Topics: Internet Law - 1484 results

When an employee leaves a job, he hands over his company phone and empties his desk, but if he tries to take his customers with him, things can get litigious. So how do you define his Twitter account? A judge has ruled that a South Carolina-based company’s lawsuit against its former employee over this question can proceed. The suit calls a Twitter account just that – a customer list – and will set the precedent about who owns the Tweets. …

In 2005, college student Loren Williams was killed in a motorcycle accident. His grieving mother, yearning to feel closer to her son, wanted to use his Facebook page. More than just seeing the site, she wanted to see his correspondence, to read his messages, in hopes of understanding her son better. A 25-year-old federal law, however, barred her from accessing his account. See also: Podcast: Accessing Your Family Member’s Facebook Account after They Die Video: Planning for Your Social Media …

Ninjavideo.net, an Internet piracy site that released free movie and TV downloads, was raided last year by the ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. After the site’s manager, Hana Bashera, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and copyright infringement, she posted indignant messages to her online “community.” Because of this lack of remorse, the judge ended her grace period before starting a two-year prison sentence, over what the federal government charges was thievery from …

SOPA and PIPA stole the headlines yesterday when popular websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing went dark for the day in protest. The self-censorship came in response to two controversial anti-piracy bills being considered by Congress: The House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IP Act. It was the first that many Americans had heard of the bills, which would block access to websites accused of intellectual property infringement. But was the SOPA blackout effective? Tell …

A funny thing happened to me today while using Wikipedia. At around 10am EST I got a taste of what Internet censorship must look like. While researching an article using one of my favorite free sites, Wikipedia, it went black on me and showed this message:   At first I panicked: “oh no! I broke Wikipedia!” Then I remembered that today, January 18, 2012, many websites are “blacking out” in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that is …