The Ninth Circuit's recent analysis in MDY v Blizzard Entertainment examined contributory/vicarious ("secondary infringement") copyright issues, the "essential step" defense, the important and often highly disputed contractual covenant versus copyright license issue, and last, but certainly not least, the DMCA's role. I recommend you read the full opinion to gain the complete picture, but for this post we'll be focusing on the copyright covenant vs. copyright license issues and touching on the DMCA's role.
Last week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its anticipated preliminary 122-page staff report on Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers (the "Report"), which we covered in brief immediately following its release. In this part 1 of our review, and in following parts, we dig into specifics of the Report's proposed framework, with a eye toward examining rationales for the various proposals as well as analysis on the potential effects going forward on practices and data policies.
We are very pleased to announce that David K. Isom and Richard L. Santalesa have joined the firm as Senior Counsel. David, an e-discovery authority and 30-year trial lawyer, was formerly co-chair of Greenberg Traurig's Electronic Discovery Practice Group. Rich, based in New York City and Fairfield, Connecticut, has had a career of representing clients in electronic commerce and Internet and privacy issues and other commercial arrangements involving intellectual property and technology-savvy companies.