News Briefs
April 19, 2006
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Company Had No Duty to Encrypt Personal Information on Stolen Laptop
April 19, 2006
A Minnesota district court recently found that a financial institution was not negligent for failing to encrypt personal information contained on a laptop computer that was stolen from an employee's home office. In <i>Guin v. Brazos Higher Education Service Corp.</i>, the court dismissed the negligence action brought against a student loan provider by a customer. In granting the defendant's summary judgment motion, the court ruled that the company did not breach a duty of care under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ('GLB') to customers whose unencrypted data may have been contained on the laptop.
A Notice Does Not Notify Unless It Can Be Understood
April 19, 2006
The office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, along with the Ontario Bar Association's Privacy and Health Law sections and the Ontario Dental Association, spearheaded a team to develop short notices for the province's new Personal Health Information Protection Act ('PHIPA'), which launched the products earlier in June 2005.
The Company's Right to Know v. the Anonymous Critic's Right to Remain Unknown
April 19, 2006
When does it make sense to spend the time and expense necessary to determine the identity of an anonymous blogger who is damaging a company? This question is becoming increasingly important with the proliferation of blogs and Web postings used for corporate criticism ' from wakeupwalmart.com to www.googlereallysucks.blogspot.com.
Focus on China: Critical Issues Affecting U.S. Businesses Today
March 30, 2006
For U.S. companies today, it seems as if all eyes are on China. That country has vaulted past Japan to become the world's second largest economy and the United States' third largest trading partner ' and it's just getting warmed up. With over 1.3 billion consumers ' more and more of whom are middle class ' and a strong and rapidly growing economy, full and fair access to the Chinese market is critical to the future success of U.S. businesses and workers. Yet many companies find getting over the Great Wall and into the Chinese market to be fraught with challenge. This article highlights some of the recent developments in areas that most concern our clients with operations in China: the protection of intellectual property rights, the promulgation of national standard-setting provisions, and the adoption of a new antimonopoly law.
Building A Law Firm Intranet
March 30, 2006
The intranet has developed into the preferred platform for internal communication within many law firms. <br>Similar to the Web, there is a lot of value to be gained from a strong intranet presence. Everyone had his or her own ideas on what should be included and posted on the intranet. After a number of group meetings with IT, each department was given a page with basic components.
Net News
March 30, 2006
House Panel Clears Anti-Internet Gambling Bill Last month, a U.S. House committee approved a bill aimed at stifling the $12 billion Internet gambling industry by prohibiting businesses from accepting credit cards and other forms of payment. The bill, endorsed by voice vote in the House Financial Services Committee, would enjoin a gambling business from accepting credit cards, checks, wire transfers and electronic funds transfers in illegal gambling transactions. …
Mixed Reviews For Blogging Law Professors
March 30, 2006
As more law professors are tapping away at their computers on blogs that cover everything from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to the death penalty, they also may be chipping away at the ivory tower.<br>An increasing number of law professors are using blogs ' online journals or newsletters ' to break free from traditional modes of legal scholarship. With an immediacy and ability to reach millions of readers, blogs are proving an attractive vehicle among legal scholars for spouting and sharing ideas.<br>But they are also raising concerns that they may lead to a 'dumbing down' of the profession.
Downloading Copyrighted Songs Is Not 'Fair Use'
March 30, 2006
In an important decision interpreting the fair use provision of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. '107), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that downloading full copies of copyrighted material without compensation to authors cannot be deemed 'fair use.' In <i>BMG Music v. Gonzalez</i>, Judge Frank H. Easter-brook, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, rejected the defendant's argument that she was immune from liability because she was merely sampling songs that she had downloaded from the KaZaA file-sharing network on a 'try-before-you-buy basis.'
The Use Of Trademarks To Trigger Internet Advertising
March 30, 2006
On Feb. 7, 2006, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of trademark infringement in favor of manufacturers of tanning lotions against several unauthorized distributors. The defendants had paid for preferential search engine listings when computer users searched for plaintiffs' trademarks and has also placed plaintiffs' trademarks in the metatags of their Web sites (metatags are internal Web site coding often used by search engines to identify the content of Web sites).
