The 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ('FRCP') were anticipated by some corporate counsel with Y2K-like gloom and doom predictions. In particular, many wondered aloud whether the rules would have the effect of placing reasonable limits on electronic discovery, or whether instead they would open the floodgates and drown us all in a sea of electronic document production. However, the past year has shown that, like the Y2K hysteria that went out with a whimper, the fretting over the negative impact of the amendments may have been overblown.

Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.

Features

If you use software and work for or with a company subject to Sarbanes-Oxley ('SOX'), then 2007 was an interesting year for you. How interesting? I'll raise some issues arising from the intersection of the topic of software use and SOX from last year to help you keep to a minimum the risk that 2008 will be an interesting year in some very bad ways.

Internet telemedicine, in use to varying degrees for more than a decade and general technology-assisted telemedicine for much longer than that, is plagued by concern for patients whose physicians prescribe medication without a face-to-face examination. The result has been that state boards of medical examiners and state legislatures throughout the country have initiated disciplinary hearings and legislation to limit a physician's ability to practice medicine without prior hands-on contact with a patient. But emerging technology and medical advancements may be stifled by problems unique to Internet telemedicine.

One of the most important decisions that corporate counsel must make in any case is whether to file a motion to dismiss. While a motion can put an early end to the case, it can also prompt a judge to make damaging pronouncements about the law, without the benefit of a fully developed factual record.

Features

The controversial German draft bill designed to amend legislation on communications surveillance and other secret investigation measures, and to implement the European Directive 2006/24/EC ' which was set to introduce mandatory retention of communications traffic data ' went into effect on January 1.

For Donald Trump, 'You're fired!' has become a money-maker. But for Human Resources managers and in-house counsel, 'You're fired' is a dreaded phrase that will bring not an increase in ratings, but an increase in lawsuits. A poorly executed termination exposes the employer to significant liability; even a simple discrimination claim can cost the employer $100,000 in defense costs.

For many, 2008 began with the timeless strains of 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot.' But for e-commerce practitioners, there's no time for celebrating: The pace of change is constant. Information is out of date almost as soon as it has been published, as new technology may in itself, and certainly will help, competitors race to unseat those who came before. In that spirit, then, let's look back over some of the subjects that have recently appeared on these pages, to see how the law and business of e-commerce have developed since we first wrote about them.