Archive for the 'CyberLaw' Category

Ron Paul not allowed to find out who posted mean video about Jon Huntsman on YouTube

Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee, Inc. v. Does, 12-00240 (N.D. Cal. January 25, 2012) (Hat tip to Venkat for posting a link to this decision.) Ron Paul’s campaign — Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee, Inc. — sued some John Doe defendants in federal court over an offensive video attacking former (but then current) [...]

Bloggers and Shield Laws II: Now, You Can Worry

A few weeks ago, I wrote that bloggers should not be too concerned about a decision by a federal judge in Oregon that blogger Crystal Cox is not protected by Oregon’s reporters’ shield law in a defamation suit.

But a new decision in Illinois …

Privacy – 1 step forward, 1 step back

That’s the title of my Slaw post for today.  It reads as follows. Getting the privacy balance right is not easy, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. As examples, here are some recent developments that go both ways. Pro Privacy Proposed Bill C-12 amendments to PIPEDA that would mandate privacy breach notification in certain circumstances. [...]

Megaupload takedown reminds us why website terms and conditions can be important

Kashmir Hill pointed out that at least one erstwhile file sharing service has changed its business model in response to the federal government’s action against Megaupload. She observes that: FileSonic users can’t be too happy to have one of the main features of the site taken away. But the company must be less worried about [...]

Ordering defendant to decrypt hard drive did not violate her Fifth Amendment rights

U.S. v. Fricosu, 10-CR-00509 (D. Colo. January 23, 2012) Pursuant to a warrant, federal agents seized defendant’s laptop from her home. When investigators turned it on, they saw the hard drive’s contents were encrypted using PGP Desktop. Defendant would not voluntarily turn over the password to decrypt the drive, so the Government filed an application [...]

Supreme Court: GPS device attached to car was an unconstitutional search

U.S. v. Jones, 565 U.S. ___ (2012) Decision looks to 18th century sensibilities on the sanctity of personal property to resolve modern day legal problem occasioned by technology. Today the Supreme Court issued its opinion in U.S. v. Jones, which addresses the question of whether it was a “search or seizure” under the Fourth Amendment [...]

Report on privacy tackles airport security

For the London Free Press – January 23, 2012 – Read this on Canoe The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) recently tabled its Annual Report on the Privacy Act. The airport scanner issue receiving much of the press, however there are a number of other noteworthy items in the report. The Privacy [...]

Cops violated Fourth Amendment in warrantless search of digital camera

Schlossberg v. Solesbee, 2012 WL 141741 (D.Or. January 18, 2012) Plaintiff was being questioned by defendant police officer when defendant noticed plaintiff was using a digital camera to capture the exchange. The cop got enraged and took the camera away. He arrested plaintiff and looked through the files on the camera without getting a warrant. [...]

If you critique SOPA, read the text. If you read the text, read it right.

Earlier this week Eriq Gardner speculated in a tweet that less than one tenth of one percent of folks have actually read the SOPA legislation. I bet he’s right. It’s good to read the statute. But what might be worse than not reading it is reading it wrongly and thereafter propagating misunderstanding. One of the [...]

SOPA/PIPA Protest Day is Over, But the Battle is Not

The day of protest against the now (hopefully) infamous "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011" (PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA) has ended….