Tuesday, January 29, 2013, by Virginia Wooten As of this past Sunday, it became illegal to unlock your cell phone. In essence, this means if you bought a cell phone with one company’s network, then you cannot unlock your phone so that it will work on another company’s network. This new policy is not retroactive, …
Friday, January 25, 2013, by Dylan Novak Many people in the world have an extreme misunderstanding of their right against government searches. The layman often believes that a person is guaranteed the right to privacy by the Constitution, and therefore, the government cannot electronically track a person or look at their personal data. In reality, …
Thursday, January 24, 2013, by Neil Barnes Google’s bi-annual transparency report, released this past Wednesday, divulges user data requests Google received from governments and government agencies. Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director for law enforcement and information security, affirmed Google’s commitment to transparency by promising that Google will “keep looking for more ways to inform you …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013, by Justin Mann On January 17, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released a final omnibus rule based on amendments to the HITECH Act. HHS Director Leon Rodriguez heralded the 562 page document as “the most sweeping changes to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules since they were first …
Monday, January 21, 2013, by Laura Arredondo-Santisteban The First Circuit released a recent opinion addressing issues involving copyright and news photography, arguably refusing to expand the scope of copyright protection to independently existing facts captured by photojournalists. The case Harney v. Sony Pictures Television, Inc. involves a photograph, taken by freelance photographer Donald Harney, for …
Friday, January 18, 2013, by Anu Madan On January 11, 2012, software programmer, Internet activist, and computer prodigy Aaron Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. According to New York City’s chief medical examiner, Swartz committed suicide by hanging. As an advocate for Internet freedom, Swartz strongly believed that information, which could potentially benefit …
Friday, January 18, 2013, by Holly Bannerman On December 18, 2012, President Obama signed the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012, which implements the provisions of the Hague Agreement and the Patent Law Treaty. The Act is intended to unify America’s design patent laws with the rest of the world. In order to effectuate …
Thursday, January 17, 2013, by Anne Marie Tosco In January of 2012, the Supreme Court unanimously held that law enforcement could not put a warrantless GPS tracker on a suspect’s car in United States v. Jones. Following the ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act compelling the …
Wednesday, January 16, 2013, by Amanda Jones In November the voters in California voted in favor of a proposition which would require registered sex offenders to disclose information concerning their internet usage. The proposition, termed the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (“CASE Act”) applies to all those currently on the sex offender registry along with …
Friday, January 11, 2013, by Collier Johnson II On December 14, 2012, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and opened fire on students and teachers killing twenty students and six adults. Unfortunately, school shootings have become all too familiar in America. In 1999, fifteen people were killed in a school shooting …