NEW & NOTEWORTHY
• 9th Circuit Ups the Ante for Disclosure of Employee Text Messages
• Internal IT Corporate Snooping
• Google Facing $1B Trade Secrets Suit
• Facebook to Users: Let's Cut Grammatical Errors
• Gripe About Your Neighbor on RottenNeighbor.com
WORLD BEAT
• Internet Panel Paves Way for Hundreds of New Domains
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
• AT&T Offers New Option of iPhone Without Contract
RECENT CASE SUMMARIES
• Greenberg v. Nat'l Geographic Society
• US v. Harrell
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NEW & NOTEWORTHY:
9TH CIRCUIT UPS THE ANTE FOR DISCLOSURE OF EMPLOYEE TEXT MESSAGES
(Kevin Fayle) - In a ruling on June 18th, a panel of the 9th Circuit held that a provider of text messaging services violated the Stored Communications Act by turning over the contents of an employee's text messages to his employer, the Ontario, California Police Department. Read more...
Related Resources
• More on Employer Monitoring of Workplace Electronic Communications
INTERNAL IT CORPORATE SNOOPING
(Eric Sinrod) - While companies provide certain rights to information technology and other employees to access specified categories of data, they may not be aware that often those rights are exceeded. Read more...
Related Resources
• FindLaw's Interactive Guide to Data Preservation
GOOGLE FACING $1B TRADE SECRETS SUIT
(Andrews) - Google encouraged a small software company to develop a critical conversion tool for its Google Apps suite of office productivity software and then stole the invention, depriving the developer of almost $1 billion in potential revenue, an Illinois state court lawsuit alleges. Read more...
Related Resources
• More Articles on E-Mail Software
FACEBOOK TO USERS: LET'S CUT GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
(AP) - The online hangout Facebook is getting more serious about grammar. No more should users see jarringly incorrect declarations such as "Debbie changed their profile picture." Read more...
Related Resources
• Blocking Social Networking Sites in the Workplace
GRIPE ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBOR ON ROTTENNEIGHBOR.COM
(AP) - Just outside his sealed bedroom window, beyond the chain-link fence that surrounds his next-door neighbor's yard, sit the reasons David Adams says he can't sleep: two bushy-tailed dogs that bark and howl all night. Read more...
Related Resources
• Legal Technology Videos - Legal Issues for Social Networking
WORLD BEAT:
INTERNET PANEL PAVES WAY FOR HUNDREDS OF NEW DOMAINS
(AP) - The Internet's key oversight agency relaxed rules Thursday to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com," making the first sweeping changes in the network's 25-year-old addressing system. Read more...
Related Resources
• Waging War Against Cybersquatting
OPEN FOR BUSINESS:
AT&T OFFERS NEW OPTION OF IPHONE WITHOUT CONTRACT
(AP) - AT&T Inc. will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when Apple Inc.'s popular touch-screen gadget debuted last year. Read more...
Related Resources
• FindLaw's Communications Technology Page for Legal Professionals
RECENT CASE SUMMARIES:
GREENBERG V. NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
(U.S. 11th Circuit) - In a lawsuit filed against National Geographic and Mindscape alleging plaintiff's copyrights were infringed by defendants' CD-ROM collection of the monthly magazine which included his photographs, the circuit court finds that: 1) publisher-defendant is privileged to reproduce and distribute digital CD-ROMs of the magazine under the "revision" prong of section 201(c) of the Copyright Act; and 2) despite reproductions in a different medium or enhanced digital search functions, the publisher's privilege continues as long as the original context of a collective work is not destroyed. Read more...
US V. HARRELL
(U.S. 9th Circuit) - In a case involving unauthorized viewing of satellite television and the government's seizure of certain digital satellite television receivers and other hardware and software, partial denial of defendant's motion for return of property filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) there must be a change to either the hardware or software of a telecommunications instrument that makes it more capable of obtaining unauthorized signals in order for it to be "modified or altered" under 18 U.S.C. section 1029(a)(7); 2) under such standard, certain receivers at issue were not modified or altered so as to constitute contraband per se; and 3) some other hardware and software was also not shown to constitute contraband per se. Read more...
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