Copyright protections in music are in place so that an owner of a song can enforce that ownership in the courts if needed. The copyright process is rather simple. Songwriters can follow these simple steps to get their music copyrighted if they so choose. Then, if someone uses your music without your permission, you should …

Facebook announced on September 6, 2017 that it received approximately $100,000 for politically divisive ads between June 2015 and May 2017 from accounts “that were likely operated out of Russia.” However, in July 2017 the tech company said, “[Facebook has] seen no evidence that Russian actors bought ads…in connection with the election.” In the announcement, …

Google Maps is a life saver. Many of us probably wouldn’t know how to read a real map if we tried. Apple’s “Find My iPhone” app has probably saved countless cellphone users the headache and expense of hunting down or replacing their lost iPhones. Americans rely on their phones’ GPS capabilities to help them get …

In August, President Donald Trump, signed into law the Rapid DNA Act of 2017, with support of the National Association of Police Organizations and the National Fraternal Order of Police. Prior to the enactment, when law enforcement agencies would send DNA samples to government agencies for testing, it could take weeks or longer for DNA …

For most people, the perks of caller ID and voicemail has allowed them to not answer phone calls that we do not know or prefer to avoid. This practice has definitely reduced the effectiveness of solicitations and especially robocalls to some degree, but they are not gone. Last year alone, every US household received around …

A district court judge in the Northern District of California recently sided with the Department of Justice in a case against the Freedom of the Press Foundation, who sued the DOJ over its refusal to disclose FBI procedures for issuing national security letters (NSLs). In short, NSLs are used to secretly collect information about people. …

While the general population infamously understands very little about the Constitution or court system, most everyone has an understanding of the Fifth Amendment’s the right to remain silent. The protection against self-incrimination can cover a variety of activities other than direct speech, and in U.S. v. Apple MacPro Computer, decided on March 20, 2017, the …

In late July Pokémon Go, an app for smartphones, launched and instantly made headlines. For years, Niantic worked to create the first “real world gaming” platform, and created the app for a worldwide market. The game immediately gathered a huge following, with millions of people roaming parks, neighborhoods, and busy cities to catch virtual monsters. …

Discovery methods continue to evolve. Twenty to thirty years ago, lawyers, usually young and expensive associates, manually sifted through hundreds of pages of documents. Today, with advances in technology, the discovery process for a similar sort of case might require review of thousands or tens of thousands of pages of documents instead of only hundreds. …

Defensive medicine is the term used to describe the practice by which physicians order unnecessary testing for patients in order to shield themselves from potential lawsuits. The practice is criticized not only for the risks it poses to patients, but also for its role in increasing health care costs. Because rising health care costs are …