It’s really basic: ownership of the copyright in work a business pays for can often be critical for successful commercialization of that work. Unfortunately, the U.S. Copyright Act contains arcane provisions that will often [...]
It’s a common issue. A new website is being created, and the developer likes the design of the competitor’s website. We all (hopefully) know that trademarks, logos, images and text are proprietary and cannot be copied. What [...]
This topic has been discussed often, but remains too often misunderstood, and the consequences of misunderstanding it are dire. So here we go.
Even the big boys can mess up. Barnes & Noble sold some HP tablets from its online store and then cancelled the order. The customer sued. The outcome of the case hinged on the enforceability of Barnes & Noble’s Terms of Use [...]
Going to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model has plenty of advantages for both customers and vendors, but also comes with many risks not associated with the traditional software licensing model. The risks and potential solutions [...]
Observers of Internet trends often pronounce that privacy is a fiction and that it is futile to try to reclaim it. Whether that perspective is correct or not does not matter when faced with a Complaint issued by the Federal Trade [...]
FTC Action
On June 28, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed an amendment to the California tax code which would impose on large Internet retailers the obligation to collect sales tax (technically “use” tax – but for our purposes, [...]
It’s no secret that piracy of music and movies over the Internet is rampant and costs industry billions of dollars annually. Most people involved in this activity are not hardened criminals, and if asked, will probably admit that [...]