Samuelson Clinic Blog Feed

Tiffany trademark suit against eBay over knock-off auctions dismissed

Jason Schultz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:10:36 -0700

The Southern District of New York issued an order recently in the Tiffany v. eBay case, where Tiffany had sued eBay under a variety of trademark theories over the actions of users who sold knock-offs using the “Tiffany” name in their auction titles or descriptions. read more »

Judge finds rebroadcasting critical snippets of Michael Savage show online to be fair use

Jason Schultz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:14:22 -0700

Savage Nation
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes. read more »

The risks of FCC regulation over consumer electronics: 'Selectable Output Control'

Jason Schultz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:48:50 -0700

Every couple of years, members of various content industries approach the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to engage in a dialogue about ways to regulate access to media. In particular, groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) see the FCC as a vehicle for controlling both what new technologies consumers can buy and how they can use them. read more »

``Do Hackers Pose a Threat to Smart Phones?''

aburstein — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:35:44 -0700

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that malware for smart phones (e.g., Windows CE- and Symbian-based devices, and Blackberries) is real and on the rise. read more »

CFP '08 is coming up!

aburstein — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:10:07 -0700

The 2008 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference is just a few weeks away: it’ll be held May 20-23 in New Haven, CT. read more »

The Law and Business of Online Advertising

Chris Hoofnagle — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:03:21 -0700

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law School are sponsoring The Law & Business of Online Advertising Conference at the Bancroft Hotel on Friday, April 18, 2008. Panelists include Samuelson Clinic Associate Director Jason Schultz and staff attorney Chris Hoofnagle: read more »

US e-Passport Insecurity

Jen King — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:05:16 -0700

According to the Washington Times, the Government Printing Office has been outsourcing the creation of e-Passport covers, which contain the contactless smart card chip (a.k.a. RFID chip) and antenna, to companies in Europe and Thailand. Apparently the GPO did this due to cost concerns, and it’s paid handsomely: over $100 million in profits claims the Times, due to the huge mark-up. read more »

Reality Mining with Mobile Phones

Jen King — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:05:05 -0800

MIT’s Technology Review reports on “reality mining” — mining your everyday social interactions — with mobile phone sensors to build an inferential portrait of who you interact with, what you do, and where you go. As Professor Sandy Pentland describes: read more »

Can One Live Anonymously?

Chris Hoofnagle — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:57:56 -0800

I’ve spent the last few months working with an excellent journalist on the Anonymity Experiment, which will appear in this month’s Popular Science magazine. In it, Catherine Price attempts to live a normal life without revealing personal data: read more »

Clinic Obtains Data on Security Breaches at Banks

Chris Hoofnagle — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:25:41 -0800

A recent Gartner study, authored by Avivah Litan, Phishing Attacks Escalate, Morph and Cause Considerable Damage, finds that phishing attacks rose in 2007, costing the economy $3.2 billion. read more »