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Legal Incubators and Legal Hackers
The seminal book on the origins of hacking and the hacker culture is Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. One of my favorite stories from the book is of an early hacker at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bob Wagner, who was not content to use a wimpy, clunky electromechanical calculator to complete homework for a Numerical Analysis class. Consequently, Wagner wrote a program of almost three thousand lines of code that made the computer emulate the calculator's exact functionality. Then, Wagner used the calculator program on the computer to do his math homework.
His grade when he turned in his homework: Zero. “You used a computer!” The professor told him. “This can't be right.”
Levy uses this story to demonstrate that there was a strong largely unfounded anti-computer bias among some in academia in the early days of hacking and early years of computing. This is evidenced by the professor's second statement: “This can't be right.”
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Stranger to the Deed Rule
In 1987, a unanimous Court of Appeals reaffirmed the vitality of the "stranger to the deed" rule, which holds that if a grantor executes a deed to a grantee purporting to create an easement in a third party, the easement is invalid. Daniello v. Wagner, decided by the Second Department on November 29th, makes it clear that not all grantors (or their lawyers) have received the Court of Appeals' message, suggesting that the rule needs re-examination.