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]. [...]
Author Archives: Kevin A. Thompson
“John Doe” Filesharing Lawsuits
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
Recent Quotes and Updates
I was quoted in a November 3, 2010 Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article on International trademark scams. For the full text of the article, see the post at our Firm blog. From Twitter, here are some recent links of interest: – Saving to read later: The Great Cyberheist – http://is.gd/gUJ0H – Interesting article on the [...]
Posted in Trademarks, Twitter 1 Comment
This Week in Law and Other Updates
I was a guest on the This Week in Law podcast #82 with hosts Denise Howell and Evan Brown, with the other guest being John Bergmayer of Public Knowledge. It was fun! The video and audio can be downloaded from http://twit.tv/twil82 Here are some other recent updates from Twitter: – For the first time ever, [...]
Twitterview by @22twts
On Thursday, September 23, 2010 I was pleased to be interviewed by Lance Godard of @22twts. 22twts interviews practicing lawyers over Twitter. The transcript of the interview can be found here. Thanks again, Lance, for the opportunity.
Posted in General, Musings, Speaking, Twitter 2 Comments
Post on Firm blog – Six Considerations for Trademark Due Diligence
An article I wrote with Marsha K. Hoover of our firm has been posted to our firm blog, entitled “Six Considerations for Trademark Due Diligence.” I encourage normal readers of this blog who are also interested in trademark practice to check it out.
Posted in Trademarks 1 Comment
ACLU challenges Suspicionless Laptop Border Searches
Today, the ACLU and related parties filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the U.S. Government’s policy of allowing suspicionless searches and seizures of laptops and other electronic devices at the border. The allegations include violations of the First and Fourth amendments. It is seeking a declaration that the Department of Homeland Security policies, which are restatements [...]
Posted in Cases, Privacy, Search and Seizure, Security 3 Comments
Net Neutrality – Avoiding the “Mushy Middle”
Thanks to Techmeme, I saw Craig Aaron’s great article on Huffington Post entitled “Net Neutrality’s New Enemy: The Mythical Mushy Middle.” I recommend you read it, as it does a great job explaining what happens when corporate interests get involved – netizens and those who haven’t taken a side are caught in what he terms [...]
Posted in Internet Governance, Musings 1 Comment
Is Copyright law not working for the RIAA?
In the talk I gave on Monday for IICLE on the Viacom v. Google case, one question I posed was how hypothetically to counsel clients in light of the decision and before the appeal is briefed. I posed two hypotheticals: one being a service provider like YouTube, and the other being a content provider. For [...]
Posted in Copyright, DMCA Leave a comment
Register for IICLE webcast – 8/23/2010 – Viacom v. Google
I’ll be discussing the recent Viacom v. Google decision on Monday, August 23, 2010 on a webcast for IICLE, the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. To register for the webcast, click here. The webcast will be from 12:00 to 1:00 CST, and is accredited for one hour of CLE in Illinois. Many thanks to [...]
Posted in Cases, DMCA, Speaking 4 Comments