Billions of people use the Internet for work-related purposes. According to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, the fastest growing demographic for Internet workers is people aged 45 to 54. This is the same age group that is most likely to engage in workplace injury litigation.
While some trade on the "black market" or though in-person settings has always existed, the Internet has become the major facilitator of the trade in counterfeit goods. This is because it allows counterfeiters to directly reach consumers instead of having to work through complicit retail middlemen. The counterfeiters often work from countries where brands have limited ability to enforce their trademarks.
Businesses regularly lose precious data, sometimes even "the crown jewels," through trade secret theft by departing employees, unscrupulous contractors and others. Although trade secret theft is estimated to cause billions of dollars in damage every year, no federal civil claim for trade secret misappropriation currently exists. State laws govern these assets, and they are inconsistently applied. Relief may be in sight.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently announced that two major piracy websites, Popcorn Time and YTS, were shuttered following pro-MPAA court rulings in Canada and New Zealand.
In a sign that YouTube may be willing to push back against indiscriminate allegations of copyright infringement, the company announced it will offer legal support, including covering court costs, to protect some videos on its site that it believes meet the standard of 'fair use' under copyright law but have been challenged with takedown notices.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision in The Authors Guild v. Google ' a case that, the court said, "tests the boundaries of fair use" ' held that a Google database including millions of books was protected by fair use.
FanDuel Inc. and DraftKings Inc. are facing about 40 class actions claiming that the online daily fantasy sport sites fraudulently enticed customers into participating in illegal gambling.
Who's doing what; who's going where
Recent widely reported cybersecurity breaches have further heightened awareness of the issue, which is of significantly increasing concern both to businesses and government. Government regulators have pressed for greater cybersecurity efforts ' with the FTC's authority in this area being recently upheld by the Third Circuit.
The Ninth Circuit has held that fair use is an exception to copyright law and not a defense, in the first federal appeals court ruling on this issue. The decision is the latest in the ongoing battle between plaintiff Stephanie Lenz and defendant Universal Music Corp. and affiliated companies (Universal). Starting in a rural kitchen in Pennsylvania, the case is now a landmark decision in copyright law that protects many home videographers.
