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Some Good News for Data Breach Victims, For A Change
No full textHackers breach a company’s database, stealing consumers’ confidential financial information, real names, and home addresses. If consumers spend considerable time and money to minimize their risk of fraud, have they suffered harm? Does the increased risk of identity theft count as harm
Expand harassment laws to protect victims of online abuse
No full textIn 2013, 29-year-old Ian Barber allegedly posted nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter and sent them to her employer and sister. New York prosecutors charged him with aggravated harassment, but the charges were soon thrown out. It was not because evidence pointed to someone else as responsible for the disclosure of the woman’s nude photos. Rather it was because Barber did not send the photos directly to the victim, as New York’s aggravated harassment law requires.
Many state harassment and stalking laws, like New York’s, require proof that the defendant directly contacted the victim. Take Colorado’s, which defines harassment as repeated “forms of communication with another person” in a manner that would cause a “reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress” and that “does cause that person to suffer serious emotional distress.
Regulating revenge porn isn’t censorship
No full textRevenge porn, also known as nonconsensual pornography or cyberexploitation, has been with us for a while, but only recently — with the hack of celebrities’ iCloud accounts — has it captured the public’s attention. What the exposure of Jennifer Lawrence’s and others’ photos made clear is that the powerful and the powerless are equally vulnerable to the exploitation of their nude photos. And the law is finally starting to protect these victims. In the past two weeks, the Federal Trade Commission has taken down a major revenge porn website, and a California jury convicted a revenge porn site operator on multiple charges of extortion and identity theft
Testimony Before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Hearing on Patent Demand Letter Practices and Solutions
Get PDFA small number of patent holders have been abusing the patent system. These patent holders blanket the country with thousands of letters demanding that the recipients purchase a license for a few thousand dollars or else face an infringement suit. The letters are usually sent to small businesses and nonprofits that do not have the resources to investigate allegations of patent infringement. And the letters often contain false or misleading statements designed to scare the recipient into purchasing a license without investigating the claims of infringement. In an attempt to address this problem, eighteen states have recently passed statutes that, generally speaking, outlaw bad faith assertions of patent infringement.
Any federal legislation on this issue should recognize that state governments and the federal government each have unique strengths that they can contribute to solving the problem of abusive patent enforcement. The strengths of state governments include both the quantity of law enforcement resources that could be provided by dozens of states’ attorneys general offices and the accessibility of state governments to those most likely to be targeted by deceptive campaigns of patent enforcement: small businesses, nonprofits, and local governments. By contrast, federal legislation on patent demand letters would provide the obvious benefits of legal uniformity and greater predictability for patent holders about whether or not their enforcement actions are legal. In addition, federal legislation could clarify difficult jurisdictional issues that currently arise in cases challenging the lawfulness of patent enforcement conduct.
Any legislation regulating patent enforcement, however, will be constrained by a line of Federal Circuit cases holding that patent holders are immune from liability for their enforcement conduct unless the patent holder made allegations of infringement that it knew to be objectively baseless. This broad immunity rule has already immunized two notorious trolls, Innovation IP Ventures and MPHJ Technology Investments, from legal challenges to their enforcement campaigns under state consumer protection laws. But it is possible that the Federal Circuit could revise its immunity doctrine to accommodate greater regulation of patent enforcement conduct. The Federal Circuit keeps close watch when Congress is considering amending patent law, and, in the past decade, the court has repeatedly revised its case law to align with proposed legislation
The Family and Medical Leave Act, Work/Family Policy, and Family Values in the Clinton and Obama Administrations: A Story of Progress and Unfinished Business
No full textVAT Fraud and Terrorist Funding - The Azizi Extradition Allegations Part II
Get PDFThis paper considers the remaining seven (7) Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud schemes alleged (some conceded) to have been conducted by Samir Azizi, a 25 year old German/Afghan citizen, who was extradited from the United States to Germany on April 14, 2015. The MTIC fraud schemes considered in this Part II involve alleged losses of €45,801,403 under 63 further criminal counts.
Underlying both Parts of this assessment is a fundamental (but unanswered) question: “Who exactly is Samir Azizi? Is he the mastermind of a multi-million euro VAT fraud, a fundraising fraudster for terrorist organizations, or a youthful face-of- convenience disguising the involvement of larger criminal organizations?”
The terrorist connection is the most troubling aspect of this case. Judge Howard R. Lloyd in his Extradition Order states that “… there were also indicators that perpetrators were using the VAT procured through such fraud, not only for personal enrichment, but also to finance terrorism.” The prosecutor’s allegation is in the Formal Request for Extradition (FRE) states: “There are numerous indications here that the cash flows are used to finance terrorism.”
Instead, the facts and fiscal dynamics of these frauds sketch out a cash flow MTIC fraud that uses payment platforms to direct a predetermined “cut” of the “profits” to “workers” and to “investors.” The workers do not appear to be terrorists, but the investors may be a different story. The investors are the people who have put up tens of millions of euro to prime the pumps of this fraudulent enterprise, and these individuals could well have other interests.
What we have in the Azizi extradition is the German government’s view of Samir Azizi’s activities. What makes the Azizi extradition unique is that the FRE is not just government allegations; it is also full of admissions. Some of these admissions are expressly referenced by the German prosecutor not just as a statement of Azizi’s interpretation of events, but as a statement of fact that the German government has confirmed as true though further investigation. There are three sections of the FRE where this occurs: a three page section dealing with the operation of payment platforms; a four page section dealing with payment platform allocation of profits among the investors; a six page section that details the involvement of the Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt and London) in the fraud chain.
But there is more. From the Complaint we know there is much, much more, close to 3,000 pages more in the Azizi confessions that has not been disclosed to the court, nor to the US Attorney and the defense team, and which has certainly not been made public. Within these 3,000 pages is most likely the extended discussion of the terrorist connection that appears to be referenced by the German prosecutor in the RFE and is echoed by Judge Howard R. Lloyd in his Extradition Order. There are most likely more references to the payment platforms, and to the involvement of the Deutsche Bank. None of this detail needed to be brought forward, although it is clear that it is ready
Reverse Payments Post Actavis: A Litigation Quagmire?
No full textFor the last decade or so, the FTC has had a bee in its bonnet over “reverse payment settlements.” Such a settlement occurs when a pioneer pharmaceutical firm terminates a patent infringement lawsuit against a generic drug maker by forming an agreement under which the generic enters the market at some later date (still before expiration of the patent) in exchange for a payment from the pioneer
Informed Decision Making on Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Clinics, and the First Amendment
Get PDFShifting laws and regulations increasingly displace the centrality of women\u27s health concerns in the provision of abortion services. This is exemplified by the growing presence of deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Centers alongside new informed consent laws designed to dissuade women from seeking abortions. Litigation on informed consent is further complicated in the clinical context due to the increased mobilization of facts - such as the gestational age or sonogram of the fetus - delivered with the intent to dissuade women from accessing abortion. In other words, factual information utilized for ideological purpose. To preserve a woman\u27s autonomy and decision-making capacity, there must be a concerted effort on the part of legislators and courts to place a woman\u27s health at the center of abortion law and policy
Learning by Doing: The Real Connection between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth
No full textAn important study of the relationship between technology, skills, and economic inequality that answers some of the most pressing economic questions of our timeToday’s great paradox is that we feel the impact of technology everywhere—in our cars, our phones, the supermarket, the doctor’s office—but not in our paychecks. In the past, technological advancements dramatically increased wages, but for three decades now, the median wage has remained stagnant. Machines have taken over much of the work of humans, destroying old jobs while increasing profits for business owners. The threat of ever-widening economic inequality looms, but in Learning by Doing, James Bessen argues that increased inequality is not inevitable. Workers can benefit by acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapidly evolving technologies; unfortunately, this can take years, even decades. Technical knowledge is mostly unstandardized and difficult to acquire, learned through job experience rather than in the classroom. As Bessen explains, the right policies are necessary to provide strong incentives for learning on the job. Politically influential interests have moved policy in the wrong direction recently. Based on economic history as well as analysis of today’s labor markets, his book shows a way to restore broadly shared prosperity.https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/books/1347/thumbnail.jp
The Impact of Third-Party Funders on the Parties They Decline to Finance
No full textThird-party funding is a controversial, dynamic, and evolving phenomenon in international arbitration. Proponents and opponents of third-party funding debate whether the practice will make a positive or negative impact on the worldwide system of dispute resolution. Both sides of the debate make predictions regarding the effect of third-party funders through the cases that they finance. Such an effect is likely dwarfed, however, by the impact of third-party funders on the cases that they assess but choose not to finance