that lead to the bankruptcy of another exchange but also with using BTC-e to launder the proceeds from criminals engaged in drug trafficking and ransomware attacks.

Privacy

Sneaky Stingray: Reports of surveillance technologies designed for spying and wartime purposes being used on the American public, such as “stingray” devices that can intercept cell phone data from unknowing users, has lead to calls for greater transparency in Congress as to their use and legality.

Going Private: While Twitter lost two million U.S. users last month, WhatsApp now boasts over a billion users per day in the latest example of a user preference for “privateness” that favors encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger over less secure public platforms such as Twitter.

Family-Fony Fun: A recent study found that over half of the 5,000 most popular games designated as family-friendly on the Google Play store violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) because they tracked or collected the personal data of its users who are primarily children under the age of 13.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Bill for Basics: In response to the tendency for Internet of Things (IoT) devices to ship without security features, such as hardcoded passwords that cannot be changed by a user, two senators proposed a new bill that would require IoT device manufacturers to include basic security protections in the devices and certify that the devices are free of vulnerabilities at the time they are sold.

Public Data Doubts: LinkedIn and small tech company HiQ are engaged in a battle over HiQ’s alleged violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA); while LinkedIn argues that website owners have the authority to rescind another’s access to their site on a case-by-case basis, HiQ believes that its behaviors were legal because it was accessing public data from a publicly accessible website.

Intellectual Property

Patent Exchange: A patent advisory and transaction firm is looking to create a new marketplace in which venture-backed startups in need of funding provide equity to big technology companies in exchange for patents that the larger firms no longer need, as a way to encourage startups to think about patent strategy and larger firms to put dormant patents to better use.

Trademark Troublemakers: The Trademark Trial Appeal Board (TTAB) must reconsider a case of Dale Earnhardt’s widow challenging her stepson’s attempt to register the name “Earnhardt Collection” because the TTAB did not determine whether the trademark was descriptive, the first step in deciding if a surname is unregistrable; meanwhile, NYC based-makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis (KW) is suing Kim Kardashian-West (KKW) over the name of her cosmetics line because KW believes that KKW is engaging in unfair competition, infringing on KW’s four initial-bearing logo trademarks, and causing consumer confusion regarding KW’s high-end organic beauty line.

Free Expression and Censorship

National Censorship Athletic Association? A student with a successful athletics-related and monetized YouTube account has lost his full-ride scholarship to play football at the University of Central Florida because he did not answer a negotiation ultimatum from the NCAA that attempted to mitigate his imminent violation of the NCAA rule that prohibits a student athlete from profiting from his or her status.

Free Internet Fail: A study found that Facebook’s free internet service, Free Basics, provides internet access to 63 countries in Asia, Africa and South America but prevents access to Facebook’s competitor’s sites and local sites, and limits access to about a thousand sites of U.S. and U.K. companies.

Practice Note

Barricading the Bench: As cybercriminals look for new targets to launch their attacks, the need for robust cybersecurity infrastructure must extend into the courtroom, where confidential proceedings take place and secure data management frameworks are now essential to ensure the proper administration of justice.

On The Lighter Side

Enhanced Exposure: A new specially developed VR technology improves the effects of exposure therapy, according to a study conducted by therapists on their patients which shows that the tech allows patients to truly address phobias and similar conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Firearm Fears & Fumbles: A study conducted by think tank Rand Europe and the University of Manchester revealed that 47% of the products sold on the dark web are firearms and 60% of those firearms listings have product association origins from the United States; a report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Defense Logistics Agency lacks adequate due diligence in the administration of its 1033 Program, which transfers excess military grade weaponry to local law enforcement, but can be compromised by anyone who can make a fake law enforcement site.

Connecting Cuba: Although their state-sponsored internet is limited to public hotspots and plagued by censored sites, government spying and slow browsing speeds, a group of forward-thinking Cubans have devised workarounds such as packaging and distributing content on external hard drives and even creating a makeshift intranet service with Cuban versions of Instagram and Reddit.

Privacy

Roomba Runs Risks: iRobot, the maker of the Roomba vacuum, is contemplating selling the home configuration data the vacuum collects to Google, Amazon or Apple; while the data could be useful for law enforcement and insurance companies, many privacy experts are concerned that this data would reveal intimate consumer information and raise many legal questions.

A Chip in Hand: A Wisconsin company is offering its employees the chance to get a rice-grain-sized RFID chip implanted in their hands that would allow them to unlock doors and log in to office computers with a wave of their hands, but opens up the possibility for constant employee tracking.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Cyber Security Shuffle: The State Department plans to reorganize including moving its Cyber Security arm to the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, leaving national security experts concerned that the move will signal that the current administration views cyberthreats as only a business matter and threatens the diplomatic cyberpolicy function of that arm.

Hacking U: New legislation aims to allocate $15 million from the U.S. defense budget to support curriculum development and best practices for a university course called “Hacking for Defense,” which places university scientists and engineers alongside defense personnel to find solutions to national security issues.

Intellectual Property

SoundCloud SoundOff:  SoundCloud prevented digital preservationists from attempting to archive the digital platform’s entire catalog, consisting of 900-terabytes of information totaling about 123.6 million tracks, stating that the download would violate its Terms of Use by infringing on the copyright of their users’ protected content.

Bad Apple? A U.S. judge doubled the amount Apple must pay to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to $506 million after Apple continued to infringe on a design for processor chips used in the iPhone and iPad, despite Apple’s claim that it developed proprietary technology for those processors.

Myriad Marks: In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that a bar on “disparaging” trademarks is a violation of the First Amendment, a wave of previously prohibitable marks are becoming registered as the guidelines for examining attorneys require an update to align with the ruling.

Free Expression and Censorship

Suspect or Over-Sensitivity? A Washington state law criminalizing repeated or anonymous cyberbullying is being challenged because it can be applied to criticizing politicians online; the plaintiff hopes that challenging the law on First Amendment grounds will render it unenforceable, as this approach has been successful in other states.

Let the Games Begin: An augmented reality (AR) game maker was granted an injunction against Milwaukee County in response to a new law requiring AR game makers to obtain a permit before their games could be played in county parks, ahead of an upcoming trial that will consider the extent of the game makers’ First Amendment rights.

Practice Note

Protecting Your Prints: A new Washington state law requires businesses that collect “biometric identifier” data like fingerprints and retina scans to disclose how the data would be used and obtain consent from the owner before using it, as states looking to pass similar legislation weigh protecting consumer biometric information against exposing businesses to heightened legal liability.

On The Lighter Side

O.G. Owner Obligations: Darden Corporation, the parent company of Olive Garden, had its knowledge handed to it after it threatened trademark infringement and requested for the owner of the Olive Garden critique blog, “allofgarden.com,” to remove the metatags referencing the restaurant; the snarky blogger reminded Darden that the use of the restaurant’s name was legal under the doctrine of fair use. 

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Internet Fast Lane? Comcast is advocating for paid prioritization instead of net neutrality by highlighting the necessity of paid prioritization with the imminence of self-driving cars; although the telecomms do not currently own the unlicensed bandwidth that autonomous cars will likely use to communicate with other cars, infrastructure, and devices, the safety-critical messages sent via vehicle-to-anything bandwidth would need to be prioritized over regular internet usage.

F.B.sly: A ruling by a federal judge now prohibits Internet Service Providers from notifying users of national security investigation by the FBI, giving the bureau the freedom to investigate without interference including accessing a complete list of the online purchases and all IP addresses with which the suspect was in communication.

Privacy

Face Finder: A deep learning software startup is developing technology that can be embedded into police body cameras to identify persons of interest in crowded areas, but the technology raises privacy concerns as it can be enlisted by multiple body cameras at the same time to continuously monitor a public space.

Customs vs. Cloud: While U.S. Customs officials have the authority to search an individual’s electronic device without probable cause, officials may not search information not stored on the device itself, such as data stored in the cloud.

Ploys & Toys? The FBI and FTC are warning parents to ward off potential child identity fraud by doing their due diligence before purchasing smart toys for their kids, as many of these toys require providing sensitive information during account registration, have recording capabilities for voice recognition software, and often send back to the developer or cloud a wealth of information for various purposes such as GPS location, internet history, and IP address.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Information Indifference: Reliance Jio, an Indian telecom upstart, was hacked last Monday leaving the information of 100 million users vulnerable, yet the company’s denial of the hack has shed light upon an issue with India’s cybersecurity law: it barely exists, notwithstanding homing many international businesses within its borders, and its domestic corporations do not prioritize information security or feel incentivized to prevent and address the issue properly.

Shrinking the Satellites: A Silicon Valley startup has disrupted satellite technology by offering an alternative with size and affordability that will allow the Department of Defense (DOD) to have enough satellites to properly surveil the entire world and make up for natural limitations in surveillance that occur during the the nighttime and viewing through clouds.

Intellectual Property

BRAwl: Lululemon sued Under Armour for allegedly infringing on a patent for its cross-strap sports bra design, a rare move in the fashion industry that will ask a federal court to consider whether the design is truly novel.

Taming the Trolls: A Massachusetts state senator is proposing new legislation aimed at ridding the state of patent trolls as part of an effort started by an internet security company to prevent a practice that threatens younger entrepreneurs and hinders innovation and economic development in the state.

Free Expression and Censorship

We The Social? Social media networks are becoming increasingly similar to governments in terms of controlling participation in expressive speech and shaping public opinion, such as through the rise of political propaganda bots; the platforms should not be mistaken for governing bodies because they operate using a different set of rules for monitoring and policing speech.

Lost in Transmission: China is continuing to flex its censorship muscle with new technology that can delete messages in private chats before the messages are received, as when the friend of a celebrated Chinese dissident was recently unable to send photos of the man to the intended recipients through the messaging app WeChat.

Practice Note

Guidelines for Games: Legal battles abound over alleged similarities between video game “clones,” where courts have held that current U.S. copyright law protects the most obvious creative aspects of a game, such as its visual appearance the uniqueness of its characters, and does not protect mechanics such as in-game rules or functional elements such as point systems.

On the Lighter Side

Service for Service: In yet another instance of users failing to read the terms and conditions to access an internet service, more than 22,000 people agreed to a “Community Service Clause” requiring them to perform 1,000 of service on tasks like cleaning public toilets and scraping gum off the streets in exchange for access to a WiFi hotspot.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

We dedicate this edition in memory of Kyung Joon (KJ) Shin,  
CLIP-ings Editorial Fellow, Spring 2015.

Internet Governance

Talk That Talk to FTC: Proponents of net neutrality supported the “Day of Action” online protest on Wednesday by presenting their stance on the issue and educating users; participants included various companies such as Google, OkCupid, College Humor and Etsy, organizations such as the ACLU, and even AT&T.

Dollars for Scholars: Researchers at MIT and Harvard studying autonomous information systems and driverless vehicles will be the largest recipients of a $7.6 million research grant from a fund that encourages exploration of the intersection between artificial intelligence and public policy.

Privacy

Buffering Big Brother: The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual report evaluating tech companies’ protection of user privacy from the government was released this week; Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr and WordPress all tied for providing the best protection, while major telecommunications companies AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon provided the worst protection of all 26 ranked companies.

Susceptible Satellite Cells: A recently published study found that the phone call encryption system used by service providers for satellite phones has serious vulnerabilities and can be decrypted, suggesting the need for an upgrade to these systems since many in war zones and rural areas depend on this technology for communication.

We Have Your Heartbeat: After pacemaker data for a defendant accused of arson was found to be inconsistent with his testimony, an Ohio judge ruled that the data was admissible in court and rejected the argument that allowing the government to access personal medical information poses a privacy threat.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Policing the Plants: After reports surfaced that hackers attempted to breach security systems at U.S. nuclear power plants, senators called on agencies like the Department of Energy to release information about the attacks and introduced legislation to develop a cybersecurity strategy to protect U.S. energy infrastructure.

Compulsory Cybersecurity Coverage: In the UK, with only a few financial industry insurers providing cyber insurance, the country’s regulatory body Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) has proposed expectations of insurers, such as providing policies specifically for cyber risks, assessing their exposure to these risks, and conducting stress tests to make sure their systems can handle sudden influxes of client claims in the event of a major global cyberthreat.

Intellectual Property

Downloading Drama: Stream-ripping, the act of downloading and storing permanent files from sites such as Spotify and YouTube, is the new trend in music piracy in the UK popularized by a misbelief that the sites had the requisite permission to allow them to download the content and a lack of knowledge that their act was illegal; remedying this piracy trend will require cooperation between UK authorities and digital service providers.

Monkey See, Monkey Sue: A federal appeals court will decide whether an Indonesian monkey can claim ownership of a selfie that the monkey took, weighing the district judge’s conclusion that animals cannot own intellectual property against the argument that the originality of the work is more important than its author.

Free Expression and Censorship

Cops on Camera: The Third Circuit recognized a First Amendment right to record on-duty police officers, citing widespread cell phone ownership and the benefits of using cell phone video to combat subjective testimony and finding additional support in the First Amendment right of access to information about officials’ public activities.

Practice Note

Indispensable IP: Despite many reasons offered against startups focusing on intellectual property issues, new businesses are wise to invest resources in intellectual property protection to maintain profitability, compete in global markets, and create long-term brand equity.

On the Lighter Side

Crowdsourcing Comfort: To do right by his graduates and continue a tradition, the dean of Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in North Carolina turned to a crowdsourcing campaign to provide stipends for his graduates during their bar exam preparation and has raised over $15,000 thus far.

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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Yemi Danmola
Harrison Kay
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP