On New Year’s Eve, six year old Sofia Liu, her four year old brother, and her mother were crossing a San Francisco street when they were struck by a car running a red light. Sofia was killed instantly, while her brother and mother were seriously injured. While this tragic story has also raised questions about …
Two weeks ago, Ohio executed Dennis McGuire using an untested drug combination. The state switched to the combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphine, a painkiller, after manufacturers of the previous drug, pentobarbital, refused to sell it for executions. The combination was originally expected to be used in the execution of Ronald Phillips in November …
I hardly remember the last time I went in a bank. I seldom carry cash so the vast majority of my banking can be completed from home, or perhaps on the bus, or at work—anywhere really because I do it all from my phone. And I’m certainly not alone as there are already more transactions …
A California jury recently found in favor of Courtney Love in the nation’s first libel-via-Twitter, or “Twibel,” lawsuit. After eight days of testimony and three hours of deliberations, the jury determined that Love was not liable for publicly posting a disparaging tweet about her former attorney, Rhonda Holmes, concluding that Love did not realize the …
On Friday, Apple Inc. was successful in its effort to get a stay on the imposition of an antitrust monitor. In July, District Court Judge Denise Cote (Manhattan) found that Apple had violated antitrust laws for its part in a conspiracy to fix the price of e-books. Apple had been accused of scheming with five …
After months of public outcry in response to the ongoing revelations about sweeping government electronic surveillance programs, the Obama administration announced an agreement this week with leading tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, that would allow the companies to disclose to customers more information about their compliance with government demands for information. It …
On Tuesday, Feb, 10 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down an F.C.C. regulation that mandated net neutrality. The “Open Internet” order prevents Internet service providers (ISPs) from regulating the content of the internet. Rather, ISPs charge an access fee in which the consumer pays for the right to …
In July 2013, the Department of Commerce’s (“DOC”) Internet Policy Task Force released a green paper called Copyright Right Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy. This paper sought public comment on a number of specific challenges in copyright law brought about by the digital revolution, with copyrightable works now being easy to access, …
On January 8, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agaency (EPA) submitted to the Federal Register its proposed rule on New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), which would require all new coal-fired power plants to employ Carbon Capture technology to reduce their emissions. The move has met extreme opposition from industry groups. EPA’s NSPS program applies specific technology …
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects “persons, houses, papers, and effects” from unreasonable search or seizure. While the amendment’s protections may seem straightforward, Americans will not know until this summer whether information stored on their cell phones counts as a paper or effect for the purposes of the amendment’s protection against searches. The Supreme …
