The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently filed a lawsuit against Erik Chevalier, who had initiated a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the development of a board game. This was the first case in which the FTC has alleged false or deceptive advertising involving crowdfunding. The case quickly settled.More

Internet postings, whether truthful or defamatory, tend to take on a life of their own. A federal court in Pennsylvania recently gave a successful defamation plaintiff the right to ask Internet search engines to remove defamatory content.More

Since 2012, a number of federal trial courts have been asked to allow summons and complaints to be served on defendants through Facebook. Some, but not all, of these requests have been granted, but not all, of these requests have been granted.More

This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued its 400-page Open Internet Order. The agency characterizes the Order as implementing “bright line rules to ban blocking, throttling and paid prioritization (or “fast lanes”)”. One impact of the Order is that Internet service providers (ISPs) will not be able to charge more for providing fast lanes to content providers like Netflix. It should also be noted that the Order also applies to mobile apps.More

A domain name that is “confusingly similar” to another’s registered trademark can be problematic both for the registrant and the owner of the mark. A recent example occurred with the registration of the url by Stephen Jude Hoffenberg, a former publisher of the daily newspaper, the New York Post.More

Phishing has been around since the inception of electronic mail, but scammers increasingly try to make the fraudulent messages appear more legitimate. According to Crain’s Chicago, names of major law firms have recently been appearing in email phishing scams with subject lines like “Notice to Appear”.More

What do a dry cleaning service, web design firm and gentlemen’s club have in common? All three small businesses obtained “live” spokesperson software for their web sites from Tweople, Inc. for a one-time fee of a few hundred dollars. All three businesses are also being sued by Live Face on Web, LLC (LFOW), the developer and owner of the software, for direct and indirect copyright infringement for allegedly using “an unlawful version of LFOW’s Software”.More

As more and more business is conducted via email, courts are increasingly finding that such communications may be binding contracts between parties. Recently, a federal judge in New Jersey enforced terms and conditions linked in an email message.More

Every week, we hear of another major retailer or financial institution experiencing a data breach. Your organization may take reasonable and appropriate measures to secure data and protect your network, however, your vendors may have gaps in their cybersecurity practices.More

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a federal criminal law that prohibits unauthorized access to a computer. The CFAA also provides a civil remedy for a party whose computer has been so accessed. A federal court in Ohio recently addressed whether the CFAA applied to employee who induced a co-worker to access and provide him with pricing data to which the employee did not have direct access.More