The recent events surrounding Edward Snowden and the NSA surveillance program are bringing domestic law enforcement surveillance into the public consciousness. In particular, the implications of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), used by law enforcement agencies all over the country, are being reevaluated.
The recently implemented technology consists of a camera linked to a processing [...]
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For the past five years, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has been discussing proposed exceptions to the copyright reproductions rights that would help the visually impaired and those with other print disabilities. The problem is obvious: there are millions of individuals across [...]
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Great Googley moogley! Google and other big firms that operate under the glare of the European Commission competition spotlight may now have many, many more individual spotlights upon them, heating up the stakes for potential antitrust abuses. On June 11, 2013, the European Commission proposed a Continue Reading →
Vermont’s legislature recently amended its consumer fraud statute with a new law aiming to prevent bad faith assertions of patent infringement against individuals or entities based in Vermont. The new law is awaiting the governor’s signature. Vermont’s law is the first of its kind, though there have been federal efforts to [...]
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Would you shop less online if you had to pay sales tax at the point of purchase? This may happen if the Marketplace Fairness Act, a.k.a. the “Internet Sales Tax,” is passed. On May 6, 2013, the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013. The legislation has now moved on to the House [...]
Continue Reading →You can resell your old CDs, tapes, and records. That’s a no-brainer for music lovers who have sifted through piles of records to find old-school gems. But, according to a federal court in New York’s Southern District, the same right does not apply to the resale of digital files. So much for keeping that tradition [...]
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Lawmakers in West Virginia have proposed a new bill that bans wearing the new Google Glass device while driving. (For background info on this high-tech headpiece, see fellow blogger Katie Kuhn’s post.) The bill would subject drivers who use “a wearable computer with a head-mounted display” to a fine.
Apparently prompted by a Continue Reading →
Google applies for a patent on an interface between its Google Glass augmented reality display and your microwave (and all your other appliances too) [H/T qrcodepress.com] Largest DDoS ever publicly disclosed afflicts Spamhaus anti-spam group. If CyberBunker really behind it, and as they apparently claim, they have [...]
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California can’t seem to decide whether texting while driving is safe. Back in 2009, California implemented its first ban on the practice. That law banned any reading or sending text messages while driving. However, the Auto Club found that the percentage of drivers who texted while driving actually doubled in the year after the [...]
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On February 27th, Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) reintroduced a “new and improved” Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act of 2013 (or “SHIELD Act,” pleasing fans of both acronyms and imagery of strife). The legislation is intended to curb the rapid ascent of so-called “patent trolls,” which are reported to have [...]
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