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When I say pirates, I don’t mean the swashbuckling type – I mean those individuals that sneak  camcorders into the local cinema and record movies or distribute “cracked” copies of DVDs on the street or over the Internet.  For years, Hollywood has claimed that “pirated” movies would ruin the industry and keep people out of theaters.

A recent article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggests that the cries of studio executives are  blown out of proportion.  The article says that Star Trek, the most downloaded movie of 2009, still made a net profit of over $100 million. The article also states that in a year when “internet piracy” was at its highest, Hollywood broke records at the box office.

As 2009 comes to a close, there is no evidence out there that “Internet piracy” is leaving us with fewer creators or fewer copyrighted works, even if you limit yourself to considering works being created by “professionals” employed by movie studios. And once you factor in all the new, noncommercial or semi-pro creators who have been empowered by the very same Internet technologies that Hollywood is blaming for “piracy,” well, it seems clear that creativity is alive and well, and that Hollywood’s demands for drastic overhauls of copyright law and broadband policy are disconnected from reality. (Full article).

Don’t get me wrong.  I am NOT suggesting that anyone go out and record movies and post them on the Internet or try and sell bootlegged DVDs out of the back of a car.  What I would like to see is a less draconian approach to digital rights management (DRM).  There is no reason people should have to violate the law just to make backup copies of movies or music that they own.

What are your experiences with DRM? Tell me about it.

I was surprised to hear the announcement that Los Angeles City Council had unanimously agreed to shift the county over to cloud computing and Google Apps starting next year.  It is reported that a pilot program will begin as soon as 2010.

I was surprised because it was done without much opposition. Even with the obvious security issues facing having all of you data accessible from the Internet, the Los Angeles Chief Technical Office, Randi Levin, stated he felt the application services were adequate for the needs of the county.

During Tuesday’s city council debate on the issue, Los Angeles CTO Randi Levin went to bat for the cloud-based service, reassuring members that Gmail was safe and advanced enough for government use.

Makes me think of the phrase “good enough for government work.”

Even with the reassurances of the CTO, LA City Council voted to include a penalty if the system was breached and data was stolen. I’m sure Computer Services Corporation, the company that secured the $7.25 million deal, will work diligently to put safeguards in place to protect information.

If the project is successful it will spur the movement to cloud computing for other governmental agencies and business. If there are problems and high profile security issues that could dramatically slow the movement to the clouds for everyone.

Read the full article from the E-Commerce Times

Pirate Party

When you hear the term “Pirate Party” you might think of a bunch of people dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow sitting around drinking cases of Malibu Rum.  However, the Pirate Party is a European political movement that was founded on the principals of maintaining the privacy of the Internet and eliminating copyrights and patents that it believes violate people’s civil liberties.

The movement started in Sweden several years ago. Since then, it now has garnered seats in the European parliament and some city council positions in Germany.

The Pirate Party believes that modern laws pertaining to electronic communication and copyright are becoming too intrusive. Laws the party are focusing on include one that allows Swedish authorities to monitor phone, email and fax traffic crossing that countries borders. The Pirate Party also opposes a European direct that allows copyright holders to discover the Internet address of file shares.

You might recall that Sweden shut down the popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay.

Do you believe that the Pirate Party is a genuine political movement with legitimate goals or people that just want music and movies for free?

To learn more about the Pirate Party, visit the Wikipedia page or their web site.

According to an article from the AP, accused Internet identify thief and hacker, Albert Gonzalez(aka the “soupnazi”), was living it up large at the National Hotel in South Beach. The luxurious hotel occupies an oceanfront location in the heart of the Art Deco district.

In addition to his nice digs, it is alleged that Gonzalez spent $75,000 on a birthday party for himself, purchased real estate and considered investing money into nightclubs. The article also says that he complained that he had to count $340,000 in twenty dollar bills by hand because is money counter broke.

Gonzalez’s lawyer, Rene Palomin Jr., did say that Gonzalez should have gotten therapy for his “computer addiction” and that federal authorities used Gonzalez like a machine to ferret out other hackers.

Gonzalez, along with others, is accused of stealing the details of over 170 million credit card accounts. He is also implicated in a scheme that garnered some 40 million accounts as well.

Click here for full article.

Re-posted with the permission from Opvion, a company specializing in helping attorneys and law firms best utilize technology.

We’ve all heard a teacher in our life say that “everyone learns differently”. Well it’s true

Weiss and McGrath did a study and found that people retain information differently dependent upon how they receive the information:

• 10% by hearing the information
• 20% by seeing the information
• 65% by hearing and seeing the information

That is an astounding difference and especially important for litigators. When you combine two forms of communication you end up with something very, very powerful. Imagine what would happen if you combined three or four different forms of communication together to get your point across.

Let’s take a real world example for instance: Harry Potter. Probably one of the most recognizable characters from a book in the world right now. But why is that? If everyone had simply read the books, there would be a plethora of images in people heads of what Harry really looks like. But add to the books the movie which has a real person as the face of Harry Potter and instantly everyone has the same idea of who Harry is. Reinforce that idea with billboards, action figures, board games, video games, fan websites and now you have a brand, a force if you will, that ties it all together.

Technology in the courtroom affords you the same benefits. Tie your case together utilizing a witness’ testimony, a map of the area to give context, an image of the site to focus their attention and even video to put them in the event.

Click here to read the original post at Opveon University.

Learn copyright law from the company that help change it.  The video is a little long, but it does a nice job of explaining how the law works.

FACEBOOK – A Mississippi student is suing her high school after a teacher demanded access to the student’s Facebook account.  Apparently, the cheerleading coach required the entire squad to hand over passwords to the popular social network site and subsequently disseminated the student’s personal content. The suit alleges that school officials violated the students constitutional rights to free speech and privacy, among others.  Click here for the full story.

TWITTER – A story in the Chicago Sun Times reveals that a management company is suing a former tenant for a Twitter post she made. In the post the tenant said:

“Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

The management claims that the statements are “malicious and wrongful”.  I understand that a business must work tirelessly to protect its good name, but I was surprised by the statements of the company representative (and family member):

“We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization,” he said, noting that the company manages 1,500 apartments in Chicago and has a good reputation it wants to preserve.

The law suit is seeking $50,000 in damages. This law suit may do more damage to the company’s reputation than the Twitter post ever could.

Click here for more information from Mashable

Well its official, “Hotel” is a generic word. It only took six years, two appeals and who knows how many billable attorney hours to determine that.While most people would have easily agreed to the generic nature of the word, Hotels.com felt that the word lost that aspect what “.com” was added. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Court disagreed.

… Hotels.com’s argument was that the word hotel somehow lost its generic nature when it became attached to the “.com” suffix. At that point, it contended, it became identified with a particular company that served as an information source and travel agency. The Federal Circuit didn’t buy it. “The generic term ‘hotels’ did not lose its generic character by placement in the domain name Hotels.com,” the court said.

Click here for the full article.

Is it possible that the glowing recommendation you just gave to a co-worker or employee could come back and bite you where it hurts?  According to an article in The National Law Journal, such reviews could provide employees with the ammunition needed for a wrongful termination, harassment or discrimination law suit.

“If they say something negative, there could be a lawsuit. If they say something positive, there could be a lawsuit.”

Click here for the full article.