Cyberlaw

SOPA Be Damned, DOJ Has Sent a Message to Internet Pirates. And the Internet Sent a Message Right Back

While the Internet was throwing itself a party for taking down the Stop Online Piracy Act, getting drunk off its own power and shooting pistols into the air like a Mexican fiesta, the Department of Justice was already throwing up a big middle finger to offshore rogue websites, or whatever they're calling pirates now. Everyone's favorite hacker collective, Anonymous, struck back in revenge almost immediately. The group launched massive denial of service attacks against every media and governmental website their deranged hive mind could think of....

SOPA Protests Will Make Tomorrow Super Boring

Tomorrow is going to be the most boring day in the recent history of the Internet. For 24 hours — on January 18 — several high-profile websites will go dark, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act. No one will be able to research potentially fake facts about their favorite celebrities, discover the newest nerdy […]

Under New Internet Rules, URLs Like AboveTheLaw.YourMom Will Soon Be Available

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has been busy lately. First, the Southern California-based non-profit responsible for the Internet’s address system created a porn-only, top-level domain. And on January 12, ICANN will start allowing people to register top-level domains of whatever they want. .Com, .net, and .org — your days of tyranny are […]

Stop Online Piracy Act Wants Biglaw Support; Biglaw Says, ‘Aw, Hell No’

Unless you drowned yourself in a bathtub full of eggnog over the holidays, hopefully you are at least superficially aware of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The House of Representatives is considering the bill, known as SOPA for short, that people fear will destroy the Internet as we know it. Last week, Elie and I […]

The Soldier Accused of Leaking Military Cables to WikiLeaks Is in Court Right Now

The former military intelligence analyst accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks has spent the last four days in a Maryland military court, undergoing a hearing to determine whether or not his case will proceed to court-martial. For those new to the party, 24-year-old Bradley Manning is accused of committing the biggest […]

Model Who Says, ‘I’m Too Sexy For This Trademark’ Loses $81K Suit

The Internet may be infinite, but people still are constantly fighting over online real estate. It happens in the porn industry, and it happens to celebrities. Even Miami Dolphins cheerleaders have to fight for their right to party at their own website. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently ruled in […]

Nobody Likes Porny .XXX Domain Names, Except Cybersquatters

Businesses spend a surprising amount of time and effort protecting their brand and intellectual property from cybersquatters. It often takes the threat of litigation or creative domain name registry to prevent random people from registering websites like Pepsisux.com. So, it’s kind of funny that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is in […]

New Piracy Bill Could Lead to National Censorship Nightmare

As we mentioned in yesterday’s Non-Sequiturs, congressional hearings for the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act began yesterday. People are really not happy about the bill. Google’s CEO called SOPA, as the bill is known for short, “draconian.” Time’s Techland blog ran the headline this morning, “SOPA Won’t Stop Online Piracy, Would Censor Everyone Else.” What […]

How Not to Screw Up on the Internet

Last week, Christopher Danzig went to the Computer Forensics Show in San Francisco. He sat in on one legal technology-related panel that was particularly entertaining and informative. What he heard underscored was the importance of maintaining a technology dialogue between legal and other parts of the business. It was also chance to hear some awesome war stories from a veteran partner at a major law firm....

Did Facebook Illegally Wiretap 150 Million People? Maybe! Probably Not

A new lawsuit, filed by an average Facebook user, claims a class of 150 million people, and damages of hundreds or thousands of dollars per class member. It's almost like there's no privacy anywhere anymore! (We're kidding, of course: Privacy completely disappeared years ago.) Exactly what heinous offense has Facebook supposedly committed? We're so glad you asked....

If the Government Wants Your Email, It Gets Your Email

We've been talking a lot recently about the secretly authorized stuff our government does to us -- like killing us, or molesting us at airports. Here's another one for the list: digging through our emails or Twitter feeds or cell phone data, without probable cause, our permission, or our knowledge. How does the U.S. government circumvent basic probable cause and search warrant requirements when it wants electronic information? Let's see....

If the Government Wants Your Email, It Gets Your Email

We've been talking a lot recently about the secretly authorized stuff our government does to us -- like killing us, or molesting us at airports. Here's another one for the list: digging through our emails or Twitter feeds or cell phone data, without probable cause, our permission, or our knowledge. How does the U.S. government circumvent basic probable cause and search warrant requirements when it wants electronic information? Let's see....

You Are Your Company’s Biggest Security Risk

I write about hacking and data security periodically, even though sometimes I get the feeling legal professionals try hard not to think about the subjects. But the stories in this realm bear repeating. Corporate data security is a real concern for many, many corporate attorneys, and especially in-house counsel. Data security problems used to stem […]

Dispatch from Amelia Island: IT and Law Are an Odd, Ornery Couple

As everyone knows, IT professionals and lawyers often have a little trouble seeing eye-to-eye. Practitioners of both the law and computer sorcery tend to be headstrong and preternaturally assured that they are correct 100 percent of the time. It only makes sense then, that several of Wednesday's panels at the Legal Technology Leadership Summit dealt with the crucial and interdependent relationship between law dogs and mysterious IT folks....

San Francisco Subway Shuts Off Cell Service, Hackers Get Angry

I rode BART into San Francisco on Monday for dinner. As our train approached the Embarcadero station, the driver came on the intercom. “We aren’t stopping at this station. Don’t want to drop you in the middle of a protest.” So my roommate and I got off a block later and backtracked. We encountered a […]