Rimon attorneys Judith (“Judy”) Harris and Amy Mushahwar were recently interviewed by The Washington Post about the 2010 mid-term election results and how the results might affect the legislative agenda and policy-making in Congress with respect to Internet privacy. Judy and Amy also explain what to expect over the next few years in terms of internet privacy trends and legislation.
FTC Revised Green Guides – It Isn’t Easy SAYING You Are Green
It’s no longer simply a matter of saying it isn’t easy BEING green, as Kermit the Frog has done for decades; now it isn’t easy SAYING you are "green" – the latest buzzword denoting environmentally friendly advertising: Green Marketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is in the process of revising its Green Marketing Guidelines and has published proposed rules for public comment.
John P. Feldman in our Washington, D.C., office, has experience and a strong and insightful understanding of the Green Guidelines, and he has prepared an analysis of where we are and where the FTC thinks we should be going – subject to an opportunity for you to file comments.
So here is the bottom line. John’s analysis, The FTC’s Green Guidelines, is now available for your review. You can download your own copy through the link as well. In addition, the comment period is soon closing, so if you are concerned about anything in the proposed revised Green Guidelines, now would be a good time to wake up and smell the recyclable coffee and get your comments to the FTC. Not sure what the guidelines mean to you? Not sure how best to comment? Well that’s where John’s skill and experience come in – feel free to contact John P. Feldman (jfeldman@rimonlaw.com) directly and he will be glad to help assess your needs and prepare comments for filing should you wish to do so.
Even if you opt not to participate in the public regulatory dialogue, if you advertise, market or even think about touting how environmentally friendly you, your products or your services are – better call John! Of course, if you are already a client of Rimon, feel free to contact me, Joseph I. ("Joe") Rosenbaum (joseph.rosenbaum@rimonlaw.com), or the Rimon attorney with whom you regularly work, and we’ll make sure you get to John and get the assistance you need.
Privacy & Data Security Bills After the Midterm Elections
The midterm elections will likely result in a shift of political power within the House of Representatives. The resultant divided government is likely to impact the current ambitious privacy and data security legislative agenda. Rimon Washington D.C. Data Privacy, Security & Management attorneys Judith Harris, Christopher Cwalina, and Amy Mushahwar have published an analysis of their predictions for 2011 legislative priorities as the incoming crop of legislators move from campaign mode to governance. Please see their article in Information Security.
Advertising Across the Pond – Don’t Miss This
If you haven’t already, please register for “A Global View on Advertising Law from the Other Side of the Pond” presented by Rimon partner Marina Palomba with an introduction from Doug Wood. Don’t miss this exciting and timely presentation. Follow this link to obtain more information and register: http://guest.cvent.com/d/vdqvn3/4W.
You won’t want to lose the opportunity to gain valuable insights; besides, if the economy continues to deflate the U.S. dollar and inflate the value of British Pound Sterling, Marina has intimated that the United Kingdom may attempt to simply buy the United States and make it a colony again.
Hope to see you at the seminar.
Internet Communications – Encryption Is Not Enough
Most of us have come to enjoy the convenience of secure communications over the Internet, enabling us to feel comfortable that a broad range of commercial transactions, and remote access through virtual private networks (VPNs), as well as the transmission and retrieval of data from the Cloud, are secure – at least reasonably so. However, such communications may be less secure than people think. It has recently come to light that the processes used to authenticate the identity of the party (or organization) with whom one is communicating may actually be deeply flawed. In almost all cases, businesses and individuals alike unwittingly trust a large number of “certificate authorities” (so-called “CAs”) to essentially authenticate or vouch for the identity of the endpoints of secure communications over the Internet.
CAs hail from across the globe. Some are private entities while others are associated with, or operated by, governments – in some cases perhaps a government one may not wish to trust. Still other CAs may simply be incompetent. No matter which is the case, it is clear that these CAs have the power to facilitate man-in-the-middle wiretap exploits and “phishing” through imposter servers. Isn’t it time for general counsel and IT to work together to shore up the authentication processes, because Encryption is Not Enough…
If you aren’t sure your communications are secure, or if you simply don’t know enough to determine the right questions to ask, contact Steven B. Roosa directly, or the Rimon attorney with whom you regularly work.
Spanish Court Dismisses Copyright Action Against YouTube
In June, Legal Bytes reported [Federal Court Awards YouTube Summary Judgment in Viacom Copyright Infringement Case]that a United States federal court ruled in favor of YouTube and Google in the billion-dollar case brought by Viacom on a summary judgment motion. Just last month, we again reported that Viacom had filed notice of its intention to appeal that ruling [Viacom Appeals Google/YouTube Ruling], and a companion article written by Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum [Viacom Appeals YouTube Copyright Ruling] has been posted on the Media & Entertainment Newsletter of the International Law Office.
Now in Spain, the Spanish Federal Court sitting in Madrid has dismissed charges brought by the Spanish broadcasting company Telecinco (Gestevision Telecinco SA), alleging that YouTube was liable for copyright infringement resulting from users uploading content and material that infringed the copyright of others. Mediaset, the Italian company that is the majority shareholder of Telecinco, is also involved in a copyright infringement action involving such video uploads, although no ruling has yet issued in that case. The ruling from the Spanish Federal Court comes on the heels of a ruling at the end of last year in France that found Google guilty of copyright infringement, but in that case, books were being scanned and excerpts put online without first obtaining permission or consent from the copyright owner. That said, earlier this month, a court in Germany ruled against Google, holding it liable for videos that were subject to the copyright of others and uploaded on YouTube.
The Spanish court essentially agreed with YouTube’s argument that it is a content-hosting platform, not directly responsible for content uploaded or posted by others. Without appearing flippant, Legal Bytes notes that, similar to Viacom’s decision to appeal the ruling in the United States, everyone who is on the losing side of these battles is (or has indicated an intention of) appealing the ruling against them.
Need to understand user-generated content, uploading videos or other content, rights of authors, and creators of content, and understand them in multiple jurisdictions around the world? Contact Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum, or the Rimon attorney with whom you regularly work. We can help.
Viacom Appeals YouTube Copyright Ruling
The U.S. Media & Entertainment Newsletter of the International Law Office (ILO) has published an adaptation of the original Legal Bytes posting by Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum discussing the appeal by Viacom of the ruling in favor of YouTube and Google in the billion-dollar case brought by Viacom. You can download or view a copy of the ILO publication, "Viacom appeals Google/YouTube ruling", and you can view the original Legal Bytes posting, Viacom Appeals Google/YouTube Ruling.
Transcending the Cloud – Tying Up Cloud Antitrust Issues in a Bow
As you know, we have been updating our Cloud Computing initiative with a consistent stream of information – new chapters and white papers intended to provoke thought, stimulate ideas and, most of all, demonstrate the thought leadership Rimon attorneys bring to bear when new and important trends and initiatives in the commercial world give rise to new and interesting legal issues. Often, especially when words like “privacy” and “security” are thrown about, it becomes easy to overlook some of the other issues lurking in the background.
So here, from Jeremy D. Feinstein, is a glimpse at some antitrust issues. This next chapter in Rimon’s on-going series, “Transcending the Cloud: A Legal Guide to the Risks and Rewards of Cloud Computing,” is titled “Tying Up the Cloud,” and seeks to give you some insights into the potential antitrust and competitive issues that even customers should be aware of, if not concerned with, when considering entering the cloud.
As we continue to do, we have updated the entire work so that, along with the single chapter on “Tying Up the Cloud” applicable to antitrust, you can now access and download the PDF of our complete “Transcending the Cloud: A Legal Guide to the Risks and Rewards of Cloud Computing” compendium, up to date and including all the previous chapters in one document.
Feel free to contact Jeremy D. Feinstein directly if you have any questions or require legal counsel or assistance related to competition or antitrust. Make sure you subscribe via email or get the Legal Bytes RSS Feed so you are always in touch with our latest information. Of course, if you ever have questions, you can contact me, Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum, or Adam Snukal, or any Rimon attorney with whom you regularly work.
Howard Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973), computing pioneer and original conceptual designer behind IBM’s Harvard Mark I computer
“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”
Howard Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973), computing pioneer and original conceptual designer behind IBM’s Harvard Mark I computer
Gift Cards: The Updated Chart is Still Free
Just more than a year ago, a Legal Bytes post entitled “Gift Cards: The Chart is Free. It’s Our Experience You Pay For.” gave our readers and visitors a handy chart that listed and briefly summarized the key legal requirements applicable to Gift Cards – those payment instruments that are increasingly blurred with prepaid debit cards, stored value cards, smart or chip-cards, reward cards, discount certificates, and traditional credit, charge and debit cards. Now those of you with gift card programs – or who are thinking about gift card programs – already know there are various state laws and regulations that require certain disclosures, and impose certain restrictions on expiration dates and on the imposition of inactivity fees, not to mention the applicability of escheat and abandoned property laws that may apply on a state-by-state basis.
If you have been coming back to Legal Bytes to keep up with this and other developments in the law of Advertising Technology & Media (“ATM”), you also know that Keri Bruce in Rimon’s ATM practice group posted a report entitled Gift Cards Tag Along with Credit Card Legislation, noting that federal legislative and regulatory requirements will soon apply to gift cards.
Well, with one legislative delay granted by Congress with respect to certain requirements that apply to gift cards issued before April 1, 2010, the law and corresponding regulations have just now gone into effect. Time to update the chart for you loyal readers and to entice new visitors to subscribe via email or RSS Feed to keep up-to-date. As before, the US Gift Card Statutory Chart (Updated) is provided at no cost or obligation. As we have said previously, it’s our experience and skill you pay for, not our ongoing research services in areas where we already remain current for a wide variety of clients.
First, the obligatory disclaimers. No chart can be comprehensive or substitute for actually knowing the statutes and regulations. It is a guide, not an authority, and you should not rely on it for anything other than as a roadmap to proper and thorough legal counsel based on the source material itself. That said, I do not wish to trivialize or minimize its value – it represents the distillation of years and hours of work and effort – a special thanks to Keri Bruce for helping to update it.
We point out, as we did previously, that the chart (with one new and notable exception – keep reading) doesn’t cover state escheat, abandoned or unclaimed property laws that may apply to the “breakage” remaining on unused gift cards. It also does not cover the various requirements and obligations applicable to money transmitters under state law. But it does cover disclosure requirements and expiration date restrictions, as well as various exclusions and exemptions; and, of course, it provides citations to the relevant laws in each jurisdiction. Now about that new and notable exception: the chart does make reference to a recent law enacted in New Jersey and applicable to abandoned property (escheat), which effectively alters the tenor and scope of the New Jersey gift card law. Because of the complexity, Legal Bytes has created a separate post that describes that law in greater detail (see, Gift Cards in New Jersey: It’s Complicated).
The chart provides a handy citation and reference tool for the various gift card and gift certificate laws in the 50 states in the United States and the District of Columbia, and now includes a description of the new federal U.S. requirements that have just gone into effect as a result of the Credit Card Act of 2009. In addition, if you have an interest in this area, you really should go back and read (or re-read) the prior Legal Bytes’ posting since it provides valuable context as online loyalty and promotional programs have proliferated, and as gift and payment instruments are increasingly being scrutinized by regulators and legislators and dealt with by the courts. As this update evidences, the law is dynamically changing, evolving and being re-configured to reflect our inter-connected, digital information age. Whether online or offline, this is a sophisticated regulated category of financial payment services and products; in a complex retail, promotional, loyalty-reward consumer environment; with a large number of possible variations; offered and used across multiple jurisdictions; governed by an even larger number of evolving state (and now federal) laws and regulations – and we haven’t even scratched the surface internationally.
So if you are wondering why we give the chart away for free – don’t wonder too long. If you are in this business and you need help from lawyers who know this area and can provide experienced, practical counsel, contact Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum or Keri Bruce, or your favorite Rimon lawyer, all of whom will be happy to help.