Features
e-Commerce Docket Sheet
Recent court rulings in e-commerce.
Features
E-Commerce Rising
What does a cash-register ka-ching sound like online? It's the tune of $45.6 billion. That's the estimated e-commerce sales ring-up for 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported in February. The activity represented an estimated increase in total e-commerce revenues from 2001 to 2002 of 3.1%.
Features
European Data Privacy Rights ' Not So Scary After All
Most e-commerce businesses and advisers outside Europe are generally aware that the European Union has what appear to be some strange and intricate laws relating to data privacy.
UCITA Revealed
UCITA was drafted as a revision to the UCC ' a body of law adopted in almost every U.S. state that aims to ensure consistency in rules governing contract laws. After losing the support of the American Law Institute, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the proposed new article as a freestanding uniform act (UCITA), rather than as a new article to the UCC, and proposed the uniform law be passed in all 50 states.
MonsterHut Decision: Weapon of Mass Destruction?
Earlier this year, a New York trial judge issued the first written opinion on the meaning of the terms permission based and opt-in in the context of e-mail marketing.
Features
DEVELOPMENTS OF NOTE
The Small Webcaster Settlement Act (Pub.L. 107-321) became law in December. It provides for alternative royalty-rate setting among certain small and noncommercial Webcasters by agreement with receiving agent designated by the copyright office to accept royalty payments for works covered by sound recording copyrights.
Features
Maturing Internet Leads to Fewer Domain-Name Squabbles
The wild wild Web is getting tamed. Cybersquatters no longer freely roam its highways looking for easy marks and trademark owners who once went after anyone who crossed their path are now choosing their battles much more carefully.
e-Commerce DOCKET SHEET
A notice accompanying packaged and downloadable software purporting to restrict purchasers from publishing product reviews or disclosing benchmark test results without seller's permission is unenforceable and may be sanctionable under New York law prohibiting deceptive business acts and practices (People v. Network Associates Inc., No. 400590/02, N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Jan. 14, 2003).
e-Commerce is Up ' and So Are Complaints of Identity Theft
e-Commerce has become a mainstream staple, research from the private sector and the government indicates.
US Objects to ABA's Proposed Model Definition on the Practice of Law
When the American Bar Association (ABA) released its draft Model Definition of the Practice of Law in September 2002, nonlaywers performing some legal-related tasks weren't alone in taking alarmed notice.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›