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Jul 31, 2015 ∞

"Happy birthday" lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn

“Happy birthday” lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn

Did you know copyright lawyers have waged a legal battle over ‘Happy Birthday’ for a long time? They have, and, somehow, it recently got interesting.

If this proposition is accepted by the judge, Warner/Chappell may lose out on a cash cow that is reported to reap $2 million a year in revenue. Filmmakers like the named plaintiffs — and others who have forked over as much as six figures to license — would no longer have to pay a penny to feature "Happy Birthday" in motion pictures and television shows.

If the copyright the company has been using for years to charge people licensing fees is invalidated, we may see a whole lot of lawsuits aimed at the would-be copyright holders to recoup those licensing fees.

"Birthday candles," Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Jul 29, 2015 ∞

China-Tied Hackers That Hit U.S. Said to Breach United Airlines

This is starting to look like a concerted effort to gather a specific data set for some sort of coordinated use:

The previously unreported United breach raises the possibility that the hackers now have data on the movements of millions of Americans, adding airlines to a growing list of strategic U.S. industries and institutions that have been compromised. Among the cache of data stolen from United are manifests -- which include information on flights’ passengers, origins and destinations -- according to one person familiar with the carrier’s investigation.

Jul 21, 2015 ∞

Drone regulation, firefighting and basic decency

Michael Martinez, Paul Vercammen and Ben Brumfield report at CNN:

Five such "unmanned aircraft systems" prevented California firefighters from dispatching helicopters with water buckets for up to 20 minutes over a wildfire that roared Friday onto a Los Angeles area freeway that leads to Las Vegas.

This is an inappropriate use of drones, wholly lacking in basic decency. It’s not impossible, or even implausible, that a drone-related delay will some day result in the destruction of one or more homes or even get someone burned to death.

It’s not far removed from scumbaggery like the Ohio jackass who filmed the aftermath of a fatal car accident instead of helping the victims. Drone enthusiasts who want to minimize regulation already have a tough road ahead, so they would be wise to engage in some self-regulation.

Connecticut lawyer and commercial drone lobbyist Peter Sachs created the Drone Pilots Association to advocate for more commercial drone use. There is even video on his website of his using a drone to assist the volunteer fire department he works with.

The difference between sachs and the California morons is that Sachs offered his drone to the department for its use in battling a blaze. So it’s clear that drones can be a useful tool in fighting fires, they just shouldn’t be used for fire tourism when firefighters, homes and civilians are potentially in danger.

Photo of a 2008 California wildefire via Wikimedia Commons

Jul 20, 2015 ∞

Democracy.io - Contact your Members of Congress

Great stuff from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Failure to effectively reach members of Congress has disastrous consequences. Studies show that politicians fundamentally misconceive their constituents’ views, making it harder for them to represent us in the lawmaking process.
That’s why we built Democracy.io: a new tool to put you in touch with your members of Congress—with as few clicks as possible.

Jul 19, 2015 ∞

Google's alleged gender-based pay disparity

Ex-Googler says she exposed company-wide pay inequality with crowdsourced spreadsheet

Kristen V. Brown wrote for Fusion about Googler Erica Joy’s recent salary spreadsheet. Google had no response to her request for comment, which is the worst kind of response to something like this. Apple released, deliberately, a dismal diversity report (read: majority male, majority white) last year, and Tim Cook took responsibility for fixing it.

If there is a pay disparity problem at Google, or even the illusion of a pay disparity problem, Google PR needs to be on top of this story. The only time silence is ever okay is when you’re prepping a statement that will include unequivocal evidence that there is no disparity.

Jul 14, 2015 ∞

Antitrust official inappropriately lauds Amazon's "disruptive business model"

Antitrust official inappropriately lauds Amazon’s “disruptive business model”

DOJ antitrust head William J. Baer, speaking at a London antitrust conference:

By conspiring with Apple, which was seeking a fail-safe way to enter the market, five major publishers and Apple reached an agreement to drive the industry to an agency sales model and seize back control over and raise retail pricing of e-books. The department successfully challenged this conspiracy to quash Amazon’s disruptive business model, forcing the defendants to terminate the contractual agreements they had used to effectuate the conspiracy. Since then, Amazon’s disruptive business model has continued to stoke competition in the e-books marketplace.

That is an inappropriate way for a federal antitrust official to speak about a major market participant. Amazon did not make noise about Apple’s ebooks collusion for the good of its customers. They did it because low prices keep them on top, and because no other company is willing to bear the losses Amazon can endure, there is no end to their dominance in sight.

Apple’s attempt to raise prices in cooperation with five publishers did not end well for the Cupertino company and rightly so, but their motivations were logical. Amazon maintains low prices and therefore the illusion that they are doing customers a favor, and in the long run doing authors and publishers a favor by expanding the pool of would-be customers who can afford ebooks.

However, there is at least some truth to the concerns authors and publishers have expressed about Amazon’s dominance. The company is in a position to decide what books a large majority of book buyers can access. It’s a wise short-term strategy both business-wise and legally because it is as quiet and passive as Apple’s conspiracy was bold and aggressive. But long-term it’s likely to expose the company to regulatory inquiry at a time when Amazon is contemplating things like drone delivery, which will likely face stiffer regulation sooner than later, especially when put to retail use.

Of course based on Assistant Attorney General Baer’s comments at the Chatham House Annual Antitrust Conference, Amazon has at least one friend in a position, and a mindset, to lionize them despite questionable competition strategies.

Jul 13, 2015 ∞

Obama Plans Broader Use of Clemency to Free Nonviolent Drug Offenders

Peter Baker of The New York Times:

In his second term, Mr. Obama embarked on an effort to use clemency and has raised his total commutations to 43, a number he may double this month. The initiative was begun last year by James M. Cole, then the deputy attorney general, who set criteria for who might qualify: generally nonviolent inmates who have served more than 10 years in prison, have behaved well while incarcerated and would not have received as lengthy a sentence under today’s revised rules.

Overincarceration is a real problem. Like any decent lawyer, I’ll cite a few reliable sources.

I don’t have an answer. Longtime readers will know I’m a cynical bastard, despite my best efforts to the contrary. It seems to me like this move is more for the “optics” and less for real effect, but I’d love to be wrong.

Primary source: White House press release

Photo by me

Jul 9, 2015 ∞

iOS 9 Public Beta coming today?

I rarely cross-post from my geekery-focused Tumblr, but I’m so excited about this I had to share it here, where I have literally thousands more followers.

I’ll be writing a proper post about the public beta after I’ve used it for a few days. There are some interesting legal consequences of agreeing to use beta software.

Jul 8, 2015 ∞

The Verge made a FAA drone exemption search engine

Ben Popper reports at The Verge:

We have partnered with the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College to collect data on every commercial exemption the FAA grants. It's a fascinating snapshot of a fast-growing industry still in its infancy. [The result] is an interactive database that allows you to drill deeper into details, exploring the companies that have been given permission to fly and what they are planning to do with their drones. You can also search by state and figure out who near you is planning to put a drone in the sky.

Photo by Capricorn4049

Jul 7, 2015 ∞

Tor Project seeks Executive Director

The Tor Project, makers of anonymizing browsing tools, is looking for a new Executive Director:

The position provides the high-profile opportunity to assume the voice and face of Tor to the world, and particularly to the global community of Internet organizations dedicated to maintaining a stable, secure and private Internet. In this position, the successful candidate will be able to exercise their deep leadership experience to manage a virtual team of culturally diverse volunteer developers. The candidate will have the opportunity to draw support from their stature in the wider community of Internet privacy foundations and activist organizations to advance external development initiatives.

Tor is used by everyone from political dissidents to child pornographers to access a darknet, unreachable from the Internet most people know. Read more about the Tor Project at Wikipedia.

Tor Project logo uploaded by Wikimedia Commons user Flugaal

Jul 6, 2015 ∞

When a Company Is Put Up for Sale, in Many Cases, Your Personal Data Is, Too

I have written about this before, but it’s worth reminding you. These days many companies offer an official privacy policy and an easier-to-read but not so official abridged version. Sometimes the two do not agree:

One example is Nest, an Internet-connected thermostat company that enables people to control their home energy use via their mobile devices. Acquired by Google for $3.2 billion last year, Nest has different online privacy pages with seemingly conflicting statements.
One page, in colloquial English, says that the company values trust: “It’s why we work hard to protect your data. And why your info is not for sale. To anyone.”

Another page, containing Nest’s official privacy policy, however, says: “Upon the sale or transfer of the company and/or all or part of its assets, your personal information may be among the items sold or transferred.”

I know privacy policies are long and boring, but it’s worth at least scanning them to get a sense of what will happen to the information the company collects about you if they ever sell or go under. You may not like what you find.

Photograph by KylaBorg, of graffiti by Zabou

Jul 1, 2015 ∞

Amazon AWS: Good enough for the CIA

Leena Rao has a fascinating background story at Fortune on Amazon Web Services, built around a profile of its leader, Senior Vice President Andy Jassy. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but this bit was particularly interesting:

Netflix’s adoption also gave other big companies and institutions the confidence to try AWS. Its heavyweight corporate customers now include Samsung, Comcast, and pharmaceutical giant Novartis, to name just a few. In 2013, AWS won a contract from the Central Intelligence Agency—a classified deal that became public knowledge when a competitor sued the government over it. Once that news broke, Jassy recalls, “a lot of companies would say, ‘Well, if the security and performance is good [enough] for the CIA, then it’s probably good enough for us.’ ”

Read about the original disclosure of the deal over at Federal Computing World.

Jun 29, 2015 ∞

Philly diner's SCOTUS-inspired brunch menu following same-sex marriage ruling

Philly diner’s SCOTUS-inspired brunch menu following same-sex marriage ruling

Oh Philadelphia, how I miss you sometimes. Danya Henninger writes at Billy Penn:

Over the weekend, Sam’s Morning Glory Diner ran a pair of specials that sold out faster than any dish in the South Philly restaurant’s 17-year history. It wasn’t the ingredients that made them a hit — although they were reportedly delicious — it was their titles, which referenced the Supreme Court’s historic June 26 ruling that the right to same-sex marriage is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

I’m not going to tell you here, so go read Henninger’s article. The menu items are, appropriately, glorious. And the best part? The owner of the Morning Glory, who approved the names before they went on the menu, is a lawyer.

Jun 18, 2015 ∞

Monster sues their way out of Apple's licensed accessories program

Apple Revokes Monster’s Authority to Make Licensed Accessories

Daisuke Wakabayashi writes at The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Tognotti said he told Apple that the move would significantly disrupt Monster’s business and that the two companies had worked well for years, with Monster paying Apple more than $12 million in licensing fees since 2008. Monster said roughly 900 of its more than 4,000 products were made through the MFi program.

Lawyers are paid to be good at chess. Monster’s counsel should have seen this coming and advised executives that they should pursue their lawsuit against Apple only if the potential upside would vastly outweigh the likely downside of a licensing termination.

Photo of Monster’s HQ courtesy Wikipedia user Coolcaesar

Jun 10, 2015 ∞

Petraeus' preferential punishment

Mitch Weiss of the Associated Press reports:

A federal judge in Charlotte unsealed the documents Monday, two months after the retired four-star general was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000 for unauthorized removal and retention of classified information.

Once again, it’s hard to see this as anything but hypocrisy from the letter-writers. After all, he didn’t merely disclose classified information, he did it in the context of moral turpitude (providing it to his then-mistress/biographer), and then he lied about it.

Speaking of context, here’s a bit more about someone who only disclosed classified information, with no moral turpitude or subsequent lying:

Supporters of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer convicted of giving a New York Times reporter classified details of an operation to derail Iran's nuclear ambitions, had noted the Petraeus case. Sterling was sentenced last month to 42 months in prison, but federal prosecutors in Virginia had been urging a stiffer sentence.

Perhaps some people will agree Petraeus, a retired four-star general, should get more latitude than mere officers and analysts would get. But he was the head of the CIA at the time of his offense, and should have been a shining example of perfect adherence to national security classification regulations. Isn’t it possible that the head of the CIA had information even more sensitive than the anti-nuclear Iran operation disclosed by Sterling?

Of course it is possible, and likely. So it’s hard to see justice in an outcome that results in zero jail time for Petraeus.

Previously: Petraeus reaches plea deal with Justice Department - joeross.me/blog

Public domain CIA-produced image found at Wikipedia

Jun 4, 2015 ∞

NASA, Verizon developing tech to track drones via cell towers

NASA, Verizon developing tech to track drones via cell towers

Mark Harris reports at The Guardian:

That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, with Verizon scheduled to introduce a concept for using cell coverage for data, navigation, surveillance and tracking of drones by 2017. The phone company hopes to finalise its technology by 2019.

This is fascinating to me because the documents obtained by The Guardian describe the purpose of the partnership as to “jointly explore if cell towers and communications could possibly support Unmannned Aerial Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) for communications and surveillance of UAS at low altitudes” (emphasis added).

NASA typically focuses on altitudes so high they’re, well, in space, so why are they involved with developing low-altitutde drone tracking technology?

I want to note that I’m not necessarily opposed to someone in the government being able to keep track of all the drones that will inevitably be zipping around. I’m just not sure why NASA is involved, and I wonder whether their choice of Verizon as a partner serves as a tacit confirmation of that cellular network’s claims of coverage supremacy over its competitors.

There will be some related surveillance stories in tomorrow’s Modern Law newsletter, so sign up to get an email with five links I haven’t blogged about yet.

Jun 2, 2015 ∞

Microsoft has acquired Wunderlist

Amir Mizroch of The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft bought Wunderlist’s parent company 6Wunderkinder for between $100 and $200 million. Microsoft is on a roll, having recently acquired Sunrise calendar and purchased email app Acompli and rebranded it as Outlook for mobile. All three apps are well-regarded, particularly Outlook which was lauded by Vlad Savov at The Verge for its email, contacts, calendar and documents integration. [^1]

Wunderlist is my task manager of choice, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this story. If you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend having a look.

[1]: Lawyers, however, should think twice before using Outlook for work because it runs everything through Microsoft’s servers to provide its more powerful features. Read more about the concerns at WindowsITPro.

May 30, 2015 ∞

Crisis shelter workers want Google Maps to hide the locations of their shelters

Selena Larson reports at The Daily Dot:

Crisis shelters provide a safe haven for victims and their families; they are a refuge away from abusers. By publicly listing shelter locations online, Google is endangering victims of domestic abuse, says Jeremy Janice, a facilities coordinator at a Louisiana crisis center.

It’s yet another example of my white American cis-male privilege that it never even occurred to me that this is problematic. I hope Google comes up with a solution that helps keep people safe. I’m not sure how effective Change.org petitions really are, but you can sign the one relevant to this issue here.

The image is a blurred Google Maps image depicting domestic violence shelters in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

May 29, 2015 ∞

Microsoft won't rule out complying with potential UK encryption limits

Microsoft’s won’t rule out complying with potential UK encryption limits

Danny Yadron at The Wall Street Journal quoted Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith:

“It’s a big market, and it’s a country we believe has a fundamental rule of law in place,” Smith said at an event in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted by the Chertoff Group. “We still don’t like it, but you could imagine one argument that says, ‘OK, we’re going to do it.’ ”

That’s an interesting stance, especially from the parent company of Skype, who recently got in trouble with a Belgian court for refusing to allow a wiretap.

Image courtesy Microsoft

May 27, 2015 ∞

Appeals court keeps immigration policy on hold

Lyle Denniston writes at SCOTUSBlog:

Under the policy, some 4.3 million individuals who entered the country illegally and remained without permission would be given a status of “lawful presence” in this country — well short of citizenship, and with no guarantee that they could stay even for the three-year delay period specified — and would qualify for both some federal benefits, like work permits, and some state benefits, like drivers’ licenses.

I spoke with immigration attorneys recently about the avalanche of work this policy is expected to generate if it ever goes into effect. There are many people whose future depends largely on the outcome of the ongoing dispute about the legality of the program.

Image by Gulbenk at Wikipedia