Posts Tagged ‘ Tech ’

The anti-NDA

In the last two weeks, I’ve seen a surprising glut of Non-Disclosure Agreements that were exactly the *opposite* of what my clients expected to see. What to do I mean? I mean, these NDAs all had express permissions for the receiving party to use or disclose the information they receive in the course of their [ READ MORE ]

A Novel Open Source License

I’m in London, finishing up a European vacation with a visit to a couple of clients for work before heading back to Silicon Valley. Today, one client’s CEO showed me around and introduced me to one of the tech guys. After shaking my hand, one of them immediately enlarged the newest open source license he [ READ MORE ]

Amazon Calls California’s Cards

Wednesday, California’s Governor signed a bill into law that modifies the definition of “doing business in the state” for the purposes of collecting sales tax. The bill explicitly includes retailers entering into agreements under which a person or persons in this state, for a commission or other consideration, directly or indirectly refer potential purchasers, whether [ READ MORE ]

Year in Review

Wow!  That was fast. I”ve been running my own law firm for over a year.  It’s been a blast and I’ve been very fortunate — quite a bit of exciting and interesting work came to my door last year. Some of the highlights include: Managing a dispute from initial demand letter to arbitration award — [ READ MORE ]

The Techiest Use of a Garden

Recently, we were invited to dinner at our friends’ home. They pulled out what appeared to be a chemistry set to make dessert: Clearly, this was going to be a *very* technical dessert. Apparently, our hosts were fans of molecular gastronomy. You know, like El Bulli. And the use of such fun ingredients as alginate, [ READ MORE ]

Oracle is *not* going to play nice

I spend quite a bit of time talking through *theoretical* risks associated with using third party software in products, particularly with respect to software that’s been developed in connection with some type of promise of openness. I try to explain to my clients that just because things have gone smoothly thus far with respect to [ READ MORE ]

YouTube is Protected by the DMCA (for now)

I am buried with close-of-the-quarter deals. But, I had to stop to celebrate the big news. Of course, Viacom says they will be appealing, but for the time being, this is a big win for those that serve content on the Internet (and by extension, all of us that use and enjoy content on the [ READ MORE ]

Summer Garden’s Promise

As I posted back in May, we dutifully did the labor to put the beginnings of the Summer Garden in place: And, despite the cold spring and rainy early summer, the sun has caused some serious growth in our front yard: We even have baby tomatoes: And more baby tomatoes (but plums!): And we’ve even [ READ MORE ]

Internet Taxation of Software-as-a-Service

Recently, several states have made attempts at expanding their taxation of out-of-state businesses who provide services or products to customers within the state. (See generally, the Tax Foundation Special Report No. 176, March 2010). In many of the analyses I’ve read, folks have jumped straight into the state law analysis. But, unless and until federal [ READ MORE ]

The Latest Case Against Facebook

On May 5, 2010, The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the FTC regarding Facebook’s privacy practices (or lack thereof). The biggest two complaints, to my reading are that (1) Facebook unilaterally tried to convert some information previously designated as private to public; and (2) Facebook changed its developer data retention policy [ READ MORE ]