My top free tools for law firms and other small businesses
Carolyn Elefant recently provided her list of free tools for starting a law firm. In this same spirit, I would like to present my list of top tools, all of which I’ve used at various times myself.
Moving away from traditional publishers
As I noted a few days ago, there has been increasing attention to the idea of authors moving away from traditional publishers when it comes to e-books. Here’s more from the New York Times about one author doing just that: Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name […]
Google executives on trial for criminal liability in Italy
I’m generally in favor of holding companies liable for their actions — after all, if we treat corporations as “persons” under the law, then they should have responsibilities as well as protections and benefits. But I’m not sure about holding executives criminally liable — perhaps in the case of knowing pollution or conspiracy to cover up product dangers — but not, I think, for actions they are not directly responsible for, as in this case from Italy.
A dispute over the rights to e-book editions
That publishers and authors (or their estates) should be arguing over rights to production electronic editions is no surprise. This sort of dispute is a standard part of contract law, and comes up anytime a new market not anticipated in a contract opens up. Can traditional publishers fend off this move through litigation and forceful contract negotiations? Or will we see increasing alternatives to traditional publishers in the e-book realm?
Trademarks and the Apple App Store
Apple’s “app store” continues to generate controversy through its rejections. I must agree with the following analysis that use of icons – especially as provided through an API expressly for that purpose should not violate trademark law (or copyright for that matter).
The new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is... problematic
The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama’s administration refused to disclose due to “national security” concerns, has leaked. It’s bad
How does fair-use law work?
This is an excellent write-up about how fair use works, along with its complexities (and areas where it is more straightforward, generally where courts have already ruled on a very similar use previously).
Microsoft update leaves Firefox users unexpectedly vulnerable
An add-on that Microsoft silently slipped into Mozilla’s Firefox last February leaves that browser open to attack, Microsoft’s security engineers acknowledged earlier this week.
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