Cyberlaw Central Blog

Author Archives: Kevin A. Thompson

SOPA and other @Cyberlaw Links

18th
Nov. Γ— ’11

The news this week has been dominated by discussions of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, that had congressional hearings this week. I really liked the following discussions of SOPA: Why I Oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/E-PARASITES Act Eric Goldman has a great summary of the bill and its problems. Well recommended [...]


Posted in Cases, Copyright, DMCA, First Sale Doctrine, Internet Governance, Musings, SOPA | Leave a comment

TWiL 136 and @cyberlaw Links

7th
Nov. Γ— ’11

I was pleased to be asked back on This Week in Law, Episode 136. Denise Howell, Jay Monahan of Zynga.com, and Matt Macari of The Verge were the other panelists. It was a lot of fun! Thanks again, Denise, for having me back.   Also, for those who may be interested, here is the link [...]


Posted in Copyright, DMCA, First Sale Doctrine, Musings, Speaking, Video | Leave a comment

News and @cyberlaw Links

17th
Oct. Γ— ’11

For those of you who are interested, I’ll be presenting on “Common Trademark Application Problems” on November 2, 2011 as part of my firm’s IP Webinar series. For more information and links to the free registration, click here. Some recent links I found particularly interesting on Twitter include: Net Neutrality Case Heads to D.C. Circuit [...]


Posted in Internet Governance, Privacy, Security, Trademarks, Twitter | Leave a comment

Copyright Basics webinar and @cyberlaw Links

27th
Sep. Γ— ’11

For those of you who are interested, I’ll be presenting as part of my firm’s IP Webinar series on October 5, 2011 at 12 CDT on Copyright Basics.Β  It will be a lot of fun, and hopefully a good learning experience for all.Β  Since it’s a webinar, be prepared to ask your general copyright questions [...]


Posted in Copyright, Domain Names, Internet Governance, Musings, Privacy, Trademarks, Twitter | 1 Comment

This Week’s @cyberlaw Links

19th
Aug. Γ— ’11

As a new feature on the blog, I will try to regularly look at articles I tweeted the links for on Twitter (@cyberlaw), and discuss them briefly. Here are some I found interesting this week: HP Touchpad’s Fate Jonathan Ezor’s review of the HP Touchpad I linked to last week became more timely after HP’s [...]


Posted in Copyright, Internet Governance, Musings, Security, Trademarks | Leave a comment

Securing Your Wireless Network

13th
Aug. Γ— ’11

As I’ve discussed previously on the blog, there are many cases currently pending involving the filesharing of copyright-protected videos involving BitTorrent. Many of the potential defendants in these cases first receive notice of the lawsuit when they receive a letter from their ISP that their identity will be disclosed to the Plaintiff by a certain [...]


Posted in Copyright, Musings, Security | 1 Comment

Court awards $214 Million for DMCA Circumvention

27th
Apr. Γ— ’11

The recent decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in the Echostar Satellite LLC v. Viewtech case, Civil Case No. 07cv1273 BEN (WVG), 2011 WL 1522409 (S.D.Cal.), is interesting mainly for the amount of statutory damages awarded. The defendants had been manufacturing receivers that circumvented the copy protection in [...]


Posted in Cases, Copyright, DMCA | 2 Comments

Reactions to Lessig’s Keynote Speech at ABA Techshow 2011

15th
Apr. Γ— ’11

I was pleased to be in the room (alright, the second row) when Professor Larry Lessig gave the keynote speech for ABA Techshow 2011. In the speech, entitled “Code is Law: Does Anyone Get This Yet?“, Lessig discusses some of the problems with copyright law’s application to regulate the digital world. I can’t adequately summarize [...]


Posted in Copyright, Internet Governance, Techshow | 1 Comment

Blawg Review #295

24th
Jan. Γ— ’11

Welcome to a special “Cyberlaw” edition of the weekly carnival of legal blogging, Blawg Review! I am honored to host, especially since today, January 24, 2011, is a special day. It’s the 27th anniversary of the first sales of the Apple Macintosh [I'm writing this on a Macbook Pro, the best laptop I've yet owned]. [...]


Posted in Blawg Review | 3 Comments

“John Doe” Filesharing Lawsuits

4th
Jan. Γ— ’11

As I wrote in a post on our firm blog back in December, I have been answering lots of questions from those receiving notices from their ISP relating to lawsuits over the filesharing of copyrighted material with the BitTorrent protocol. For those seeking more information, the EFF has a great page of subpoena defense resources [...]


Posted in Cases, Copyright | 3 Comments