Page 7 of 15
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.
December 2009 / 1 min.
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?
December 2009 / 3 min.
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).
November 2009 / 2 min.
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.
October 2009 / 1 min.
Uniform bar exam drawing closer to reality
It could mark one of the biggest changes for lawyers joining the profession since the first U.S. bar exam was given in Delaware in 1763 – a single bar exam aimed at standardizing attorney credentials nationwide.
October 2009 / 1 min.
Modern media centers: the hard 20% is socio-legal
Cory Doctorow points out that the first 80% of creating a media center is easy: a decent computer (I used an old Pentium III and an old PowerBook, but you can use newer tech if you’re not a poor student), video out (S-Video to an old-school TV, VGA or HDMI to a new HDTV), big hard drives, maybe network sharing (I used an Airport Extreme I inherited) so you can access media from multiple rooms. But what about content – “the other 20 percent”?
October 2009 / 2 min.
Could you scrap Microsoft Office applications?
IBM’s Lotus Symphony is a free-of-charge alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite, based on Sun’s open source OpenOffice software. It purports to remain compatible with Microsoft’s “.doc” format (and newer incarnations), while removing licensing costs (but, not of course, support costs, since people still need training, technical support still costs money, etc.). Now they’ve decided to walk the walk.
September 2009 / 2 min.
Lawyers should leave their laptops at home when traveling abroad
There has always been an exception to search and seizure law at border crossings. In theory, this is nothing new – attorneys traveling with confidential paper files could also have them searched. But the ease of carrying vast numbers of confidential documents in electronic form raises the bar on this.
September 2009 / 2 min.
Is virtual lawyering the future?
An interesting paragraph from an article dealing with the idea of “Good Enough” – services or products that may not have all the “bells and whistles” of their more-expensive competitors, but do enough at the right price to be runaway successes: It turns out to be a remarkably efficient way of offering what Granat calls legal transaction services – tasks that are document intensive. For everything from wills to adoptions to shareholder agreements, elawyering has numerous advantages.
September 2009 / 3 min.
Court transcripts and copyright awards
Should a court reporter own the copyright on his or her work product, and be able to force everyone to pay for it into the future. “No,” says an appeals court, overruling a lower court decision to the contrary.
August 2009 / 1 min.