Tech Law Practice Center RSS 
The National Law Journal
08-07-2008
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Public Citizen and more than a dozen law professors have filed an amicus brief to dismiss the federal government's criminal case against a Missouri woman who used a false identity on a MySpace page to bully a teenager who ultimately committed suicide. Federal prosecutors contend that the woman, Lori Drew, created a MySpace account under the name "Josh Evans" and, using that false identity, developed an online relationship with Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide.
Fulton County Daily Report
08-26-2008
Atlanta securities lawyer Gregory Bartko says he's the victim of an Internet fraud scheme that's apparently targeting law firms throughout the U.S., as well as the banks where lawyers have their escrow accounts. Bartko is a defendant in a federal suit by Wachovia Bank, which is seeking reimbursement for nearly $200,000 that the bank wired, on Bartko's instructions, to a Korean bank on behalf of a company that had hired Bartko via the Internet.
The Recorder
08-21-2008
As recent suits and settlements prove, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are dropping the legal hammer on spammers. But the long-term impact of such actions remains to be seen, according to lawyers. "Do these lawsuits work in the sense of recovering monetary awards? Only occasionally," said a DLA Piper litigator who works on spam cases. "I think more important to these companies is the chilling effect it has on spam."
New York Law Journal
08-21-2008
Two employment-related cases some 5,500 miles apart may be of particular interest to technology-focused companies. From California, a Supreme Court decision essentially does away with employee noncompete agreements in that state, and from England, a High Court ruling permits an employer to gain access to information from a former employee's LinkedIn account.
The Recorder
08-14-2008
With a sparkling reputation in patent litigation, San Francisco's Keker & Van Nest chooses cases carefully, wins often and has clients who follow marching orders -- most of the time. But efforts to defend an adult business that wants to add a little sensation to cybersex have ended with hurt feelings all around -- and a protracted fight to get off the case entirely. Keker argues irreconcilable differences, its client says it's all about greed, and a leading L.A. porn lawyer is caught in the middle.
The Associated Press
08-13-2008
Federal prosecutors defended their use of a cyber crime statute in the case of a Missouri woman charged with using a MySpace hoax that allegedly led a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide. The prosecutors, rebutting a defense motion to dismiss the case, argued in court documents filed Aug. 12 that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is relevant to the case against Lori Drew. The statute used to indict the woman usually applies to Internet hackers who illegally access accounts to get information. Drew is accused helping to create a false-identity account on the MySpace social networking site and harassing her young neighbor with cruel messages.
New York Law Journal
08-21-2008
Two employment-related cases some 5,500 miles apart may be of particular interest to technology-focused companies. From California, a Supreme Court decision essentially does away with employee noncompete agreements in that state, and from England, a High Court ruling permits an employer to gain access to information from a former employee's LinkedIn account.
8th Cir.
03-17-2008
Absent incontrovertible proof of causal relationship between exposure to video game violence and children's subsequent psychological dysfunction, state failed to meet evidentiary burden necessary to set aside permanent injunction against enforcement of statute barring minors from purchasing or renting games bearing "Mature" or "Adult Only" rating.
7th Cir.
03-14-2008
Pursuant to Communications Decency Act of 1996, online information system "craigslist" could not be treated as publisher or speaker of information provided by website's users; thus craigslist could not be liable for allegedly discriminatory real estate ads under Housing Act provision forbidding discrimination on account of race, religion, sex or family status when selling or renting housing (construing Communications Decency Act § 230(c)).
8th Cir.
12-12-2007
Physician who authorized controlled substance prescriptions for company that sold prescription drugs over Internet was subject to criminal sentencing enhancement for distributing controlled substances through mass-marketing by means of interactive computer service.
