LJN Newsletters

Even amateur podcasters know that there are legal concerns with podcasting music. As the law stands now, a podcaster must secure permission for every copyrighted sound-recording master. This would be extremely time-consuming and expensive ' even for NPR, let alone individual podcasters. On the other hand, acquiring the rights to use the songs embodied in podcasts may not be as big a problem because the statutory compulsory license applicable to the mechanical reproduction of musical compositions probably applies to podcasts. In addition, blanket public-performance licenses are already offered by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

The following points are from the task force's report. Numbering was kept from the report for reference purposes. Canadian spellings were also retained.…

The recent decision in 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. WhenU.com is an important case in the murky law relating to keywords. Many companies use keywords in some form to generate revenue, from search engines selling keywords to trigger banner ads or the pop-up business described in the WhenU decision.
The case is particularly important for companies such as Google not only because keyword sales represent a substantial portion of their revenue, but also because obtaining legal precedent supporting this kind of business has been inconsistent.

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

Despite their negative public images and being the target of much private invective, Internet pop-up ads and unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) have transfigured marketing ' and, like spam, Internet pop-ups can be lawful if they are not deceptive.
That said, trademark infringement may be the only successful cause of action against Internet pop-up advertisers and getting them to change their business methods.

A select group of New York Law School students will soon begin a unique, hands-on course in the practicalities of cyberlaw designed to make young lawyers extremely attractive to law-firm recruiters who hail primarily from the technophobic generation.

The Government of Canada's Task Force on Spam concluded that the current laws governing spam are not good enough. While Canada alone is not able to deal with the spam problem nationwide, it must at least deal with the spammers in its own backyard. The current legal framework contains some significant holes and the task force's recommendations call for a spam-specific law accompanied by a new separate body to work on policy and enforcement coordination.

For almost a year, lawyers from eight of the largest corporations in the country have been meeting and exchanging information. The group, which first came together last fall, includes in-house attorneys from Cisco Systems Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., FMC Technologies Inc., General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Together they oversee a collective annual legal budget exceeding $1 billion.